114 arrested on conspiracy charges over alleged plan to protest
- Thread starter In Bloom
- Start date
Probably bolt cutters, D locks and/or climbing equipment. Nothing you couldn't buy at B&Q.'Specialist equipment'
ymu
Niall Ferguson's deep-cover sock-puppet
Not worrying. They rendezvoused at a school car-park in the middle of the night and made enough noise to rouse the neighbours, resulting in the cops being called before they'd managed to do anything. You can hardly expect the plod to politely wait until they'd successfully locked on. 
Not worrying. They rendezvoused at a school car-park in the middle of the night and made enough noise to rouse the neighbours, resulting in the cops being called before they'd managed to do anything. You can hardly expect the plod to politely wait until they'd successfully locked on.
hmmmm. that was a bit daft tbf.
FabricLiveBaby!
Live Baby Fabric!
according to my bf who works in power and energy they always arrest people planning to protest near power stations.
This is becuase it potentially could affect the whole countrey. If one power station goes off it could affect the 50hz balance of the national grid.
apparently they arrsested some poeple at Kings North power station a while back.
But then. Me don't know the inns and outs.
This is becuase it potentially could affect the whole countrey. If one power station goes off it could affect the 50hz balance of the national grid.
apparently they arrsested some poeple at Kings North power station a while back.
But then. Me don't know the inns and outs.
Ah, idiots.Not worrying. They rendezvoused at a school car-park in the middle of the night and made enough noise to rouse the neighbours, resulting in the cops being called before they'd managed to do anything. You can hardly expect the plod to politely wait until they'd successfully locked on.
Do we actually know whether they planned to target the power station or not though?
What do you expect?
That's what they'll say.
But it's mostly bollocks.
The system has to be able to cope with a station going off-line suddenly. Almost always, it does cope. Do the lights even blink when a nuke suffers a scram shutdown - which happens more often than you'd hope? No.
Just two or three times in the past decade, the grid in the US (which is shit) and in joined-up Europe have failed to cope - and iirc none of these blackouts were due to a simple supply outage.
When I first heard about it, I'd gotten the impression they had arrested the protestors in advance of the protests, mass arrests before anything had gone on on that scale would be, to say the least, worrying, regardless of what I might or might not expect.
free spirit
more tea vicar?
shit.
putting 2 & 2 together, I'm presuming this'll be linked to the Eastside Climate Action peeps who previously targeted that power station a couple of years back.
essentially the nottingham branch of the Climate Camp crew / EF.
should be a good, well sorted crew, but a hundred arrests is fucking nuts... no wonder there's nobody left to put the word out... bet they'll have raided all their houses and impounded all their computers and potentially mobiles as well, so it could take a while for word to get out.
there's stuff from greenpeace and FOE that says it's not them, so pretty much got to be this crew.
putting 2 & 2 together, I'm presuming this'll be linked to the Eastside Climate Action peeps who previously targeted that power station a couple of years back.
essentially the nottingham branch of the Climate Camp crew / EF.
should be a good, well sorted crew, but a hundred arrests is fucking nuts... no wonder there's nobody left to put the word out... bet they'll have raided all their houses and impounded all their computers and potentially mobiles as well, so it could take a while for word to get out.
there's stuff from greenpeace and FOE that says it's not them, so pretty much got to be this crew.
ymu
Niall Ferguson's deep-cover sock-puppet
Regardless of the site, if the protest goes beyond what the law deems legitimate the police can lawfully intervene. If they found a bunch of people about to lock-on at Tesco's, they'd arrest them too.
Looks like these guys just fucked up by advertising their presence too early.
Looks like these guys just fucked up by advertising their presence too early.
Yeah, that'll be because they'd only assembled, they hadn't reached the power plant or actually done anything yet. It's a bollocks charge, but it's one the cops are quite fond of, since it's very difficult to prove that you weren't planning to do something.
ymu
Niall Ferguson's deep-cover sock-puppet
Because they were arrested before they actually acted on the plan, so that's all they can be done for. IB thought they had been picked up in the planning stages - which would be worrying - but they were actually picked up at the rendezvous.
Actually, I'll think you'll find that the reverse is the case, the police cannot lawfully intervene unless the protest actually breaks the law or they have reasonable suspicion that it is about to, there's no legal requirement for protestors to seek legitimisation from the state. At least, that's the ideal, the reality is somewhat different.
It's worrying, because we now face a conspiracy trial. Which is sapping for any movement or campaign (not least because of the green ink). Which is what it's for.
It's also worrying because 114 people will - or should - shortly be reading Abbie Hoffman's testimony to the Chicago conspiracy trial.
And, provisionally, Sacha Baron Cohen has been cast as Abbie Hoffman, while Spielberg has approached Will Smith for a part
Perhaps the state would do well to drop all charges
It's also worrying because 114 people will - or should - shortly be reading Abbie Hoffman's testimony to the Chicago conspiracy trial.
And, provisionally, Sacha Baron Cohen has been cast as Abbie Hoffman, while Spielberg has approached Will Smith for a part
Perhaps the state would do well to drop all charges
ymu
Niall Ferguson's deep-cover sock-puppet
I didn't say it anything different. I was just pointing out that it wasn't just power stations where arrests would be made if the premises were being obstructed, or there was reasonable suspicion that they were about to be.
ymu
Niall Ferguson's deep-cover sock-puppet
They were in the act of going ahead with the protest, so they would have been arrested at some point and would face a charge of conspiracy regardless. They just don't have aggravated trespass, criminal damage, made-up assault allegations to deal with as well.It's worrying, because we now face a conspiracy trial. Which is sapping for any movement or campaign (not least because of the green ink). Which is what it's for.
It's also worrying because 114 people will - or should - shortly be reading Abbie Hoffman's testimony to the Chicago conspiracy trial.
And, provisionally, Sacha Baron Cohen has been cast as Abbie Hoffman, while Spielberg has approached Will Smith for a part
Perhaps the state would do well to drop all charges
If they're highlighting "specialist equipment", they could be intending to charge them with going equipped for criminal damage. That wouldn't take much; climbing harnesses, walkie talkies, lock-ons etc. As I understand it, criminal damage doesn't actually have to be permanent damage, in the normal sense. It can include actions that prevent the use of something, even on only a temporary basis. Anyway, I'm just (rather unhelpfully) guessing.
Prosecutors rarely bring conspiracy charges for things that defendants have done. In front of a jury the risk, for the prosecution, is undermining the substantive charge - they can be and have been seen as laying it on too thick.
Defending a charge of conspiracy to do something that was not, in fact, done - whether in court or outside - is quite different to defending a substantive charge.
I look forward to a perverse acquittal
Defending a charge of conspiracy to do something that was not, in fact, done - whether in court or outside - is quite different to defending a substantive charge.
I look forward to a perverse acquittal
ymu
Niall Ferguson's deep-cover sock-puppet
Wilf
Slouching towards Billingham
I'd guess this wasn't just police responding to then 'making a noise' at the start of the action. That might have been the trigger, but it sounds a bit odd that they had that number of police and vans available at that time of night to respond - and were able to respond so quickly (to people meeting up). More likely the police were aware this was going to happen and simply responded to someone phoning in that it has started.
Hard to tell if this is correct, but it does seem like a very well coordinated police response to an action that hadn't even got beyond the 'car park stage'.
E2a: the BBC report quotes a Councillor describing it as an "intelligence led operation". Also, the residents reference to 'noise' seems to be the arrests themselves rather than the protesters gathering together.
lostexpectation
New Member
it was highly unlikely 114 people were going to get through, or even attempt to
I did wonder that too. Police being in sufficient numbers to arrest 114 people without knowing about it beforehand seems pretty impossible to me.
ymu
Niall Ferguson's deep-cover sock-puppet
True. The police are claiming an "intelligence-led" operation.
Wilf
Slouching towards Billingham
... which all takes us back to IB's post 11 (sorry, don't know how to link to individual posts 
).
If there was intelligence that they were planning to genuinely put the power station at risk, you can see the police logic in doing a pre-emptive raid.
If however it was just the usual lock ons and the like - essentially inconveniencing the power station - it does represent a hardening of police tactics (though by no means the first example of this)
). If there was intelligence that they were planning to genuinely put the power station at risk, you can see the police logic in doing a pre-emptive raid.
If however it was just the usual lock ons and the like - essentially inconveniencing the power station - it does represent a hardening of police tactics (though by no means the first example of this)
