Urban75 Home About Offline BrixtonBuzz Contact

EDL watch

He was worlds away from the football/casual scene when I knew him. I'm not that surprised to hear of him having a ruck with the police but not for this cause. I'm not sure if it goes to show that you can never really know someone, or how that someone can change so much.
The naming and shaming is going to have a big impact on him
 
yeah they put out mugshots of them all as well and with the jail and tommy neutralised, it shows the state have had enough and the gigs up!
 
LiamO said:
Fortunately, british Fascism has a long history of 'activists' being dumb-as-fuck recidivists who default to 'Orwhite guv, it's a fair cop' on capture (S'pose cos they assume all their mates will grass them up anyway). Plus all the other 'mates' who will no doubt have filmed their moment of glory and posted it on facebook.

But, imo, these sentences are political. What did they do apart from the usual fuck-arserey they get up to most weeks at football - that usually results in no more than a push back the crowd or even an occasional slap? Was there a mass brawl/riot I didn't hear about?


I understand the sentences those Scousers got for attacking an anti-fascist musician and his son - but that was mostly for a) the malice aforethought, the clear, evidenced element of conspiracy and intent and b) their stupidity in doing it in a heavily CCTV'd City Centre where their entire journey was filmed.
Click to expand...

these kind of sentences are always political. But in terms of of what was presented to the court as evidence just listen to the language:

Robin Allen, senior crown prosecutor from West Midlands Crown Prosecution Service, described the scenes as an ‘orgy of violence’. He said: “Fuelled by hate and alcohol, a section of the group, instigated by key figures within the demonstration, began to direct their anger towards the counter demonstration.

“As police then sought to contain the group, supporters of the EDL began throwing missiles.

“Police officers were then exposed to some of the worst violence that they have been subjected to in a public order situation.

“Concrete slabs, bricks and a table leg were among some of the various items which were used as weapons and thrown at the officers,” Mr Allen added.

“Those engaged in such reprehensible conduct paid little regard to what they were doing or who they were attacking, as during their orgy of violence, a number of their own EDL stewards, as well as police officers, were seriously injured".
 
Hi, Nice One

Nice one said:
“Police officers were then exposed to some of the worst violence that they have been subjected to in a public order situation".
Click to expand...

Really? What a lot of old bollocks, frankly. Unless the plod were all straight out of the academy and had never seen serious public disorder?
 
Limerick Red said:
http://londonantifascists.wordpress...rs-sent-down-no-tears-but-no-gloating-either/

EDL SUPPORTERS SENT DOWN: NO TEARS, BUT NO GLOATING EITHER

Anti-fascists and the left should derive no pleasure from the prison sentences handed out to English Defence League supporters for disorder at a demonstration in Walsall in 2012.

We have consistently organised to confront the EDL, and while we won’t be organising prisoner solidarity for these individuals, we cannot applaud or welcome the role of the state in fighting fascism and far-right nationalism.

A total of 60 years jail time was handed down to around 30 EDL supporters. LAF has stated since our inception that we are completely opposed to state bans on far-right organisation and activity, and to heavy-handed policing of demonstrations. The same state that locks up asylum seekers, that looks to cut benefits to the most marginalised people in society in the name of profit, and which routinely harasses and even kills people in black working-class communities cannot be relied on to deal with the far right.

As anti-fascists and working-class activists, we have also felt the strong arm of the state in recent years – from pre-emptive and political arrests of activists around the Royal Wedding in 2011 and the Critical Mass protests at the London Olympics, the mass arrests at the Whitehall and Tower Hamlets anti-fascist demonstrations and subsequent draconian bail conditions, to the police violence against student demonstrators at the University of London. We also remember the political arrest and imprisonment of comrades from the Antifa group.

Political policing, pre-emptive and mass arrest, and draconian bail conditions are increasingly becoming part of the “normal” experience of many activists. For black and Asian working-class communities, police harassment and brutality has been part of the reality of day-to-day life for decades. The state behind all of this cannot be an ally in the fight against racism and fascism.

We should also think about why the 30 jailed EDLers ended up on the side of the racists in the first place, and whether being chewed up and spat out by the prison system is likely to dissuade them from their beliefs, or merely galvanise their sense of injustice.

The English Defence League feeds off feelings of powerlessness and disenfranchisement amongst (mainly) young, white working-class men. They are right to feel disenfranchised, frozen-out, and brutalised by the current system.

All over the country, working-class people of all ethnic backgrounds are finding it harder to make ends meet. The EDL and other far-right nationalists give white working-class people an easy scapegoat — Muslims, or “immigrants”. Locking up EDL supporters, or banning their marches, will not make the social issues they exploit go away. The working-class movement must provide alternative, anti-capitalist, anti-racist political answers to undercut the poison of the EDL.

Distinctions of “race”, ethnic identity, or immigration status are exploited by both the far-right and the state to keep us divided. For us, the key dividing line is the one that divides the vast majority of us — black, white, British-born, and migrant — from our bosses and their state: class. We will deal with the EDL by confronting them wherever they organise, and by helping develop working-class political alternatives, in our workplaces and communities, that can cut the roots of racism. A class-based anti-fascism must understand the state as part of the problem, not the solution.

We shouldn’t shed tears for imprisoned fascists, but the same draconian laws and police powers used to imprison EDLers could be turned on anti-fascists and the far-left just as easily.
Click to expand...

Nailed it. That's an excellent piece.
 
jakethesnake said:
Criminal Anti-Social Behaviour Order... just like an ASBO but resulting from a criminal conviction rather than say, repeated complaints from the public.
Click to expand...

What does that mean in practice? That they are banned from attending demo's? If so, this is pure, unadulterated bullshit and we can look forward to seeing it used on every type of political activist.

That's what they do. Bring this in for people that most people don't like/are embarrassed by... and then once it becomes the norm they wheel it out on everybody... on the basis that 'the law must be seen to be equally applied. Sicken my hole... and anybody of the Left who celebrates or scoffs at this is a short-sighted fool.

It was the same in the 80's when Football was used as the testing ground for a lot of the tactics they then used on the Miners and others.
 
DC Andy Haworth from the National Domestic Extremism Unit, a national police unit which worked alongside British Transport Police and Lincolnshire Police to bring the prosecution, said: “It is only the second time a Crasbo of this nature has been granted to individuals participating in Defence League demonstrations, and it is widely anticipated other police forces will follow suit and apply for Crasbos to stop violent individuals from subverting otherwise legitimate, lawful, protests. While the Defence Leagues are entitled to protest, violence has been a persistent feature of their demonstrations, and on this occasion the offence was committed while travelling from a demonstration. We are working to support all police forces with Crasbo applications against any individual who persistently commits criminal acts at (or travelling to and from) Defence League demonstrations, regardless of whether they profess to support the Defence League or oppose it, in order to ensure future demonstrations are peaceful and lawful.”
Click to expand...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shane_Overton
 
jakethesnake said:
You are right LiamO, this is a shitty development that will be used against leftists and other militants.
Click to expand...

I remember being laughed at by many Celtic fans a couple of years ago when all that ban 'The Famine Song' and ban 'The Billy Boys' stuff started. It was plain to see where it might lead once it had been set in motion... and that is being played out as we type.
 
LiamO said:
I remember being laughed at by many Celtic fans a couple of years ago when all that ban 'The Famine Song' and ban 'The Billy Boys' stuff started. It was plain to see where it might lead once it had been set in motion... and that is being played out as we type.
Click to expand...

To be fair Liam, it's a position that AFA held with regard to the state and which TAL was predicting would be an inevitable outcome of the attacks on the political culture of Celtic fans, which have been ongoing for much longer than the existence of the Green Brigade. It's simply moved from the covert to the overt now.
 
Last edited:
malatesta32 said:
oh you lads and your soccer teams!!!
Click to expand...

It's all segments of the same satsuma, he said festively... :D :p

Satsuma.jpg
 
Last edited:
LiamO said:
What does that mean in practice? That they are banned from attending demo's? If so, this is pure, unadulterated bullshit and we can look forward to seeing it used on every type of political activist.

That's what they do. Bring this in for people that most people don't like/are embarrassed by... and then once it becomes the norm they wheel it out on everybody... on the basis that 'the law must be seen to be equally applied. Sicken my hole... and anybody of the Left who celebrates or scoffs at this is a short-sighted fool.

It was the same in the 80's when Football was used as the testing ground for a lot of the tactics they then used on the Miners and others.
Click to expand...
Things get yet more grim....
 
Another consequence of the heavy sentencing based on video evidence is that anyone who was on that or any other edl march and behaved in a way that might also lead to arrest and sentencing is going to have to consider whether they should attend any future activities.
They might not have been arrested yet because OB haven't identified them, but they might well be looking for them on future marches.
 
LiamO said:
Hi, Nice One



Really? What a lot of old bollocks, frankly. Unless the plod were all straight out of the academy and had never seen serious public disorder?
Click to expand...

they are told to say that. Remember one copper said of a particular uneventful anti-capitalist demo it was the worst example of crowd violence he had witnessed in his 25 years as a public order officer. Asked what other public order demos he has been involved in he puffs out his chest and says the poll tax riot. We all burst out laughing.
 
Nice one said:
they are told to say that. Remember one copper said of a particular uneventful anti-capitalist demo it was the worst example of crowd violence he had witnessed in his 25 years as a public order officer. Asked what other public order demos he has been involved in he puffs out his chest and says the poll tax riot. We all burst out laughing.
Click to expand...

I know. That was kinda the point I was making.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

TopCat
[Sat 16th Jul 2016] EDL march and rally (London)
Replies
19
Views
3K
Pickman's model
Pickman's model
Fingers
Pegida UK Watch
2 3 4
Replies
106
Views
9K
nino_savatte
nino_savatte
Divisive Cotton
Tottenham Palestine Literature Festival attached this morning by "Zionists (in collab with EDL)""
Replies
7
Views
1K
Sludge
Sludge
stuff_it
Anti-EDL Demo in Birmingham Saturday 13th July
2 3
Replies
63
Views
9K
Red Sky
R
K
EDL not welcome in Leeds May 4th
Replies
10
Views
869
machine cat
machine cat
Back
Top Bottom