Riot going on now in Bristol - Stokes Croft

[embree]

That bloke from the PRSC is a moron. He can't even spell the name of his own area. "Welcome to Stoke's Croft" - what a twat.

I like a lot of the stuff he and his project contribute to the area and he does at least engage with something beyond the arty stuff. But he's also representative of a certain type that gives SC a worse reputation in my eyes than the crime/poverty stereotype ie the trustafarian wanker one which clearly gets under your skin. I do see where you're coming from on that.

otoh, I'm prepared to go with it from a community pov. Better than the 'young professionals' slumming it for a year or two before leaving and slagging off the people they lived alongside. Seen a lot of them on twitter and elsewhere today, usually saying 'I used to live there [so therefore I am an authority on what's going on there now] but think the poor people should be cleansed from the area now'. I paraphrase. But not much.

 

[embree]

So, Stokes Croft is open again, tidy up operation completed - I think they were even retarmacing the road where the barricades had burnt into it. Forensics have been all over the supermarket today according to the net whilst the squat itself has been allowed to continue with no police investigations of the building at all - despite it supposedly being at the centre of a terrorist plot yesterday. Darkness is falling, police presence at this end of the road is seemingly low key, just the usual patrol cars heading into St Pauls for a drive around. Not sure how it is up by Cheltenham Road tbh, been sleeping most of the afternoon!

We'll see what happens from here on. Expect further problems around planned evictions for other key squats in the area, Classic's and the Emporium are currently being persued by their Hong Kong based building owners. Going on last night's performance, I wouldn't be entirely shocked if the cops decided to launch raids of these places to coincide with the Anarchist Bookfair in two weeks or maybe St Pauls Carnival. Just to keep it low key like...

 

[BigTom]

http://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/oli-conner/observing-stokes-croft-riot

blog from another local eyewitness

 

[Geri]

what was their angle? or was it just basic facts they fucked up?

They said the riot was because Tesco had opened, the squat was "set up" by people opposed to Tesco and it was a Tesco Metro!

 

[gentlegreen]

Radio 4 earlier said "Tesco was petrol-bombed"

Bank holiday weekend, key staff on leave ?

 

[embree]

They said the riot was because Tesco had opened, the squat was "set up" by people opposed to Tesco and it was a Tesco Metro!

Radio 4 earlier said "Tesco was petrol-bombed"

Bank holiday weekend, key staff on leave ?

Oh ffs

Telepathic has been occupied for over two years, since before the Tesco application anyway. And these petrol bombs are becoming the Bristol equivalent of snooker balls and ammonia filled light bulbs

 

[embree]

I'm now getting more of a sense of the early stages of last night - Bristol AFed's report mentions the clearing of the Tesco protest at around 8pm before the eviction attempt. Now, this demo has been effectively a trestle table, petition, free cake, music, arguments against Tesco etc. It's been pretty effective at keeping Tesco empty but also not intimidating in the slightest from what I've seen. Clearing this protest off the pavement outside the shop, a protest with an awful lot of local support around St Pauls, Kingsdown and Montpellier, meant that even more people were showing up in the area to defend the demo just as the eviction attempt was happening. Major tactical blunder by the police

 

[strung out]

i could be completely wrong here, but it sounds like they tried evicting the squat, it all went a bit wrong, so they've tried covering it up by fabricating some reports about acting on intelligence over petrol bombs. as things stand, the squat remains in place and those arrested will be released fairly soon, with petrol bombs never mentioned again?

how plausible does that sound?

 

[embree]

http://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/oli-conner/observing-stokes-croft-riot

blog from another local eyewitness

One 17 year old had gone to take photos of the riots but had been one of the people that tripped over the barricades as the police moved forward. Whilst on the floor he had been hit with a baton across the face and on the back of his head - he had a large bloody wound on the back of his head and his face was blue and swollen.

Another man had been bitten by a police dog gone mad. Neither of us could understand why they would ever use dogs in a situation as confusing and disorientating as a riot - and why they would bring them to a raid in the first place. One man who had been clubbed around the head couldn't stop repeating the fact he had just been popping out to the shops to buy some coconut milk. Another had a foot that looked totally broken. The cause - a police van driving over him.

Tesco was the spark for the riot but at its roots is the problem of people not being heard. It was also about the police's over-whelming deployment of force. Bringing a small army into an area when it’s at its busiest is, in my view, an incitement to riot - and from what I observed last night, that's exactly what the police wanted.

Spot on

 

[Graham Beecroft]

Oddly enough, the Tesco at Bramley centre, stopped the shopping centre dying on it's arse after the Morrisons closed. Now admittedly any big supermarket could have done that, but for about a year or two business after business folded when there was no "proper" supermarket and now they are opening up again. Obviously if they'd bulldozed the whole complex and put in a hypermarket I wouldn't have agreed, but opening a medium size store in that centre saved it from death.

"Tesco has been accused of secretly buying a rundown Scottish shopping centre and allowing it to become derelict so that it would win planning permission for a brand new superstore to replace it."

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=513326&in_page_id=2

 

[embree]

i could be completely wrong here, but it sounds like they tried evicting the squat, it all went a bit wrong, so they've tried covering it up by fabricating some reports about acting on intelligence over petrol bombs. as things stand, the squat remains in place and those arrested will be released fairly soon, with petrol bombs never mentioned again?

how plausible does that sound?

Can't see plod wanting a consequence free (for us) ending. They'll want convictions to justify their actions. Someone else has pointed out to me that the other local squats are vulnerable now, they'll go for easy wins by going for the local solidarity networks and trying to cripple one partiularly strong aspect of our community organising.It's up to us to defend them

 

[strung out]

oh yeah, i don't think the squat will be left alone completely, but for now, i can't see them risking a repeat of last night anytime soon without planning it a whole lot better.

 

[embree]

They'll do it piecemeal and in the day time and not on a bank holiday weekend. And possibly not even in the summertime

 

[Gerry1time]

Had a wander round that area this evening too. Bumped into a mate who'd been in the thick of it til 5am, he was buzzing. He hadn't got involved in anything violent, not his style, but had seen what went on. Apparently it seems the looting from Tesco's has been played down so far, lots went missing out the back he said.

I checked all the places where the cobble stones are round there, and didn't see a single one ripped up, so that sounds like a bit of poetic license on the part of the new statesman.

Everyone seemed in a pretty good mood round there tbh, the pubs were full and it almost seemed like the community felt closer together as a result of what had happened.

Sounds like there's a chopper up on patrol again tonight though.

 

[strung out]

yeah, there were an awful lot of people laughing and talking around the area this afternoon. the thing most people were agreed on was "these are our streets and we won't be told what to do by the council, the police or anyone"

 

[strung out]

ian bone's take on it... http://ianbone.wordpress.com/2011/04/22/squatter-riot-in-bristol/

 

[embree]

Had a wander round that area this evening too. Bumped into a mate who'd been in the thick of it til 5am, he was buzzing. He hadn't got involved in anything violent, not his style, but had seen what went on. Apparently it seems the looting from Tesco's has been played down so far, lots went missing out the back he said.

Interesting. There were definitely plenty of free fags being dished out last night, a few other goodies. I saw the shutter being raised a bit but didn't know whether anyone had got in through the small gap. Saw one guy taking a fearful beating when he was caught by the cops trying to crawl out of the store after their second comeback of the night.

I checked all the places where the cobble stones are round there, and didn't see a single one ripped up, so that sounds like a bit of poetic license on the part of the new statesman.

quelle surprise. Accounts I read said the lot backed into Picton Street were the more hippyish of the demonstrators so not surprised there wasn't much missile hunting round there. Saw plenty of rock breaking elsewhere though, amazing the amount of readily available building materials in the area

Everyone seemed in a pretty good mood round there tbh, the pubs were full and it almost seemed like the community felt closer together as a result of what had happened.

Just been out for a wander myself. Tesco is completely boarded up now, glazers just finishing the job. Even the sign is boarded over. Telepathic squat is very visibly defended, knots of people on both sides of Cheltenham Road there. Cops stationed in pairs outside Tesco and at the Ashley Road junction, saw another pair patrolling. Two vans parked near Bath Buildings and at least one other van patrolling. Atmosphere is hyped but relaxed iyswim - people feeling like they've made a point as to who runs this area

 

[Gerry1time]

I love this photo so much. Someone's been going round painting eyes on the grit bins round here for ages, making them into faces. It must have been pure chance that this one was nearby to be used as part of the barricade, but it's so appropriate.

Poor thing...

 

[BigTom]

Truth, Reason, Liberty: The Battle of Stokes Croft http://bit.ly/fnWQBk

Liverpool anarchist blog's take on it, only skim read it but looks like one of the more interesting in terms of analysis from someone not involved, TRL is usually decent

 

[suburbia]

If the police were acting on intelligence regarding petrol bombs, where was the fire service?

 

[embree]

If the police were acting on intelligence regarding petrol bombs, where was the fire service?

good point, didn't see them until around 5am when I was on my way home

 

[Ground Elder]

I checked all the places where the cobble stones are round there, and didn't see a single one ripped up, so that sounds like a bit of poetic license on the part of the new statesman.

Or maybe the source was a mischievous tweet

 

[embree]

Truth, Reason, Liberty: The Battle of Stokes Croft http://bit.ly/fnWQBk

Liverpool anarchist blog's take on it, only skim read it but looks like one of the more interesting in terms of analysis from someone not involved, TRL is usually decent

That's been c&p'd from Bristol Indymedia to be fair. It is a good analysis though

 

[BigTom]

Yeah I just realised the report was from Indymedia, I missed that. Surprises me that it'd just get c+p'd though, if I had a blog I wouldn't do that, I'd probably put a post up with something along the lines of Ian Bone, ie: a little bit of my thoughts on what it means/implications and a load of links to blogs/photos/videos from people who were actually there.. Even though it's linked to the indymedia source and there's no copyright issues it doesn't seem the way to do things for me.

 

[shagnasty]

The coppers saying they went in to the squat because of the threat to tesco was a complete failure ,after seeing the state of the metro store.I don't know this area but there seems to be a lot of anger towards tesco.

 

[embree]

Point of order - it's not a Metro, it's a Tesco Extra

was a Tesco Extra

 

[agricola]

If the police were acting on intelligence regarding petrol bombs, where was the fire service?

Where they would be expected to be - in the fire station; the raid was (according to the superintendent on the BBC during the day) aimed at disrupting a planned attack, not to respond to something that had already happened.

 

[strung out]

surely the fire brigade would have had to be present for the removal of 'petrol bombs'? just speculating here obviously, don't actually know much about how dangerous petrol bombs are.

 

[DrRingDing]

Yea, but is it kicking off tonight?

 

[strung out]

apparently not. the squat is still in place though from what i can make out