Guardian (CIF)
Cuts protest: I'm a political prisoner now
Why was I jailed with other peaceful UK Uncut supporters arrested at Fortnum & Mason? We'd messed with the rich, apparently.
No Imogen, what you did was trespass, breaking and entering, criminal damage and theft and you're clearly no Nelson Mandela, Emmeline Pankhurst or Martin Luther King, just some stupid girl who ended up in Fortnum and Mason's (75% owned by a charity) stealing wine and generally making a nuisance of yourself. You really want to know what it is to be dealt with firmly by the police, try being a member of the EDL when the Greater Manchester Police use their Tactical Aid Unit (TAU) and set the dogs on you without cause and without reason.On the day of the anti-cuts march the comedian Josie Long tweeted: "UK Uncut is about fun and peaceful protest." It's the same fun and peaceful protest that historically earned the group praise from the Daily Mail, celebrity fans from Radiohead to Duncan Bannatyne, and participants aged from three to 83. It is also the reason that I am proud to have attended numerous UK Uncut protests, from those that transformed Boots stores into hospitals to those that opened schools in Lloyds TSB. I've seen my fellow protesters bring along children, grandchildren, parents, friends and colleagues.The occupation of Fortnum & Mason on 26 March was no different, as footage of the protest demonstrates. Despite this, and despite the police in the store praising the protest as "sensible", we were dragged away, arrested and taken to police stations around London. One of the protesters was 15 years old.
You Imogen were committing an offence, a criminal offence, not a political thought crime and not something likely to get you sent off to the UK equivalent of the Gulag Archipelago. You'll end up with a slap on the wrist, maybe a fine, perhaps some community service. Members of the EDL whose marches have been largely peaceful have ended up with 10 year ASBO's forbidding them to associate, meet, travel or even go on the EDL web pages so you'll forgive me if my sympathy for you is absolutely zero.
My advice is to grow up, cease your pathetic whines and bother us no more with your faux outrage, it's pathetic and fools nobody but a few deluded leftists in the Guardian as the comments rather show.
5 annotations:
" No Imogen, what you did was trespass, breaking and entering, criminal damage and theft"
I'm no fan of these loons but that's not accurate. They walked into the shop and sat down and started singing. No damage or theft or breaking and entering . How could you 'break and enter' into an open shop ?. It doesn't even count as trespass. Other shoppers carried on as normal. The cafe stayed open for drinks and refreshments. At about 6pm the police said that if they left the shop they could go home without any hassle. As they left the shop they were arrested, taken to a police station, strip searched and put in plastic boiler suits. Next afternoon they were released minus their clothes and mobile phones etc.
Meanwhile the people smashing the shops and throwing stuff were allowed to go away quietly without hinderance. ( wonder who they were ?).
The charge will be aggravated trespass, some wine was stolen and consumed during the sit in, certainly some stuff was broken so there are charges of criminal damage too.
Doesn't sound quite so peaceful when put in those terms now does it?
Fortnum & Mason said the loss of trade during the protest would cost it about £80,000 but physical losses were restricted to the theft of a number of bottles of wine or champagne and slogans which had been daubed on to the exterior of the building.
No sympathy for Imogen and her friends at all, they deserve everything they get.
*We'd messed with the rich, apparently* Imogen should know as it's the class she comes from; Daddy will be displeased and her allowance cut...
Bloody well said QM.
No Imogen, what you did was trespass, breaking and entering, criminal damage and theft and you're clearly no Nelson Mandela, Emmeline Pankhurst or Martin Luther King, just some stupid girl who ended up in Fortnum and Mason's
The notion of "it's all OK if I do it" is a persistent one, particularly with the high moral ground takers, the left.
Dave, a shop is private property and if they ask you to leave or bar your entry, and you ignore them, it is trespass.
Just because it is an open shop does make it a right for you to be inside it. You are there by invitation.
Post a Comment