John Bowden – Yesterday’s Day of Action (UK)

June 12, 2012 325 Magazine

FREEDOM FOR JOHN BOWDEN AFTER 32 YEARS OF PRISON – SOLIDARITY IS OUR WEAPON AGAINST THE LIES OF SOCIAL WORKER BRENDAN BARNETT

From LEEDS ABC:

Thanks to everyone who took part in the Day of Action in support of John Bowden yesterday. It has undoubtedly had an impact on those who are used to being able to get away with anything completely challenged. The situation with the lying social worker Brendan Barnett is still unresolved however, and the Parole Board seem apathetic at best. John is still in a high security prison 32 years after he went to jail, he needs our continuing support. Please do whatever you can.

Brendan ‘Pinocchio’ Barnett, Grindlay Court Social Work Centre, Criminal Justice Services, 2-4 Grindlay Court, Edinburgh, EH3 9AR. (Telephone: 0131 469 3408 Fax 0131 229 8628 brendan.barnett@edinburgh.gov.uk)
Michelle Miller, Chief Social Worker, Grindlay Court Social Work Centre, Criminal Justice Services, 2-4 Grindlay Court, Edinburgh, EH3 9AR. (Telephone: 0131 469 3408 Fax 0131 229 8628 michelle.miller@edinburgh.gov.uk) NB Michelle Miller also works out of Waverly Court, see details for Peter Gabbitas below.
Peter Gabbitas, Director, Health and Social Care Department, Waverly Court, Level 1/8, 4 East Market Street, Edinburgh, EH8 8DG. (Telephone 0131 553 8201 Fax 0131 529 6218 peter.gabbitas@edinburgh.gov.uk).

Social Work Advice and Complaints Service, Waverley Court, Level 1/7, 4 East Market Street, Edinburgh, EH8 8BG. (Telephone 0131 529 6217 Email socialwork.complaints@edinburgh.gov.uk).
Letters and cards of support to John at: John Bowden, 6729, HMP Shotts, Cantrell Road, Shotts, Scotland, ML7 4LE.
You can also send e-mails to John (or any other prisoner) via: http://www.emailaprisoner.com
You can download John Bowden’s pamphlet ‘Tear Down The Walls!’ free of charge from the PDF section of the Leeds ABC website at www.leedsabc.org
Other articles by John can be read on the Leeds ABC website, as well on the websites of our sister ABC groups in Bristol, Brighton, and London.

Leeds Anarchist Black Cross

‘Criminalising Children In The Care System’ by John Bowden (UK)

 June 9, 2012 325 Magazine

June 11th Day of Solidarity with long-term prisoner John Bowden called by ABC Leeds.

Criminalising the behaviour of working class children and feeding them into the Criminal Justice System is a practice that has existed for generations and is now responsible for Britain having the unenviable reputation of Europe’s worst jailer of children in terms of the numbers imprisoned.

“State raised convicts” form a substantial part of the adult prison population and all share a common genealogy of Children’s Homes, Approved Schools, Borstals and Young Offenders Institutions, and finally the long-term prison system. Many children who through no fault of their own enter the so-called Care System are percentage-wise seriously at risk of graduating into the Criminal Justice System and a life disfigured by institutionalisation and social exclusion.

There are currently 10,000 children in local authority care, their number doubling in the past four years, and the government’s current “Austerity” agenda with its attack on state benefit and services will so deeply impoverish an already desperately poor section of the population that the number of children from this group entering the Care System is bound to increase significantly.

A leading magistrate and member of the Magistrates’ Association Youth Courts Committee, Janis Cauthery, has openly condemned the care system for operating as a doorway into the penal system by regularly prosecuting children for behaviour such as pushing, shoving, and breaking crockery. Behaviour that in normal circumstances would simply be punished by parents is frequently being referred to the police by Children’s Homes and children are being charged with criminal offences and placed before the criminal courts. Ms Cauthery has warned that children in care who receive criminal records for what is in reality normal adolescent behaviour are being drawn into a “vicious cycle” of crime, joblessness and imprisonment, that would go on to seriously affect the lives of their own children. Ms Cauthery said: “Many of the young people we see coming to court have never been in trouble before going into care. These young people are often charged with offences that have occurred within the care home, including damage (e.g. to a door, window, or crockery) and assault (often to one of the care home staff involving pushing and shoving). This behaviour is mostly at the lower end of offending, and in a reasonable family environment would never be dealt with by the police or courts. We worry about these children being criminalised”. She added: “Surely the home has a duty to try to help the young people and find other solutions rather than resorting to the courts for minor offences which, in a normal family environment, would not be thought of as offending behaviour”. She went on to warn that the maltreatment of children in care might be the reason for the “anti-social behaviour” in the first place, which is what classically happens in total institutions when inmates resist and challenge brutal regimes.

Recent high-profile cases when neglect by social workers has seriously contributed to the deaths of children already at serious risk from abusive or drug-addicted parents has created a public mood and climate favourable to the placing into care of even more poor and disadvantaged children, and for many of them an entry route into the penal system. The massive empowerment of social workers in the wake of tragedies like the Baby P case to remove more children into care, often for contentious and contested reasons, makes it reasonable to ask the question if many of these children actually face even greater abuse and the risk of destroyed lives by being placed INTO care.

There is clearly a greater propensity on the part of staff supervising the behaviour of children in care to view any non-conformist or disruptive behaviour on the part of such children as potentially criminal and therefore requiring intervention by the police and courts at the earliest opportunity, which also absolves such staff of the responsibility of working closely and consistently with young people in dealing with such behaviour in an emotionally supportive setting. How much easier to just offload such “difficult” children onto the courts and Young Offender System, where an awful self-fulfilling prophecy then takes place along with the process of criminalisation and institutionalisation. Ultimately, the wider society reaps the cost and consequences of this abandonment of vulnerable children to the Criminal Justice System.

John Bowden
HMP Shotts
June 2012

Day of Action in Support of John Bowden Monday 11th June

Imprisoned since 1980, (and in fact for most of his life before that),
John Bowden has been a thorn in the side of the English and Scottish
prison systems for three decades. John has paid a heavy price for being a
staunch defender of prisoners’ rights and a committed opponent of
injustice, spending years in the most brutal conditions, and suffering
numerous physical assaults and treatment that has frequently amounted to
torture.

Over the past decade though, John’s captors have been using a new tactic
to keep him behind bars – the lies of prison social workers and quack
‘psychologists’.

First, a few years ago, Matthew Stillman alleged that the Anarchist Black
Cross were a ‘terrorist organisation’ and that John was therefore a
‘terrorist’ by implication. Brendan Barnett has now made even more
ludicrous allegations against John, but such is the corruption within
Edinburgh ‘Criminal Justice Services’ that John’s complaints have led to
his victimisation, rather than the disciplining of Brendan ‘Pinocchio’
Barnett.

You can read about the affair in these previous articles:
http://leedsabc.org/another-attempt-to-sabotage-john-bowdens-parole-by-prison-hired-social-worker/
,
http://leedsabc.org/update-from-john-bowden-about-lies-written-by-prison-hired-social
-worker-2/ , http://leedsabc.org/support-for-john-bowden/ ,
http://leedsabc.org/corrupt-social-workers-attempt-to-rid-themselves-of-prisoner-john-bowden/
,
http://leedsabc.org/end-lies-and-corruption-in-edinburgh-criminal-justice-
services/ , and
http://leedsabc.org/lying-prison-social-worker-invited-to-audition-for-pinocchio/

As John says in his most recent article
(http://leedsabc.org/corrupt-social-workers-attempt-to-rid-themselves-of-prisoner-john-bowden/):

“Edinburgh Criminal Justice Services, or what used to be known as the
plain Social Work Department, have seriously compromised their
professional integrity by defending a member of staff who deliberately
told lies in a report to the Parole Boards in an attempt to sabotage my
chances of release from prison. Behaving like corrupt policemen instead of
traditional social workers seems now to be acceptable practice at
Edinburgh Social Services.”

To rid themselves of John Bowden, so as to avoid having to deal with his
complaints, Edinburgh ‘Criminal Justice Services’ are now trying to
instigate John’s removal from the Scottish prison system back into the
English one. Two years ago, the Parole Board recommended that John be
moved to an open prison, something the Scottish Prison Service have
stubbornly ignored, and it is inevitable that if John is moved into a
different prison system any ‘progression’ to open conditions will be
delayed even further, if indeed it ever happens at all. John has been a
tireless critic of the human rights abuses frequently perpetrated by the
English Prison Service, and we believe that they would like him to die in
jail.

Once again, as with the Matthew Stillman campaign a few years ago, it is
time for supporters of John Bowden, and opponents of injustice everywhere,
to step up to defend John, and to send a message to the prison
authorities, that whether they are in jail or out of jail, no comrade of
ours is ever alone. Furthermore, these corrupt social workers need to know
that their lies and machinations will not go unchallenged.

We are therefore calling for a Day of Action in support of John Bowden on
MONDAY 11th JUNE. Please organise what you can – banner drops, demos,
phone-ins, letter writing, etc – and please help spread word of this call
as widely as possible.

Some useful contacts:

Brendan ‘Pinnochio’ Barnett, Grindlay Court Social Work Centre, Criminal
Justice Services, 2-4 Grindlay Court, Edinburgh, EH3 9AR. (Telephone: 0131
469 3408 Fax 0131 229 8628)

Michelle Miller, Chief Social Worker, Grindlay Court Social Work Centre,
Criminal Justice Services, 2-4 Grindlay Court, Edinburgh, EH3 9AR.
(Telephone: 0131 469 3408 Fax 0131 229 8628) NB Michelle Miller also works
out of Waverly Court, see details for Peter Gabbitas below.

Peter Gabbitas, Director, Health and Social Care Department, Waverly
Court, Level 1/8, 4 East Market Street, Edinburgh, EH8 8DG. (Telephone
0131 553 8201 Fax 0131 529 6218).

Social Work Advice and Complaints Service, Waverley Court, Level 1/7, 4
East Market Street, Edinburgh, EH8 8BG. (Telephone 0131 529 6217 Email
socialwork.complaints@edinburgh.gov.uk).

Scottish Public Services Ombudsman, 4 Melville Street, Edinburgh, EH3 7NS.
Scottish Prison Service HQ, Communications Branch, Room 338, Calton House,
5 Redheughs Rigg, Edinburgh, EH12 9HW. (Telephone 01259 760 471 Fax 01259
762 003 E-mail gaolinfo@sps.gov.uk

Ian Whitehead (Governor), HMP Shotts, Cantrell Road, Shotts, Scotland, ML7
4LE. (Telephone 01501 824000 Fax 01501 824 001 ).

Letters and cards of support to John at: John Bowden, 6729, HMP Shotts,
Cantrell Road, Shotts, Scotland, ML7 4LE.

You can also send e-mails to John (or any other prisoner) via:
http://www.emailaprisoner.com

You can download John Bowden’s pamphlet ‘Tear Down The Walls!’ free of
charge from the PDF section of the Leeds ABC website at www.leedsabc.org

Edinburgh Criminal Justice Services continue to cover up their treatment of John Bowden! Please write letters of complaint

Edinburgh Criminal Justice Services, or what used to be know as the plain Social Work Deptartment, has seriously compromised its professional integrity by defending a member of its staff who deliberately told lies in a report to the Parole Board in an attempt to sabotage my chances of release from prison. Behaving like corrupt policemen instead of traditional social workers seems now to be acceptable practice at Edinburgh Social Services.

In an official report for the Parole Board written on the 29/2/2012 Brenden Barnett, who works for Edinburgh Criminal Justice Services, made the following incredible claims about my original case in 1980. “Secondary motives for using violence described by the trial judge and acknowledged by Bowden himself suggest a pattern of behaviour that allowed for the predatory targeting of vulnerable human beings on the margins of society defined by race or sexuality”. “Bowden has suggested that his victims were easily discriminated against on the basis of race or sexuality”. “There has been no investigation of the values and beliefs that informed Bowden's targeting of individuals, i.e. what particular characteristics deemed a person worthy of attack; ethnic background, deviant sexuality”.

There is absolutely no evidence whatsoever to support Barnett's bizarre claims and in fact I was convicted in 1982, alongside two other men, of the murder of a white Caucasian heterosexual male during a drunken party in South London. If ethnicity was any sort of factor in the case it was actually represented in the defendants, two of whom were Irish and the third second-generation Irish; the victim was a native white south Londoner. Neither the police who investigated the case or the prosecution authorities or indeed trial judge had ever claimed that either racism or homophobia had played any part in the case; Barnett's claims are a total lie, as he well knew.

Naively, I imagined that by officially complaining to Barnett's superiors his lies would be exposed and the record put straight as far as his report to the Parole Board was concerned. Instead I was about to enter a sort of Kafkaesque nightmare.

On the 2/4/2012 I was interviewed by Jackie Peters, Manager for “Risk Management Services” and Barnett's immediate boss, and Sheila Ritchie, a “Sex and Violent Offender Liaison Officer”, and also a colleague of Barnett's. Both made it absolutely clear that they intended to defend and support their colleague no matter what, even if it required some twisting of the facts and a total disregard of the truth. Throughout the interview I was treated with obvious contempt and at one point I was actually asked if any of my victims (I was convicted of one murder) were black or homosexuals. Despite my constant protestations that neither race or sexual orientation played any part whatsoever in my conviction, as the official files make clear, they steadfastly determined to somehow defend and justify Barnett's lies. I eventually realised that the interview was meaningless and their intention was simply to defend their colleague, so I told them that I would pursue my complaint beyond them and do whatever it took to expose Barnett's lies. In their subsequent report they would describe this as a “threat” against Barnett. They also alleged I had been “angry and aggressive” towards them and tried to shift the focus from Barnett's lies onto my behaviour during the interview, which they insinuated suggested a potential risk to both themselves and the wider community. The issue of Barnett's lies in their report was glossed over and my complaint rejected. It's important to remember here that we're not dealing with some miner factual inaccuracy or a biased interpretation of established fact, a fairly common phenomenon in social work reports on prisoners; Barnett wrote blatant lies in his report, claims that had absolutely no basis in fact or reality, lies that are easily disproved by reference to the mass of information in my prison and social work file, and yet those supposedly responsible for investigating my complaint decided that Barnett had done absolutely no wrong and his report was completely acceptable. Protected by an occupational culture that views and treats “offenders” as things to be monitored, supervised and policed, authoritarian characters like Barnett believe they have total power over those under their supervision and with it the absolute right to increase their demonisation and dehumanisation, even by writing blatant lies about them.

Those who employ Barnett and those who work alongside him in the Edinburgh Criminal Justice Services must ultimately take responsibility for his behaviour because by defending and supporting him they have seriously compromised their own integrity and are complicit in his dishonesty and abuse of power. A more senior social worker, Stephen Laird, signed off Barnett's report and therefore gave the official seal of approval to his lies, which is why those supposedly investigating my complaint, Peters and Ritchie, felt an even greater predisposition to support Barnett, even if his lies regarding my original offence were obvious and indefensible. This is how corruption spreads within institutions like the police and Social Services; defending and supporting colleagues who have abused their power, especially over people considered something less than human and utterly powerless, creates complicity and a culture of abuse generally. The prison system and police are riddled with this culture, which is why the abuse and death of people in custody is widespread and why those directly responsible are rarely identified and prosecuted. It would seem that the “Criminal Justice Services” generally, including social workers and probation officers, are also contaminated by this culture of lying and treating “offenders” as people stripped of all basic rights; my experience with Barnett and his colleagues certainly illustrates this.

Undoubtedly at my next parole hearing Barnett will claim that by challenging the lies in his report I have also challenged his authority over me and therefore I represent a “High Risk of Re-offending” because of my adversity to being supervised by Barnett in the community. As always Public Protection will be cited and used as a justification for my continued imprisonment, when in reality I shall probably remain in jail simply because I challenged Barnett's lies.

I have now complained to Peter Gabbitas, Director of Health and Social Dept. in Edinburgh, who has overall responsibility for Barnett and his colleagues, and he has yet to even acknowledge my letter, which suggests a disinclination on his part to recognise either my existence or that of my complaint. Incredibly it would seem that a pathological liar like Barnett has the absolute freedom to describe someone in an official report as a “racist and homophobic” serial killer without a shred of evidence, and absolutely no-one in his entire dept has the integrity or moral courage to criticise or expose him, and that apparently includes even the dept's Director. The complete absence of any basic integrity amongst those at Edinburgh Criminal Justice Services is both scandalous and deeply worrying for those under it's supervision.

The response of Barnett and Edinburgh Criminal Justice Services to my exposing his lies has been to ask the Scottish Prison Service to engineer my removal back to the English prison system, and on the 4/5/2012 Sharron Di Ciacca, Legal Service Manager of the Scottish Prison Service, wrote to me informing me that such a transfer would take place soon. Moving the “problem” on is of course a classic method of controlling and punishing “difficult” prisoners.

Edinburgh Criminal Justice Services should not be allowed to suppress or simply get rid of “offenders” who complain about and expose individuals like Brendan Barnett, and I ask all groups and individuals concerned about the treatment of prisoners and ex-prisoners at the hands of a corrupt social work dept like Edinburgh Criminal Justice Services to write letters or e-mails of complaint to the following addresses:

Scottish Public Services
Ombudsman
4 Melville Street
Edinburgh
EH3 7NS

Social Work Advice and
Complaints Service
Waverley Court
Level 1/7
4 East Market Street
Edinburgh
EH8 8BG

Michelle Miller
Chief Social Worker
Grindlay Court Social Work
Centre
Criminal Justice Services
2-4 Grindlay Court
Edinburgh
EH3 9AR

Peter Gabbitas, Director
Health and Social Care
Dept
Waverley Court
Level 1/8
4 East Market Street
Edinburgh
EH8 8BG

John Bowden, 6729
HMP Shotts
May 2012

Is the Parole Board deciding on the continued detention of life sentence prisoners before their hearings?

April 30, 2012 by John Bowden

Periodically reviewing life sentences by the Parole Board is a process required by law and such reviews, known as Tribunals, are intended to assess the current level of risk presented by life-sentence prisoners at the expiry of Tariff point of their sentence; Tariffs are the minimum
length of time trial judges specify a lifer should spend in prison to satisfy the interests of retribution and punishment. Once the tariff point has been reached or exceeded by the lifer then the Parole Board has a legal duty to review and make an informed decision on the lifer's continued imprisonment.

The review process itself, known as an 'Oral Hearing', at which the lifer is present, is conducted like a semi-judicial hearing where reports by social workers, prison staff and psychologists are considered and assessed, and the lifer is given the opportunity to present their own case for release. It is from these hearings, or Tribunals, that the critically important decisions are made about the lifer's future,
especially the one regarding whether to release or not. It would be absolutely wrong, as well as unlawful, if a decision regarding release was made BEFORE the 'Oral Hearing' had taken place and the paper work regarding that decision was written up to convey the impression that the decision had been made following such a hearing. In the case of a lifer called Malcolm Legget there exists
indisputable evidence that such an unlawful practice took place and its discovery was purely by accident and incompetence on the part of the Parole Board.

On the 6 February 2012 a parole hearing took place at Shotts prison in Scotland to consider the case for release of Malcolm Legget who has been in jail since 1986. During the hearing Mr Legget asked that a prison-based psychologist, Sharron McAllister, be produced as a witness at the hearing to explain what Mr Legget claimed were significant inaccuracies in her report regarding him. The panel
agreed to Mr Legget's request and the hearing was adjourned for a period of six months.

On the 21 February the Parole Board for Scotland wrote to Mr Legget saying the panel had made a definite decision regarding his continued imprisonment and had decided not to direct his release. It claimed the reason for its decision was that it still considered Mr Legget a risk to the community. Understandably, Mr Legget was concerned and confused by what appeared to be a final decision of the Parole Board when in fact his hearing had been adjourned and not yet concluded.

Then on the 24 February Mr Legget received a second letter from the Parole Board informing him that the information in the previous letter had been what it called 'an error'. Mr Legget is convinced
that in fact the letter from the Parole Board of the 21 February was a pre-prepared decision made before the hearing on the 6 February and the real 'error' was that it was delivered to Mr Legget before the definitive conclusion of his hearing.

If Mr Legget's suspicion is true, and the letter from the board on the 21 February suggest it is, then it indicates a serious and unlawful abuse of Parole Board procedure and power, and the rubber-stamping of the continued imprisonment of life sentence prisoners without proper procedure.

It also constitutes a clear breach of human rights under Article 5[4] which states that, “Everyone who is deprived of his liberty by arrest or detention shall be entitled to take proceedings by which the lawfulness of his detention shall be decided speedily by a court and his release ordered if the detention is not lawful”. This clearly stipulates that a proper, legally-based hearing should take
place to sanction the prisoner's detention, and in the case of the lifer the parole hearing is constituted to consider the continued detention, or not, of the life sentence prisoner who has reached or
exceeded the time stipulated he should remain in jail. The so-called Oral Hearing is the forum where reports and evidence is considered by the panel, which is usually composed of a judge or legally qualified person, and a psychologist and senior probation officer or criminologist. It is from the evidence presented at these hearings, conducted in the presence of the lifer, that the final decision to
release or detain is made. The letter Malcolm Legget received from the Parole Board on the 21 February would suggest that a decision to continue detaining Mr Legget was made in private and before the Oral Hearing itself. Clearly, if this did happen then ether a unique and unlawful precedent was created, or the rubber-stamping in private of the continued detention of life sentence prisoners is an established practice and the Parole Board is operating on an unlawful basis.

John
Bowden 6729
HMP
Shotts
April
2012

Students occupy BBC for Palestinian Prisoners on hunger strike!

By weareallhanashalabi / April 17, 2012 

Over 40 protesters have occupied the Headquarters of BBC Scotland in Glasgow, demanding mainstream media coverage for the 2,400 Palestinian prisoners who began hunger strikes today.  These actions mark a development from the ongoing hunger strikes which have been taking place since December. Currently, the individuals who have been on hunger strike longest are Thae’r Halahi and Bilal Diab, both of whom are currently on their 50th day without food. This protest is organised to challenge the BBC’s continued silence around this recent escalation of Palestinian resistance – it’s refusal to report any of the actions that have lead to this decision by 2,400 Palestinians calls into question it’s impartiality.


The demonstrators entered the building before midday and are currently holding the main lobby, chanting “BBC Shame on you, put the prisoners on the news” and “Hunger Strikers will not bow, free the political prisoners now”.


A demonstration has been called in Glasgow for Palestinian Prisoners Day, which will rally at George Square at 6pm before marching to the BBC offices in Glasgow.  The demonstration will call upon the UK media to acknowledge the Karamah strike and the plight of Palestinian prisoners.  During the hungers strikes taken by Khader Adnan and Hana Shalabi, the BBC refrained to comment amidst international concern for those on hunger strike, choosing only to publish stories after both prisoners had been offered deals from Israel for their release.

The actions today take place two days after thousands of international activists attempted to fly into Ben Gurion airport demanding the right to travel to the West Bank on invitation of the Mayor of Bethlehem. There are currently around 50 activists being held in detention, including four Scottish nationals, who are refusing food and water in solidarity with the Karamah Hunger Strike. 

The demonstrations around the issue of the hunger strikers are being organised by student Palestine societies in Scotland, with the support of various organisations, uniting under the banner of ‘We Are All Hana Shalabi’.

On Saturday 24th March, over 500 people marched from George Square to the BBC Scotland HQ in Glasgow (link for pictures below) demanding that they cover stories about Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike.  Today, demonstrations have been called across Scotland in Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow.  Many of those marching have been participating in a global hunger strike from 7am to 7pm.

One of the occupiers said, “The Karamah Hunger Strike represents a potentially significant moment in the history of the Palestinian struggle. The fact that 2400 Palestinian prisoners are on hunger strike against the apartheid policies of the Israeli occupation shows the desire of Palestinians to have their freedom from prison, and freedom from occupation. The BBC is complicit through their silence of the ongoing situation in Palestine, and we are occupying today to highlight that the magnitude of this issue and this injustice demands that the media cover it.”

**UPDATES**: 

14:52   Senior BBC official agrees with meeting with activists over their poor coverage of the hunger strikes. Protesters have left, meeting just broke-up.
15:23   Official denies being influenced by BBC in London or UK foreign policy, claims they serve a ‘certain demographic’ admits there could have been coverage of Scottish solidarity actions

Update From John Bowden About Lies Written In A Report By Prison Hired Social Worker

Brendon Barnett, a criminal justice social worker in Edinburgh, has so compromised himself by writing blatant lies in a report to the parole board to try and sabotage my release that his employers should seriously consider his suitability as a social work professional.

Social Work Advice and Complaints Service in Edinburgh are currently investigating my complaint that in a report submitted to the parole board in February Barnett wrote what he knew to be total lies and did so without any concern that his lies would inevitably be found out. This suggests either a serious personality disorder on Barnett's part or a belief that whatever he wrote the system would support him and never hold him properly accountable. It will therefore be interesting to see how my complaint is treated by the social work complaints service and how the system deals with someone who thinks it's completely acceptable to use their position to destroy the lives of people considered too marginalised, powerless and stigmatised to defend themselves.

In response to an article that I wrote exposing the lies in Barnett's report, Barnett submitted a second report to the parole board obviously motivated by a determination to inflict greater punishment for my having the temerity to speak out. In his second report submitted on the 22nd March he accuses me of being 'very selective' in my use of quotes from his first report and 'manipulative' in my 'editing' of them. He claimed that I wrote and distributed the article as a 'crude attempt to intimidate and cow' him. He also made reference to a warning or threat in his first report that my continuing to use the internet as a means of exposing dishonest reporting by social workers should be considered by the parole board as sufficient reason to deny my release.

In terms of my reason for writing and distributing the article about the lies in Barnett's first report, my actual motive was to try and highlight a pattern of behaviour on the part of prison-based psychologists and social workers that compromises their professional integrity by blurring the boundaries between an often vindictive prison system and the supposed professional independence of 'criminal justice workers' like Barnett. Although not formally employed by the prison system Barnett clearly had contact with and was influenced by senior prison staff whilst writing his first report and obviously believed he now shared with them such total power over me that I would be completely defenceless to his lies; in fact what he actually succeeded in doing was undermining the basic integrity of his report and illustrating how so-called criminal justice professionals like social workers and probation officers are often used by prison staff to legitimise the otherwise blatant victimization of prisoners. Either way, my essential motive in writing and distributing my article was to bring attention to a clear abuse of power by Barnett and also to an obvious and repetitive pattern of lies in social work reports written on me for the parole board. In fact, Barnett's lies, although uniquely unbelievable, fit a consistent pattern of dishonesty and lies in reports submitted to the parole board since at least 2007. The motive is clear: to prevent my release by any means necessary.

Barnett claims that in my article exposing his lies I was selective in my choice of quotes from his first report and manipulative in my editing of them. In fact, I lifted the quotes verbatim from his report and selected those that were obviously untrue in the extreme, such as the claim that I was convicted of hate crimes against ethnic minorities and gay people. In a typical example of this he wrote, “Bowden has not only used a political analysis of his own history but also those of his victims suggesting they were individuals easily discriminated against on the basis of race or sexuality”. This is EXACTLY what Barnett wrote free of any manipulation or editing by me. He also wrote, “Bowden has suggested that his victims were easily discriminated against on the basis or race or sexuality” and “There has been no investigation of the values and beliefs that informed Bowden's targeting of individuals, i.e. what particular characteristics deemed a person worthy of attack: ethnic background, deviant sexuality”. Despite a mountain of official reports and evidence relating to my life before prison and the circumstances of my 'offending behaviour', which Barnett would have been familiar with, he decided to introduce a racist and homophobic dimension to my case that has absolutely no basis in fact or reality. The question therefore has to be asked why?

Prison-based social workers often exaggerate, distort and misrepresent facts when writing reports for the parole board, but rarely are naked lies written in reports that are examined by a judicial body like the parole board. In 2007 a prison-based social worker, Matthew Stillman, wrote a report for the parole board preparing to consider my release in which he described a prisoner support group, Anarchist Black Cross, as a 'terrorist organisation' and my connection with it as sufficient reason to deny my release. Stillman, a right-wing American, claimed that ABC's politics were 'Terroristic' in his opinion, though would subsequently also claim that he was encouraged by senior prison staff to use the term 'terrorist' in his report to the parole board. Political definitions, no matter how distorted, are however completely different to blatant lies, there are only two explanations for Barnett writing such outrageous lies in his report to the parole board, either plain incompetence [difficult to believe when one considers his otherwise forensic eye for detail in the report] or straight forward malevolence. Either explanation is almost secondary to the imperative that he should be sacked or removed from a job where he is able to inflict serious damage on people's live.

John Bowden
HMP Shotts
April 2012

Indefinite Internment Without Trial

'If they come for me tonight they will
come for you in the morning' – Angela Davis

In Britain today there are a group of men held in prison without trial or any form of due legal process, and they are being detained indefinitely. These men have committed no crimes in Britain and are being held at the behest of a foreign state, the U.S., whilst their extradition to that country has been ruled unlawful by the British court. Their continued imprisonment, in breach of the most elemental civil and human rights, has clear implications for every citizen in the U.K. because if the rule of law is suspended in the case of any unpopular minority then dangerous precedents are set that will eventually be used against anyone or any group viewed as worthy of 'special measures'.

There are currently seven men, all of Middle Eastern and Asian extraction, being held in a small isolation unit at Long Lartin maximum-security prison in Worcestershire, some of whom have been there for almost ten years. Originally designed and used as a prison punishment unit, the Detainee unit is very much a
prison and it's inhabitants are kept strictly separated and isolated from other prisoners in the jail. Methods of small-group isolation and control are applied which over a prolonged period of time are known to have a seriously damaging effect on the mind and personality. In June of 2011 the Chief Inspector of prisons, Nick
Hardwick, was extremely critical of the situation of the prisoners confined to the Detainee unit and in a report on the unit wrote, “The Detainee unit at HMP Long Lartin is a prison within a high-security prison. It holds a small number of individuals suspected but not convicted of involvement in international terrorism and held under immigration or extradition law. Some have been held for many years as they fight removal from the UK and all are held in the highest security conditions. We have previously raised concerns about holding a small number of detainees, who already inhabit a kind of legal limbo, in a severely restricted environment for a potentially indefinite period. The risks to the mental and physical health of detainees of such lengthy, ill-defined and isolated confinement are significant.”

The existence of this group of prisoners is proof that none of our legal traditions and rights are safe from serious compromise and surrender, and their continued detention in conditions of virtual solitary confinement makes a complete mockery of the belief that anyone is truly safe from arbitrary arrest and imprisonment, especially when the state decides to widen the focus of it's 'War on Terror'.

The attorney general, Dominic Grieve, claimed in response to the release of Abu Qatada that 'indefinite internment without trial' does not exist in the U.K. This is a lie. He is fully aware that in the Detainee unit at Long Lartin a group of men are currently being held in exactly that unlawful situation as a gesture of acquiescence to American power.

John Bowden
March 2012
HMP Shotts

Important information on the use of mobile phones by prisoners

Section 45 of the Crime and Security Act 2010 (offences relating to electronic
communications devices in prison) will come into force on 26th March 2012.
[http://jailhouselawyersblog.blogspot.com/2012/02/for-those-of-you-in-prison-reading-this.html]

This important to know because it does not only affect prisoners using mobiles to
text/make calls/send images but also people calling/texting prisoners or receiving such communications - the maximum prison sentence could be 2 years if caught!


The Law -

Section 40D of the Prison Act 1952 (as inserted by section 23 of the Offender
Management Act 2007) provides:

(1) A person who, without authorisation
(b) transmits, or causes to be transmitted, any image or any sound from inside a prison by electronic communications for simultaneous reception outside the prison, is
guilty of an offence.

An amendment in the Crime and Security Act 2010, when in force, will extend this to
include 'any image, sound or information'. Section 40D will expressly apply to the
transmission of a text message, although such a message is arguably included in the
concept of 'image'.

For the purpose of section 40D 'electronic communication' has the same meaning as in
section15 of the Electronic Communications Act 2000, which defines 'electronic
communication' as:

a communications transmitted (whether from one person to another, from one device or
another or from a person to a device or visa versa) -
(a) by means of an electronic communications network; or
(b) by another means but while in an electronic form.

When new provisions in the Crime and Security Act 2010 come into force, section 40D(3A) of the Prison Act 1952 will make possession of a device capable of transmitting or receiving images, sounds or information by electronic communications (including a mobile telephone) inside a prison an offence.

These offences are either way offences and the maximum penalty on indictment is two
years imprisonment, and/or a fine.

Clearly, the section 40D offence can be committed by a person in prison who uses an
unlawfully possessed mobile telephone to make an unauthorised call.

However, it is arguably also an offence for a person outside a prison to make a call to a prisoner on a mobile telephone, if the call is answered by the prisoner and the
prisoner speaks to the person who has made the call.

Section 40D could be interpreted to include a person outside the prison intentionally
calling a mobile telephone in the possession of a person in prison, because he or she
has intentionally caused the prisoner's voice, inside the prison, to be transmitted
over the relevant telecommunications network for simultaneous reception by the person
outside the prison.

It is also possible that criminal liability as an accessory could apply to persons
outside a prison making a call to a prisoner's unlawfully possessed mobile telephone.

Section 8 of the Accessories and Abettors Act 1861 could be construed so that the
outside person would procure the section 40D offence, in that the act of dialling a
number to create a connection with the unlawfully possessed mobile telephone would be
'the endeavour', which, combined with an intention that the prisoner will answer the
call, could create accessory liability to a section 40D offence.

[http://www.lawsociety.org.uk/productsandservices/practicenotes/prisonmobiles/4971.article]

Please circulate!

Antifascist Prisoners Austen Jackson and Phil de Souza Released (UK)

Feb. 14, 2012 Leeds ABC

Leeds ABC are pleased to be able to announce that antifascist prisoners
Austen Jackson and Phil de Souza have been released. Austen has completed
his full sentence and Phil has been released on electronic ‘tag’. Thank
you to the many people who have supported them while they were inside.

-

Ravi remains prisoner. Down with the walls.

Ravinder Gill
A5770CE
HMP Wayland
Griston
Thetford
Norfolk
IP25 6RL


More info about the case here.

http://325.nostate.net/?p=3192


All Nine Antifascists Acquitted In Second Welling Trial! (UK)

From Leeds Anarchist Black Cross:

When confronted by a swaggering neo-Nazi at Welling train station in March
2009, Sean Cregan did what any good antifascist would, he put the Nazi on
his arse! While twice Sean’s size, one punch was enough for the scumbag
fascist, who dropped to the ground as if pole-axed. His neo-Nazi companion
quickly fled down the station platform, with Sean in hot pursuit.

The two scumbags had been on their way to a so-called “Blood and Honour”
gig, which are regularly held at the nearby Duchess of Edinburgh pub (with
the active participation of the fascist landlord with whom the two were to
stay). When questioned by police later, the first fascist gave his name as
Patrick O’Donovan (this may be a false name since he is German and came
over specifically for the gig, which are illegal in Germany). His brave
companion gave his name as Michael Heihl.

There had been several unrelated incidents at Welling Station that
evening, and the police arrived quickly, arresting several antifascists
who were also at the station (or in the vicinity). Some months later, dawn
raids took place around the country, with large numbers of cops smashing
in doors and arresting other antifascists. Draconian bail conditions were
imposed. In total, 23 people were now under arrest in relation to the
punching of ‘O’Donovan’.

Since there was no available ‘complainant’ in the case, the cops – the
British Transport Police led by Detective Inspector Sam Blackburn – were
unable to charge Sean, or any of the other antifascists, with assault.
Instead they were charged with ‘Conspiracy to Commit Violent Disorder’. In
legal terms, ‘Violent Disorder’ occurs when a person’s behaviour is deemed
to be of such a nature that it would cause alarm or distress to someone
witnessing it, though in this case nobody had complained and it was ruled
that there was not sufficient evidence to additionally charge any of the
antifascists with ‘Violent Disorder’ itself.

Charges were dropped against one of the antifascists, a young woman, in
the early stages, but because of the sheer number of defendants the Crown
Prosecution Service (CPS) argued that, for logistical reasons, it was
necessary to split the defendants between two trials. Of course this also
put the Prosecution at a considerable advantage, particularly as they
would be prosecuted by the same individual – Mark Trafford. Both trials
would be held at Blackfriars Crown Court before Judge H.O.Blacksell.

The CPS chose to first prosecute not so much those with the most evidence
against them, since they have presented no evidence of a conspiracy
throughout, but those whom they judged would be most easily convicted.
Many of the defendants had been convicted of political activities in the
past, and because of these ‘prior convictions’ could not present character
evidence in their defence for example. The CPS knew that they could rely
on the prejudice and ignorance of the jury (one of whom sported a shirt
emblazoned with a large St George’s cross) for some convictions, and sure
enough seven antifascists were convicted as charged, with six of them
being sent immediately to jail.

As our comrades were sent to prison, the architects of the fit-up were
busy congratulating each other. Blacksell, the judge who presided over the
charade, said he would be recommending Detective Inspector Blackburn for a
commendation – For what, making travel safer for Nazis?! Perhaps Blackburn
will get the ‘Iron Cross’! This whole case revolves around one neo-Nazi,
who was not a complainant in the case, being put on his arse. For that 23
people were arrested, hundreds of cops were involved in dawn raids, and
two show trials were held costing Millions, what a great service to the
‘public’! But of course, this case is about far more than one pathetic
fascist.

Immediately before the second trial, charges were dropped against two more
of those previously accused of being involved in the ‘conspiracy’, leaving
nine more to face trial. The trial began on Monday 12th September, and
once again the Prosecution presented absolutely no evidence of a
‘conspiracy’. The jury seemed nonplussed as to why they were there. Once
again, the trial dragged on for more than three weeks.

One of the things that came out in the second trial was that a racist
Immigration Officer, who acted as a prosecution witness, and who in his
police statement described Ravi Gill as having a “typical big Asian head”
and “speaking Indian”, lied through his teeth in the first trial. He could
not have witnessed the incident as he claimed because when it happened he
was not actually there, but outside buying his ticket!

As his attempts to fit up the second group of antifascists began to
unravel, Trafford became quite desperate, and at times appeared close to
tears. He had pursued the case with personal malice and with a messianic
gleam in his eye throughout, and his arrogance led to some verbal fencing
with defendants of twice his intelligence which simply left him looking
foolish. Bereft of evidence, he simply relied on being able to mislead and
prejudice the jury as he had done in the first trial. To this end,
Trafford tried to present the neo-Nazis of ‘Blood & Honour’ and the
Anarchists and antifascists in the dock as two sides of the same coin, as
if the Nazis and partisans of World War Two had some sort of moral
equivalence. This morally repugnant position was rounded on by the Defence
in the closing speeches with Trafford pilloried to an unusual extent.
Putting the incident firmly in its political and historical context, one
of the Defence barristers even went so far as to say that the jury should
not only be acquitting the defendants, but thanking them for being
prepared to confront organised fascism.

It should be clear that this prosecution was brought to try and smash
antifascist resistance (something Trafford has privately made explicitly
clear) and to intimidate antifascists from engaging in any form of
antifascist activity. The case however, and the way that the ‘conspiracy’
law has been used in it, has huge implications for activists in general,
it is an attempt to outlaw any form of protest. Leeds ABC regard it as
highly regrettable that the case did not have the massive publicity it
warranted from the very beginning.

The jury retired to consider the verdict at 3.00pm today – They were back
again less than an hour later to acquit all nine antifascists, treating
the prosecution case with the contempt it deserves. The courtroom erupted
into cheers and cries of jubilation, with only the judge and prosecutor
left looking sour-faced. Tonight as the acquitted and supporters retired
to the pub there was every reason to celebrate. Tomorrow [5.10.2011] is
the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street. We hope that Indymedia
readers will join us in raising a glass – to our comrades who triumphed
over this judicial fit-up, to the antifascists down the ages who have been
prepared to go out onto the streets to confront fascism, and to our six
comrades who were fitted-up earlier this year and who deserve our fullest
possible support.

THE PRISONERS

The six antifascists imprisoned in the first trial were originally held in
Wormwood Scrubs prison in London, but five have now been moved to other
jails in southern and central England. Please send them letters of support
at the addresses given below. We expect Thomas Blak to be moved this week
and his new address will be published on the Leeds ABC website when that
happens. Thomas, who is Danish and has lived and worked in England for 15
years, is also under threat of deportation.

The prisoners may each receive postage stamps and Postal Orders (made
payable to ‘The Governor’ and with the prisoner’s name and prison number
written on the back). For advice on writing to prisoners please see the
Leeds ABC website.

A solidarity fund has been set up to support the prisoners in jail and
upon release. All donations, big and small, are very welcome. The fund is
administered by Leeds Anarchist Black Cross, a long-standing and reputable
prisoner support organisation, and the fund will ONLY be used to support
the prisoners directly. If you would like to contribute to the fund please
send a cheque (made payable to ‘The Cable Street Society’) to Leeds ABC,
145-149 Cardigan Road, Leeds, LS6 1LJ. Details for bank transfers are:

The Cable Street Society
Sort Code 070093
Account number 33333334
Ref 0827/704169523

We would like to thank the groups and individuals who have already
contributed to the solidarity fund, including Antifa England, Brighton &
Hove TUC Unemployed Workers Centre, Bristol ABC, Kate Sharpley Library ,
and Rebel Soul (Shambala Festival).

The Anarchist print co-op Sabcat have also produced two benefit T-shirts
in support of the prisoners. They are printed on organic cotton, fair
wear, carbon neutral, Earth Positive T-shirts and cost £14.95 including UK
postage. Sabcat are donating their labour for free, so apart from the cost
of the unprinted garment itself and the postage, all money raised goes to
the antifascist prisoners support fund. To order a T-shirt check out the
Sabcat website at www.sabcat.com. They will also be available to buy at
this year’s London Anarchist Bookfair.

Leeds ABC have produced a solidarity poster (see above) in several sizes,
which is being displayed in laminated form in numerous community centres,
social centres, pubs, cafes, bookshops, etc. Please contact us with regard
to displaying one. You can also download the graphic to display on your
website, Facebook page, etc.

Last, but by no means least, a number of revolutionary solidarity actions
have been claimed in the names of the prisoners, and we both appreciate
and applaud these acts. We should remember that the very best act of
solidarity we can offer is to continue to fight against fascism and not to
be intimidated or cowed by these latest attempts to stop us resisting.

Solidarity to the antifascist prisoners.

No Pasaran!

PRISON ADDRESSES

Andy Baker
RELEASED

Thomas Blak
DEPORTED

Thomas is Danish and would appreciate European/International stamps to
keep in touch with his family and with comrades abroad.

Sean Cregan
RELEASED

Sean can receive books (they must be new or in very good condition).

Phil De Souza
RELEASED

Ravinder Gill
A5770CE
HMP Wayland
Griston
Thetford
Norfolk
IP25 6RL

Ravi can receive posters, so if you hold a support event consider sending
him one in.

Austen Jackson
RELEASED

Leeds Anarchist Black Cross

-

A few thank yous and fuck yous

Letter from a defendant in the second wave trial:

Having just been acquitted in the Antifa trial I would like to make some
quick remarks.

Respect and solidarity to my comrades in jail serving time for this
bullshit. To us you are heroes. Great anti-fascists one and all. No
Pasaran!

Respect and solidarity to my co-defendants who conducted themselves with
dignity and aplomb in the face of a slanderous and offensive onslaught
from the prosecution.

Congratulations to everyone who was at Welling train station on the 28th
of March 2009 and managed to get away without having their collar felt.
You know who you are which is more than the cops ever will.

Thank you to the jury. I suspect it took them more time to elect a
foreperson than it did to discuss any merits in the prosecution case. That
said I believe that their decision was not just an acceptance of our
innocence but an endorsement of our politics (of which they heard alot),
that more than anything gives me hope and encouragement.

Thanks to our legal team, great job well done with integrity and style, we
are eternally grateful.

Thanks to everyone who supported us throughout this trial your solidarity
will not be forgotten.

Finally, fuck the Nazi’s, nationalists, reactionaries and rulers and fuck
the police and the state that protect them.

No Pasaran!

Rudeboy

Racism in the Close Supervision Units (CSCs)

A recent admission from the manager of a brutal control-unit at Woodhill Prison in Milton Keynes, euphemistically called the “Close Supervision Centre” (CSC), that prisoners suffering with mental illness are being held there has raised serious questions about the selection process for a unit that was supposedly created to hold only the most dangerous, subversive and unmanageable prisoners in the jail system.

Information provided by Kyle Major, a prisoner currently in the Woodhill CSC, would indicate that it isn't just the mentally ill that have been erroneously labelled “control problems” and sent to the CSC; it seems that ethnicity and a particular brand of religious faith also qualifies one for a place in the CSC.

Of the 23 prisoners currently held in the CSCs at Woodhill and Wakefield prisons at least 12 of them are of the Muslim faith, which begs the obvious question as to why such a numerically tiny proportion of the overall prison population in England and Wales are so dispropotionately over-represented in the CSCs?

The existence of racism in the prison system and indeed the wider criminal justice system has long had an evidential basis and ethnicity influences one's chances of receiving a prison sentence if convicted of a criminal offence and also the quality of one's treatment once inside the prison system. Cultural conditioning amoungst an overwhelmingly white prison staff is largely responsible for perceiving black prisoners as intrinsically “difficult” and potentially “disruptive”, and for those black prisoners who frequently complain or question their treatment the
label of “control problem” is quickly applied and the attendant repessive measures vigorously applied. Skin colour and ethnic identity in prison has always influenced and determined the degree of punishment inflicted if behaviour and attitude towards authority is an issue. When Islamphobia is thrown into the mix then repression against a targeted group of prisoners can assume a deadly edge.

For some time prison staff have been leaking stories to the media about “Muslim prison gangs” recruiting followers and creating disruption in the prison system, and the prison authoritites have publicly revealed the existence of a police / prison service intelligence unit dedicated to monitoring the activities of “Muslim extremists” within the prison population. The image created is of large gangs of black and Asian Muslim prisoners spreading their nefarious influence amoungst other prisoners and actively recruiting potential foot soldiers for terrorist activities in the outside community. Although there is no real evidence to support the scenario created it does provide a context for the victimization of Muslim prisoners and their over representation in brutal prison control units like the “Close Supervision Centre”.

If, as appears to be the case, some prisoners are being “selected” for the CSCs princibly because of their Muslim faith (or “terrorist idelolgy”) then a condition of their “progression” out of the CSC and return to the mainstream prison population would inevitably be their abandenment of that faith; failure to comply would result in an indefinite stay in conditions of strict solitary confinement and clinical physical isolation. At Woodhil prison the Iman is not allowed to enter the CSC or talk with the Muslim prisoners held there, which re-affirms the belief of these prisoners that their faith is the principle reason for their current location. Prison Service order 51 states quite clearly that “All establishments enable prisoners to participate in corporate worship and other religious activities that encourage their spiritual and personal development whilst in custody”. Clearly this does not apply to Muslim prisoners held in the CSCs. Neither it seems does Article 9 of the European Convention of Human Rights: “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this includes freedom to change his religion or belief and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private to manifest his religion or belief, in worship, teaching, practice and observance”. Stripped of even this basic human right, over 50 percent of the prisoners currently being held in the CSCs are being punished for embracing and being identified with a religion that the prison authorities view as a threat to “good order and discipline”. If there is a growing militancy amoungst young Muslim prisoners then the behaviour and attitude of racist prison staff is an important
contributory factor in that, as is the psychological and physical brutalisation of Muslim prisoners in the CSCs.

No-one would dispute that in a chronically overcrowded prison system there are serious problems of control and safety, but none of that is remedied by targeting on the basis of race and relgion a specific group of prisoners and subjecting them to treatment that clearly breaches their basic human rights. A similar sort of racist targeting of black Muslim prisoners in the U.S. during the 1960s provoked the catastrophe of the Attica Prison uprising and the virtual wholesale segregation of the prison population along the lines of race and religion. There are clear signs that such a phenomenon is now happening in some English Maximum-Security prisons.

In terms of the prison “Close Supervision Centres” there is clear evidence that racism is influencing the selection process and fashioning the units into weapons of repression and abuse against “Muslim troublemakers”. It's therefore the duty of anti-racist groups and individuals to campaign for their closure.

John Bowden
Shotts Prison
November 2011

Hearing tomorrow 1030am Court of Appeal: Bagram prisoner Yunus Rahmatullah v British Government

23 November 2011

Lawyers representing a prisoner held illegally at the US military prison at Bagram Airbase will today seek to force the British Government to secure his release.

Yunus Rahmatullah was picked up in Iraq by British forces in 2004 and handed over for rendition by the US to Afghanistan. He has been held without charge or trial in the notorious Bagram Theater Internment Facility for over seven years.

In a compelling habeas case, Mr Rahmatullah's legal team will argue in the Court of Appeal that the British Government has the power to secure his release and is duty-bound to do so.

All welcome.

Yunus Rahmatullah vs Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs and Others
1030 am Thursday 24th October
Court 71, Court of Appeal
The Master of the Rolls; Lord Justice Maurice Kay; Lord Justice Sullivan

ENDS

Notes to editors

1. For further information please go to http://www.reprieve.org.uk/cases/yunusrahmatullah/ or contact Donald Campbell in Reprieve’s press office on +44 (0)20 7427 1082

2. Yunus Rahmatullah has been held beyond the rule of law for over seven years in Bagram Airforce Base. He is said to be in a very grave mental and physical condition.

In February 2009, after years of government denials that the UK had been involved in any rendition operations, then-Secretary of State for Defence John Hutton announced to Parliament that UK forces had captured two men in Iraq in February 2004, and handed them to US forces. In subsequent statements to Parliament, the government revealed that in March 2004, British officials had become aware of the US intention to transfer the men from Iraq to Afghanistan.

The British government admitted its complicity in crime (kidnapping, otherwise called rendition), admitted it was wrong, and appeared to apologize. Yet it did not and refused to identify the men - a crucial step if they are to be reunited with their basic human rights. Indeed, the government has apparently done nothing over the past seven years to ensure that they receive legal assistance.

Reprieve led a complicated and expensive search for the identity of these men, which covered three continents over ten months. One of the men has been identified as Amanatullah Ali and the other as Yunus Rahmatullah.

Yunus Rahmatullah, also known by his nickname 'Saleh Huddin', was raised in the Gulf states. For six years, he was held incommunicado, unable to even contact his family. Reprieve has been told by multiple sources that, as a result of his abuse in UK and US custody, he is in catastrophic mental and physical shape, and now spends most of his time in the mental health cells at Bagram.

Yunus's family insist on keeping their current location confidential. They are legally in their country of residence, but fear that they will suffer reprisals if they are known to be opposing the British and US governments.

Yunus’s mother Fatima Rahmatullah issued the following statement on April 15, 2010:

“Yunus is the youngest and closest son to my heart. I lost my other son, his only brother, in a tragic accident. Now, Yunus is my only hope in life. I see him in my dreams; I pray daily that I will see him in my waking hours again.

“Our family was shocked when we learned that the British government might have been behind Yunus’ disappearance. I am told the British government has refused even to confirm that Yunus was the person they seized six years ago. As a mother, this is a position that I struggle to understand."

Reprieve sued the UK Government to formally identify Yunus Rahmatullah, and is now suing for habeas relief in the British courts. The case is now in the Court of Appeal.

3. Originally used to process prisoners captured during Operation Enduring Freedom, Bagram Theater Internment Facility has become backlogged with prisoners who are held for years without charge, trial or legal rights.

Hamidullah Khan, for example, was picked up while travelling from Karachi to his father's village in Waziristan to salvage the family's possesions during the ongoing military operation. He was just fourteen. He is currently being held at Bagram and his family are desperate for his return.

Unlike detainees at Guantánamo, prisoners at Bagram are still being held in a legal black-hole; they have no access to lawyers and thus are unable to challenge their detention, despite the fact that between 2002 and 2008 several prisoners who had undergone torture were released without having even been put on trial.

As a senator and presidential candidate, Obama unequivocally rejected the "false choice between fighting terrorism and respecting habeas corpus". Yet when his adminstration took office it chose to stand by Bush's legal arguments concerning Bagram detainees: as enemy combatants they had no constitutional rights.

Prisoners have been subjected to beatings, stress positions, sexual abuse and humiliation, sensory deprivation, sleep, food and water deprivation, exposure to cold temperature, dousing with cold water and blaring of loud music.

Tariq Dergoul, a British National, was injured by the Northern Alliance and then sold to the US for $5,000. While detained at Bagram, he suffered frostbite for which he was denied medical care. He ultimately required the amputation of the affected limb.

Dilawar was a taxi driver, known to be innocent by his interrogators, who was murdered by his captors in December 2002. He was subjected to over 100 sadistic blows to his legs by various guards, strikes performed as "a kind of running joke". As a result, his legs became "pulpified", according to the autopsy report, and the blunt trauma killed him.

Reprieve's local partner Justice Project Pakistan (JPP) is fighting a ground-breaking case filed on behalf of seven Pakistanis imprisoned in Bagram Air Base, which challenges the Pakistan Government over their role in renditions. Awwal Khan, Hamidullah Khan, Abdul Haleem Saifullah, Fazal Karim, Amal Khan, Iftikhar Ahmad and Yunus Rahmatullah were abducted from Pakistan and taken to Bagram, where they have been kept without charge or trial since 2003. One prisoner is merely 16 years of age and was seized two years ago at the age of 14. Another was not permitted to speak to his family for six years, and is believed to be in a grievous physical and psychological condition.

For the BBC's reporting on allegations of abuse and neglect at Bagram please click here.

Bagram prison originally consisted of crude pens fashioned from metal cages surrounded by coils of razor wire. Roughly twenty people shared a cage, sleeping on foam mats and using plastic buskets as toilets. Military personnel described it as "far more spartan" than Guantánamo.

Faced with serious overcrowding in 2004, the military began refurbishing the prison and installed flush toilets. As of 2005, the US Army claimed that Bagram had a maximum capacity of 595 prisoners. The basic infrastructure, however, remained the same. Hundreds of detainees were still held in wire-mesh pens and exercise, kitchen and bathroom space was minimal.

In August 2008 the US government awarded a $50 million contract for a new prison. This is now completed, but in the wake of the redevelopment reports still circulate of an undisclosed part of the site (sometimes referred to as a "Temporary Screening Facility") where abusive practices continue.

4. Reprieve, a legal action charity, uses the law to enforce the human rights of prisoners, from death row to Guantánamo Bay. Reprieve investigates, litigates and educates, working on the frontline, to provide legal support to prisoners unable to pay for it themselves. Reprieve promotes the rule of law around the world, securing each person’s right to a fair trial and saving lives. Clive Stafford Smith is the founder of Reprieve and has spent 25 years working on behalf of people facing the death penalty in the USA.

Reprieve’s current casework involves representing 15 prisoners in the US prison at Guantánamo Bay, assisting over 70 prisoners facing the death penalty around the world, and conducting ongoing investigations into the rendition and the secret detention of ‘ghost prisoners’ in the so-called ‘war on terror.’

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Undercover police: how 'romantic, attentive' impostor betrayed activist

I feel angry and violated, says woman apparently used as cover by officer who was trying to infiltrate Animal Liberation Front

• Rob Evans and Paul Lewis
• guardian.co.uk, Sunday 23 October 2011
  


Bob Lambert posed as a radical activist named Bob Robinson.

They met by chance one night at a party in Tottenham, north London. The man she would come to know as Bob Robinson was standing on his own. Jenny (not her real name), a 24-year-old who had come to the capital to find work, was intrigued by the slim man with the endearing smile, who was slightly older than her.

They fell easily into conversation and before long, Jenny was smitten. The love she felt for him rolls easily off her tongue. He was, she says, "polite, considerate, very romantic, attentive, charismatic". He smiled a lot and was non-judgmental. And he was cute.

"I thought I had found my Mr Right. He was very charming and I thought I could take him to meet my parents," she says.

They had an 18-month relationship and one of his characteristics struck her in particular: "I thought he had a high moral code."

But now she feels very different about him. It turns out that there was a lot more to Bob Robinson than his impassioned campaigning and shoulder-length hair, which gave every impression of a rebel with many causes.

He was, in fact, the opposite. Bob Lambert today admits he was an undercover police officer who had created the fictional persona of Bob Robinson to spy on political activists.

The special branch officer was one of a group of police spies in a covert unit who have been infiltrating and disrupting the activities of political campaign groups across Britain for decades.

Jenny and others only discovered his true identity more than 20 years after they first met him. The discovery has left Jenny feeling that he deceived her about the bedrock of any relationship – his identity. She is very hurt that he duped her about who he was. "I was cruelly tricked and it has made me very angry. I feel violated," she said.

As she was trying to persuade him to set up home and have a family together, he was resisting, claiming he had to flee abroad as he was being pursued by special branch because he was a dangerous radical activist.

The sorry episode has left her wondering if he loved her at all. Today, Lambert admits that "as part of my alter ego's cover story, I had a relationship with 'Jenny', to whom I owe an unreserved apology".

So far, seven undercover police officers who infiltrated political groups have been exposed – and most have admitted or have been accused of sleeping with activists they were spying on. They have faced claims that they did so to glean intelligence about the activists and the protests they were organising. A growing number of women say they have suffered terrible trauma and damage from the betrayal of having a relationship with a person they later found out was a fake.

Police chiefs claim that undercover officers are forbidden from having sex with their targets "under any circumstances" as it is "unacceptable and unprofessional". But Pete Black, an undercover officer from the same unit who infiltrated anti-racist groups in the 1990s, said sex was widely used as a technique to blend in and gather intelligence. He said there was an informal code in the unit that the spies should not fall in love with the women – or allow the women to fall in love with them.

An investigation by the Guardian has shown that Lambert was no ordinary police spy. His skills of deception would earn him legendary status in the elite ranks of the covert unit known as the special demonstration squad (SDS). "He did what is hands down regarded as the best tour of duty ever," said Black.

Lambert admits that in the 1980s, he "first built a reputation as a committed member of London Greenpeace, a peaceful campaigning group [on environmental issues]". He did so "as part of my cover story" to "gain the necessary credibility to become involved in serious crime".

His aim was to penetrate the Animal Liberation Front (ALF), which he says was "then engaged in incendiary device and explosive device campaigns against targets in the vivisection, meat and fur trades".

In the 1990s, he drew on the techniques he had learned undercover to become the head of operations in the covert unit, running a network of spies.

It was May 1987 when Jenny met Bob. Very quickly they were spending most of their free time together. Bob said he was a gardener, doing cash-in-hand jobs in well-heeled places such as Hampstead. He told her that he was also earning a living by driving a minicab, although he was touting illegally for customers.

But politics was really his thing, he said. He told her how he was deeply involved in campaigning for animal rights and the environment.

Bob confided that he was heavily active in the ALF. But she was not interested. "He was always asking me to go to meetings. He introduced me to lots of activists. I did not realise what the ALF was."

But why did Lambert have a relationship with Jenny when she had never been an activist ? "I have no idea. It's a great mystery," she says.

It seems from his admission today that he was using her as his girlfriend so that he could portray himself as a fully rounded person with a private life to the rest of his political and social circle. Activists, eternally on their guard against police spies, are suspicious of people who, for example, turn up at their meetings out of the blue without any discernible evidence of friends or a family. Taking her along to the pub or parties with other activists was a neat way of deflecting those suspicions.

Jenny was working at the time as an administrative assistant at the state-owned Central Electricity Generating Board. But she kept quiet about her job as she feared the activists would take against her because the CEGB was running nuclear power stations.

She was keen to develop her career and have a family. She lived in an east London house with eight other friends, but none of them were politically active, other than having a general antipathy to Margaret Thatcher's government.

They spent most nights together at her house, although he lived in what she called a "grotty flat above a barber's" in Hackney. He had a "single man's room with a shared kitchen" but with very little in it. "He claimed to be not interested in possessions," she said.

A few months into their relationship came the episode that was to seal Lambert's reputation as one of the best undercover operatives the SDS had ever had.

In the summer of 1987, Lambert had been undercover for three years and had worked his way into the inner recesses of the animal rights movement. The Animal Liberation Front operated through a tightly organised underground network of small cells of activists, making it difficult for spies to get among them. Police chiefs were on the hunt for sorely needed intelligence after three incendiary bomb attacks on Debenhams shops in Harrow, Luton and Romford. Activists had planted the bombs because the shops were selling fur products. The attacks had reputedly caused millions of pounds' worth of damage.

Lambert identified the perpetrators to his handlers. The intelligence was so precise that the police caught them red-handed. The Old Bailey heard how police raided a flat in Tottenham and found two activists sitting at a table covered with dismantled alarm clocks, bulbs and electrical equipment for making four more firebombs.

The prosecution told the court that Andrew Clarke, then 25, and Geoff Shepherd, then 31, were wearing gloves to conceal their fingerprints. The bombs were made in large matchboxes, with a warning: "Do not touch. Ring police. Animal Liberation Front." Shepherd was jailed for four years and four months, and Clarke for more than three years.

But his feat also went down in SDS legend because Lambert had skilfully disguised that he was the source of the tip-off, managing to throw the suspicions on to others within the small ring of activists who knew about the attacks. So well had he retained the trust of the activists that Jenny remembers that he went, with her, to visit one of the accused in jail while they were awaiting the trial.

Jenny remembers that after the arrests, Bob would often say that special branch was hot on his and other activists' trails. There was, he says, a "big crisis" because the animal rights campaigners suspected that there was an informer in their midst.

A bizarre incident happened at about that time. By 1988, Jenny had moved into a Hackney flat with two others, who were not politically active. One day, special branch detectives raided Jenny's home, letting slip that they were "looking for Bob". He was not there. She remembers that one of the detectives picked up a pair of shoes and asked who owned them. They belonged to Jenny. The raid, the Guardian understands, was orchestrated by police to bolster Lambert's cover story.

After more than a year together, Jenny felt that Bob had given her the right signals that he was interested in having children with her. He had been to see her parents three times. But when she broached the question, he said no, upsetting her hugely. She wrote in her diary that it was a black day. "I remember crying a lot that day. I was just so shocked."

Soon afterwards, she says, Bob began to tell her that he would have to go on the run abroad to escape the special branch. Over the last few months of 1988, they discussed what to do. She said she wanted to go with him, but he said she should not.

According to Jenny, he argued that she should not waste her life on the run, constantly looking over her shoulder, and that she deserved better – a rewarding career and a family. "He said he was not good enough for me."

He left his flat and stayed for a couple of weeks in what she called a "safe house" with one of her friends in London. She remembers meeting him once there: there was "still a lot of electricity between us".

In December 1988, Bob and Jenny spent a week alone together in a friend's house in Dorset to say goodbye. "I was heartbroken. Even when he left, I could not imagine that it had finished because we loved each other so much. I wanted to go on the run with him. I was prepared to do that for him."

But his sacrifice in not taking her with him made her admire him even more.

He said he was going to Spain. In early 1989, she received a long letter from him in Valencia, saying he was not coming back but raising the possibility that she could join him there. "Even then I could not believe it," she says. It was the last she heard from him.

The drawn-out goodbye was a ruse. His trip to Spain and the postmark on that letter was genuine, but the reasons were not. Bob's undercover tour was ending and he needed to leave the activists without arousing suspicions. Using standard tradecraft, he had created the perception of a convincing reason for his departure – that special branch were after him. The Spanish bolthole was far enough away to deter activists from going to see him, and avoid the risk of their bumping into him.

Dale Farm evictions - live

Oct. 19, 2011 The Guardian

• Violent clashes as Dale Farm eviction begins
• Caravan on fire as at least 50 officers enter site
• Reports of police baton and Taser use as protesters resist
• 23 people arrested for offences including violent disorder

This page will update automatically every minute: On | Off

Dale Farm evictions begin this morning. Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images

9.05pm: My colleague Stephen Bates has more on the police use of Tasers during the eviction operation at Dale Farm today:

The police said they had been deployed to protect public order and members of the public, including those on the site, and that their use of Tasers was in accordance with official guidance and authorised by those in charge of the operation.

Their account was, however, immediately contested by one witness, who claimed that a Taser was fired at a short range of a couple of metres, virtually simultaneously with the shouting of a single warning. It was also claimed that the police shouted at neutral observers: "Get back or you are going to get shot."

When it came, at dawn, the operation to secure Dale Farm was achieved, despite some minor injuries including a back injury and a nose bleed, with much less violence than had been predicted – or was claimed – by some of the Travellers.

8.43pm: The huge expense and disruption caused by the Dale Farm eviction will raise alarm in councils across England, my colleague Patrick Butler writes:

Few councils are unaffected by the question of where their local Traveller populations should live, and events in Basildon will have reminded them how volatile and intense the politics of Traveller sites can be.

According to official figures, there are around 300,000 gypsies and Travellers in England, most living in "bricks and mortar houses" rather than caravans. Around 80% of the estimated 18,000 gypsy caravans are on authorised sites, but it is what to do with those on unauthorised sites, and where to put the families that live in them if and when they are moved off, that will cause major political headaches.

8.41pm: A spokesman for MEP Richard Howitt said he was "manhandled" from the media area and was "shaken by the episode", PA reports.

Howitt said:

Today has been a shocking day in which serious events affecting the lives and rights of the people of Basildon have been at stake, and it is utterly reprehensible that the council has sought to stifle free and fair debate about what's happening.

I came here with a message for all to respect the law and to condemn violence against the police, so surely the council should have wanted a responsible elected local politician to have used my influence accordingly?"

The story of Dale Farm is one of Basildon Council mismanagement, delay and wasted money, and this is a story that needs to be heard.

7.45pm: PA has more on the removal of MEP Richard Howitt from the media compound at Dale Farm.

A Basildon Council spokesman said the Labour MEP was removed from the site after he "tricked" his way in to the compound.

The spokesman said the East of England MEP, who has publicly backed those facing eviction, had been warned both verbally and in writing that he could not enter the site for security reasons and was told he could visit tomorrow.

He said: "We are extremely disappointed that he chose to completely ignore our communications and tricked his way into the compound, which was a security breach.

"He was subsequently removed from the compound and will not be allowed back."

Stephen Horgan, deputy leader of the council, told BBC Essex: "Where has Mr Howitt been for the last ten years and during his time as a member of the European Parliament?

"He could have had significant clout when the Labour government was in power to help this situation, but was nowhere to be seen - it is only now at the end of the process and with major media interest in the site clearance that he has appeared on various outlets offering negotiation and so called solutions to the problem."

7.13pm: Essex Police have arrested 23 people at Dale Farm today for offences including violent disorder, breach of the peace and obstruction.

6.33pm: The chairman of Ramsden Crays Parish Council, Andy Peake, has told local radio that he welcomes the eviction of Dale Farm.

Peake told BBC Essex radio: "It's a great day for the villagers. We've put up with so much. We deserve to see the end of it all"

6.26pm: Basildon Council leader Tony Ball has been talking to PA about the eviction operation and defending the police tactics.

I think we have seen from the level of violence put up by the protesters this morning that it was absolutely right that the police led the operation.

His comments were echoed by local Tory MP John Baron, who added:

It's unfortunate that some protesters have resorted to violence. The police were right to take control of the site's clearance.

The protesters were there at the request of the travellers and I urge the travellers now to ask the protesters to leave peacefully and lead by example and leave themselves.

From what I have seen, the police have acted fairly and responsibly. Don't forget some protesters were throwing rocks, carrying iron bars and threatening violence.

The police have been restrained but at the end of the day, the police have got to defend themselves to ensure there is no violence.

6.23pm: Supporters of Dale Farm have told PA that a resident of the site had to be taken to hospital after the electricity supply was cut off, shutting down his defibrillator:

Tonight police had secured the area and removed protesters from a 40ft high scaffolding tower which had been erected at main gate to the site. It is being dismantled which officials hope should allow access for the bailiffs tomorrow to begin removing the plots.

But sporadic clashes between police and protesters were continuing tonight.

Electricity supplies were cut and supporters said this had turned off crucial medical equipment belonging to elderly residents.

Paramedics were escorted on to the site by supporters to treat resident Nora Egan, who claimed she suffered back injuries in a confrontation with police.

Essex Police said they would investigate the circumstances leading up to a woman receiving "a minor back injury".

Margaret Sheridan also claimed she was injured. "They're rough and there is no reasoning with them," she said.

Kathleen McCarthy, a Dale Farm resident, said: "The memory of Dale Farm will weigh heavily on Britain for generations - we are being dragged out of the only homes we have in this world.

"Our entire community is being ripped apart by Basildon Council and the politicians in government."

An ambulance service spokesman said one resident had been taken to hospital and another was receiving treatment. Four others refused treatment.

Supporters said resident Cornelius Sheridan, who is in his 50s and seriously ill, was taken to hospital after the power supply to his defibrillator had been cut.

6.00pm: MEP Richard Howitt has accused Basildon council of wanting a confrontation with the travellers.

Speaking on BBC News, the Labour MEP said he accepted that the travellers shared some of the blame for the eviction as the site was illegal under planning law. But he went on to castigate council leader Tony Ball for his handling of the situation:

He decided that he and his group look tough and get political credit by doing these sorts of things they've been doing today. I think they [the council] did a deal with Eric Pickles, who's a neighbouring MP, to get government support for this. And so over several weeks their only interest has been a forced eviction and a confrontation.

I offered to mediate, the Bishop of Chelmsford offered to mediate, the UN Commission for Human Rights – at my request – offered to mediate, and Basildon council refused all of those offers – and they should be held accountable. (...) This day should never have happened.

5.46pm: Labour MEP Richard Howitt, who has just given an interview to BBC News in which he criticised Basildon council's actions, says he has been "forcibly ejected" from the media compound at Dale Farm.

5.36pm: Amnesty International has condemned Basildon Council for conducting " a forced eviction on an unprecedented scale" at Dale Farm.

Kate Allen, UK director of the human rights group, also disputed the description of the eviction as a "site clearance" and urged the police and bailiffs to show restraint.

Some commentators and politicians have portrayed the enforcement action by Basildon council at Dale Farm as a site clearance, and not a forced eviction. This is misleading and inaccurate.

What is in its early stages at Dale Farm is a forced eviction which will leave several families homeless. The families being evicted have been failed by the Council at every turn; in inadequate consultation, insufficient negotiation and in the woeful failure to offer culturally adequate alternative accommodation, to which they are entitled.

The sad reality is that we are witnessing a forced eviction on an unprecedented scale in the UK. The eviction at Dale Farm is not necessary and represents a failure on the Council's part to comply with international human rights standards on housing and evictions.

The use of force by police and bailiffs must always be strictly proportionate, necessary, appropriate and an absolute last resort.

Amnesty added that there had been "a lack of genuine consultation consistent with international human rights standards on options for alternative culturally adequate housing for those affected."

5.23pm: Police have made more arrests at the site, according to BBC Essex radio.

In a post of Twitter, Allie Hodgkins-Brown, the station's news editor, says: "Don't know exact number of arrests now at #dalefarm but suspect figure has risen from 7 to about 15 - my guess, not confirmed."

She also says Basildon council has told the station that "nothing unsafe will be done in the dark", suggesting the eviction operation is being wound down as the daylight fades.

5.22pm: This is David Batty – I'm taking over the live blog for the rest of the evening. You can follow me on Twitter @David_Batty.

5.04pm: That's it from me today. I'm handing over to my colleague David Batty.

4.40pm: PA's latest dispatch from the Dale Farm scaffold tower:

Seven supporters have been removed from the tower, which is now empty. At least four more are chained beneath the main platform.

4.38pm: The future of a school for the children of the Dale Farm Traveller community is hanging in the balance, reports my colleague Jessica Shepherd:

Some 103 of the 106 pupils at Crays Hill primary school live at Dale Farm. Jo Lang, chair of governors at the school said the last few months had been a "difficult and unsettling time" for pupils and teachers.

He said the school had been determined that teaching would continue as normal and that the school would remain a "constant safe place".

"We strongly believe that all children have the right to an education and we are ensuring we do all we can do prepare our pupils for their future," he said.

A spokeswoman for Essex county council said it was "too early" to know what would happen to the school. She said that pupils on the authorised pitch of Dale Farm would continue to attend Crays Hill.

4.21pm: The number of arrests at Dale Farm has now reached seven, Essex police have just told me. They don't have a breakdown of all the arrests, but they say two people were arrested on suspicion of violent disorder and one for a suspected breach of the peace.

3.55pm: David Allen Green's NS piece seems to be doing the rounds of the country's coppers. Chief Superintendent Paul Kennedy, area commander for South Cumbria, has just linked to it on Twitter:

MT - @jonbcollins. Thought provoker - Should the #police be more accepting of criticism and explain more proactively?

3.48pm: In case you haven't seen it, Lexy Topping's report from Dale Farm is here

3.21pm: This is an interesting tweet. Some people are furious about David Allen Green's New Statesman blog (see here) and another NS piece entitled "Are police breaking their own rules by using Tasers at Dale Farm?"

However, Jon Collins, deputy director of the Police Foundation, has just tweeted this take on the issue:

Not for me to defend the article. But I think it is always legitimate to ask whether the use of Tasers is appropriate.

3.06pm: The people at Dale Farm Solidarity have penned a piece for CiF pondering Travellers' rights, the significance of the protests — and their legacy. Here's a taste of it:

The police brutality seen at Dale Farm today is not a one-off, but part of a long-running criminalisation of Traveller communities and culture. Until 1994, all local councils had been required to offer a designated amount of Traveller pitches in their area. The Conservative government repealed this, leaving at least 5,000 families without a legal home.

Today, councils are 20,000 pitches short of their legal duties, and even these unenforced responsibilities will be removed by the localism bill. These guidelines, like the Travellers they're designed for, have simply been ignored, the result being 18% of Gypsies and Travellers were homeless in 2003 compared with 0.6% of the UK population. This is why Dale Farm residents are engaging in civil disobedience to resist the eviction – the alternative is homelessness.

There is however something else that's unprecedented about the situation at Dale Farm: the growth of a solidarity movement to promote the civil rights of Travelllers. At the eviction today, protesters and residents occupied the tops of towers and caravans together, resisting the brutal eviction for as long as possible.

The ideas that have coalesced around the Dale Farm community are simple. Travellers are simply asking for the right to exist legally. Despite the grim and brutal scenes we've seen today at Dale Farm, the least we can hope is that these messages will be heard.

2.45pm: OK. Acpo have just got back to us about the circumstances in which Tasers can be used.

According to Acpo guidance, issued in 2008, it is "not possible to provide a definitive list of circumstances where the use of Taser would be appropriate".

However, the advice states a Taser should be used only where officers are authorised to carry firearms or "where the authorising officer has reason to suppose that they, in the course of their duty, may have to protect the public, themselves and/or the subject(s) at incidents of violence or threats of violence of such severity that they will need to use force".

An Acpo spokesman added:

Tactical decisions concerning necessary and proportionate use of force are a matter for the operational commander who will deploy tactics appropriate to the specific circumstances.

Tasers are used by trained officers facing violence or threats of violence of such severity that they will need to use force to protect the public, themselves or the subjects."

2.20pm: CORRECTION: We mistakenly said earlier that an AP journalist had witnessed the Tasering incident.

It turns out the information did come from a journalist, but not one employed by AP. Sorry for the mistake.

2.16pm: Here's some Essex police footage of Supt Trevor Roe discussing the eviction operation — and the Taserings.

"Tasers were deployed on two occasions, almost simultaneously. This followed an incident where one subject obviously threatened serious violence towards a pair of officers. Their reaction was — with their personal protection equipment — to respond and they deployed Taser just around that specific incident."

2.03pm: Riggers1 poses a topical question on the thread below:

Are we seeing the creeping normalisation of the Taser for general crowd control?

1.59pm: A quick PA update on the police and their cherry picker:

After initial talks with protesters on top of the gate, the officers lowered themselves on to the platform and began removing bags and other equipment.

At least four protesters remain on top of the gate, where they have been sleeping, and must be removed before the structure can be dismantled.

Protesters chanted and tried to prevent officers climbing on to the platform. They appeared to tie a chain around the cherry picker lift, attaching it to the scaffold.

1.56pm: Police are using a cherry picker to talk to protesters on the gantry, reports Stephen Bates.

1.47pm: ACPO say they'll be in touch soon about Tasers and the circumstances in which officers can use them …

1.45pm: - Here's Johnny Howorth's video of today's eviction

1.39pm: An interesting blog on Tasers and police force from David Allen Green over at the New Statesman.

It is right that in a liberal and democratic society the State has a monopoly in the use of coercive force against citizens, but this monopoly has to be balanced with accountability and transparency.

Those who rush to rubbish anyone questioning the police, or are quickly dismissive of those complaining of the use of force, are in fact not helping serving officers. They are instead entrenching a needless lack of effective communication.

The abuse of libel and the over-use of PR professionals are similarly undesirable features of modern policing. Policing ultimately requires practical co-operation and implicit consent. Wise police officers know this.

1.36pm: This from PA:

[Dale Farm] resident Cornelius Sheridan, who is in his 50s and seriously ill, has been taken to hospital. Supporters said this was because the power supply to his defibrillator had been cut.

An ambulance service spokesman confirmed that one resident had been taken to hospital and another treated by paramedics. Four others refused treatment.

1.35pm: We called ACPO just before 11am to ask about the circumstances governing the use of Tasers and are still waiting to hear back. In the meantime, here's a video of one of today's Taserings
-

1.32pm: Stephen Bates has spoken to a freelance journalist who witnessed a man being Tasered by police this morning — and his account seems to differ from the official police line that officers were under direct threat.

The journalist told Steve that officers were on the offensive and were not under threat from the man when he was Tasered.

Although stones were being thrown at police, he added, they were being chucked from well behind where the man was.

He also says that police used the Taser on the man — who was a protester rather than an observer — as they shouted their first warning that they were armed with the weapons.

The journalist also reports that police officers dismissed official observers as they moved in, telling them: "We don't care who you are. Get out of the way!"

Protesters gather on scaffold tower as riot police prepare to evict the Dale Farm Travellers' camp Photograph: Carl Court/AFP/Getty Images

12.57pm: This is the tower in question: gateway to the camp, symbol of resistance to some — and headache for police.

12.52pm: My colleague Stephen Bates is at Dale Farm and sends this update:

More heavy lifting gear moving toward gantry. Cafe set up with free tea, coffee, bacon rolls for police, firemen and media — strategically upwind of gantry to tempt protesters down with food aromas?

12.51pm: One of the biggest issues of the day has been the police's use of Tasers on two people. Here are the full press conference quotes on the matter from Supt Trevor Roe of Essex police:

Serious violence was offered to a pair of officers in particular. Their response was to protect themselves. They carry personal protective equipment which includes the Taser and they just naturally reacted as they are trained individuals to operate that device.

Acknowledging that Tasers are not recommended as a "public order tactic", he added: "This was an isolated incident where officers were threatened directly."

And he insisted the officers involved were appropriately trained and understood their boundaries.

An inquiry will now be launched into issues of reasonable force during the operation which saw police pelted with bricks and some protesters urinating on officers.

12.31pm: Caroline Spelman, secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs, has told BBC2's the Daily Politics that the Dale Farm eviction is "ultimately about fairness".

She said:

You can't have one law for the travelling community and one law for the settled community. We operate in a democracy where we need to abide by the law. Everybody knows you can't just occupy a piece of greenbelt land, rip off the turf and build what you want on it. You have to have planning permission.

(via Politics Home)

12.26pm: Oh dear. Thom Goddard, councillor for Chingford Green ward in the London borough of Waltham Forest, has apologised for a tweet in which he wrote:

Can't help thinking that tower of scaffolding would make a good game of human Kerplunk

After a not inconsiderable amount of abuse and outrage, he has (hastily) deleted the offending tweet and apologised. Well, sort of:

Dear All, I am sorry my Tweet was mis-construed. Of course I do not want anyone hurt at #dalefarm and hope the situation ends peacefully.

I fear we may be hearing more about this matter …

12.20pm: LUNCHTIME SUMMARY

Here's a quick recap of the events of the last five hours at Dale Farm:

• Violent clashes broke out this morning as police from three forces moved into Dale Farm
• Three people have been arrested and two people have been shot with Tasers after allegedly offering "serious violence to a pair of officers"
• Six people treated by ambulance crew for minor injuries
• Police — who claim they were pelted with iron bars, stones, bottles of urine and concrete blocks — say they are now in control of the site and that tensions have subsided
• Protesters are seeking an emergency injunction to halt the eviction, accusing police of "brutality and illegal destruction of property"
• Council and local MP stand by decision to evict and the police's actions

12.06pm: Here's a bit of information from the ambulance service on the six people they have treated at Dale Farm: three were treated for smoke inhalation, one for minor back injuries, one for a nosebleed, and one for chest pains that proved not to be a heart attack.

11.58am: Here's a fuller version of Tony Balls comments at the press conference a few minutes ago:

When I became a councillor, it was never in my mind and never did I want to preside over an operation where we saw riot police on the streets of Basildon.

But I am absolutely clear that after 10 years of negotiation to try and find a peaceful solution to this that actually what we're doing is the right thing.

I think we have seen from the level of violence put up by the protesters this morning that it was absolutely right that the police led the operation.

He thanked the police and congratulated them on the professional way they had carried out the operation, adding:

I now call upon the Travellers to ask the protesters to stand down so that the bailiffs can carry on with their lawful work of clearing the site.

I am still hopeful, and actually determined, that when it comes to site clearance of the Travellers - and we know what we can do on certain sites - that this will be carried out in a safe and as dignified a manner as possible.

11.53am: Superintendent Trevor Roe of Essex police has been talking about the police operation this morning, saying that his officers had intelligence that "a lot of missiles, fluids and liquids" were being stored on site to be used against police and bailiffs.

"Based on that information, the tactic was to get safe entry into the site as soon as possible," he said.

Roe added that police were now in control of the site. "It's calm, the tension is now reduced and the bailiffs are within their operational parameters ."

Asked about the use of Tasers, he said that "serious violence was offered to a pair of officers" who had reacted according to their training. He described it as "an isolated incident where officers were threatened directly".

11.43am: This dispatch from Lexy:

I've been speaking to Nora Sheridan, whose son is 7 today.

She told me she was woken by an alarm and shouts at dawn when bailiffs entered the site.

"I will never get over it," she said. Bailiffs came through the back field and headed directly for the front gate.

"I didn't think it would be as bad as this. They promised a peaceful eviction but they have been very heavy handed."

Looking a little shell-shocked, she added: "Today is the final day. We are being evicted but I don't what we are going to do or where we are going to go. I never thought it would come to this."

11.40am: Tony Ball, leader of Basildon council, has defended the decision to clear Dale Farm but expressed regret at how things have turned out.

"No one will take any satisfaction from where we have ended up today," he said. "[I] never wanted to preside over an operation where we saw riot police on the streets of Basildon."

He added: "I am satisfied that after 10 years, the council has done all it can to seek peaceful resolution to this."

John Baron, the local MP, has praised police for "showing restraint in trying to maintain law and order" and accused protesters of initiating violence.

A resident moves a figure of the Virgin Mary from Dale Farm travellers camp Photograph: Oli Scarff/Getty Images

11.32am:
John Baron, the Tory MP for Basildon and Billericay, has popped up on PA to call for a calm and peaceful end to the eviction. The police, he adds, have acted "acted fairly and responsibly".

It's unfortunate that some protesters have resorted to violence. The police were right to take control of the site's clearance.

The protesters were there at the request of the travellers and I urge the travellers now to ask the protesters to leave peacefully and lead by example and leave themselves.

From what I have seen, the police have acted fairly and responsibly. Don't forget some protesters were throwing rocks, carrying iron bars and threatening violence.

The police have been restrained but at the end of the day, the police have got to defend themselves to ensure there is no violence.

11.25am: Police have made three arrests at Dale Farm, according to a spokesman. Two were on suspicion of violent disorder but information on the third is sketchy. Essex police have confirmed that officers from Surrey and the Met are also involved in the eviction operation, but they won't be drawn on numbers.

Two press conferences are due to get under way on site shortly. First, at 11.30, is Basildon council. Second, 15 minutes later, is Essex police.

11.04am: Lexy's been speaking to the Dale Farm Solidarity Campaign, who have given her this update:

Just to confirm, Dale Farm resident in hospital with spinal injuries from police baton. In a lot of pain and can't move legs.

Solicitors are seeking an emergency injunction. Climbing teams removing residents and supporters from front tower.

10.51am: Lexy Topping has just tweeted an update from Dale Farm, where there's little movement.

Police now talking to protesters on barricade. More bailiffs with crowbars and wirecutters approaching

10.43am: My colleague Polly Curtis has been crunching the numbers on her Reality check blog to find out how much the Dale Farm eviction is costing.

Here's her conclusion:

The council has a budget of £8m for the evictions, the police operation is thought to be around £10m with some suggestions that it could stretch to over £12.5m.

The total bill is put at £18m by the council and £20.13m by the Dale Farm Solidarity campaign group.

But these figures are extremely provisional and don't include the costs of the delays to the evictions after the court action last month.

10.38am: I've just been speaking to the Guardian's Johnny Howorth, who's witnessed scenes of "abject chaos" at Dale Farm this morning. The clashes of earlier have now given way to a stand-off, he says.

At present, there seems to be more or less a stalemate between protesters and bailiffs and the police who are figuring out what to do next

There's a real sense of despondency on behalf of the Travellers … They never thought it would come to this.

The Guardian"s Johnny Howorth at Dale Farm (mp3)

You can listen to the interview above.

An activist holds up a crucifix as a barricade burns during evictions this morning. Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images

10.27am: The bishop of Chelmsford, Stephen Cottrell, has called for a peaceful resolution to the eviction — but stressed that more needs to be done nationally to help Travellers.

As we witness the sad and difficult eviction of the travelling community from Dale Farm, let us pray that it happens peacefully and that no one is hurt or injured.

But let us also remember that this eviction does not solve the problem but moves it somewhere else.

These families are going to have to sleep somewhere tonight. What is needed is a national solution to provide travelling communities with stable, permanent and, if they wish, settled sites so that their culture and community can be maintained and flourish within the law.

9.54am: Police have begun removing protesters from the 40ft high scaffolding on the main gate, according to PA.

Several masked protesters have been taken away in handcuffs. About 25 protesters remain on the rampart and officers are removing them one by one.

9.38am: Back to Polly Curtis, who's been looking into the use of Tasers in the wake of this morning's deployment at Dale Farm.

In December last year, Christian Papaleontiou of the Home Office's policing directorate told the Commons home affairs select committee that Tasers should not be used "as a crowd control measure".

He told the committee:

We again support the ACPO guidance, which is very clear that Tasers should not be used in terms of a crowd control measure in public order scenarios.

9.29am: My colleague Polly Curtis has just been talking to Basildon council about the costs of the operation to clear Dale Farm.

A council press officer told her there was "no estimation" of how long it would to remove the residents from the land. He confirmed that they don't expect it to be fully clear by the end of today. He said:

Once it's clear, which will not obviously be today [because] it could be a long operation, we will take the road access out and return it to green belt land. Obviously people have got to come out before we start any digging but actually returning the land, clearing it, could take six weeks.

We've always said this won't be done in a day. It's got to be done safely. Protesters' actions have compromised that.

9.22am: Here the latest from Lexy, who's on site:

Carnage here at Dale Farm. After an early morning raid which saw around 150 riot police enter the site through a back field, there is now a stand off.

Riot police are gathered, helmets on, shields up, by the barricaded gates. Around 20 or so protesters are by the gates, the same number on the scaffolding.

There is a huge fire burning: the last barrier between Travellers and police now.

Protesters in boiler suits and face masks keep adding new fuel.

A small caravan which was emblazoned with the words 'lady with difficulty breathing' has just gone up in flames.

9.16am: Dale Farm supporters are now trying to get an emergency injunction to halt the eviction, accusing the police of "brutality and illegal destruction of property".

According to the Dale Farm Solidarity Campaign, the police are carrying out "a brutal, dangerous and unlawful eviction".

Mary Sheridan, a Dale Farm resident who has taken her children off site and is staying in a relative's lawful plot, said:

The only premeditated violence has come from the police — they knew exactly what they were doing when they started beating and Tasering people. This is not how a community should be treated by its own council. It's illegal for us to travel, but illegal for us to settle down here. We're getting hit by the police but we've got nowhere else to go.

Here are some of the instances of alleged police violence, as reported to the Dale Farm Solidarity Campaign (taken from their latest press release):

• Witnesses report the use of Tasers by police from the beginning of the eviction

• Police forced entry onto the site by using sledgehammers to break down a wall of a fully legal plot on the edge of the site. This is not only in violation of court order and constitutes criminal damage, but it is also highly dangerous. Vulnerable and elderly residents had stayed on that plot expecting to be safe as it is protected through court decisions, and were highly traumatised as police sledgehammered through the wall. At least two women residents sustained head injuries.

• Batons have been used on supporters and residents from the beginning of the eviction

• Severe injuries of residents and protesters have been witnessed by human rights observers and the press. One woman sustained such serious injuries from police that she had to be admitted to hospital.

• The plot of a resident who needs a breathing machine to survive has had it's electricity cut.

8.49am: Nora Egan, who we heard from earlier, is being treated by paramedics amid claims she suffered back injuries in a confrontation with police.

8.47am: My colleague Lexy Topping has just tweeted this:

Carnage here. Smell of burning. Protesters in boiler suits and balaclavas adding fuel to the fire

8.42am: Two protesters have been shot with Tasers and one person has been arrested, Essex police have said.

Officers have this morning entered the Dale Farm site following intelligence which informed the commanders that anyone entering the site was likely to come up against violence and a serious breach of the peace would occur.

Intelligence received indicated protesters had stockpiled various items with the intent of using these against bailiffs and police.

The first officers on the site were attacked with missiles being thrown, including rocks and liquids. These officers were fully equipped to deal with this situation.

8.36am: This is the police line that marched on Dale Farm about an hour and a half ago. Note the shields — and the ladder.

Police in riot gear advance across a field as evictions begin at Dale Farm Travellers camp. Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images

8.34am: A stand-off has developed at the farm according to one witness, with police and protesters eyeing each other as they decide on the next move:

When the police breached the perimeter fence at the back of the farm, they deployed Tasers several times and I think two protesters were injured.

At the moment, it's pretty much a stalemate. The police are standing around and don't seem to be on alert. We're waiting to see what moves they make.

There are people on the scaffolding, people on roofs, and residents and supporters out ion the streets trying to defend Dale Farm."

8.25am: The Guardian's Lexy Topping reports:

Police [have] broken barricade to enter the site. Police everywhere. Chopper overhead. Police at got through back of site and now attempting to demolish barricades."

8.22am: Tony Ball, the leader of Basildon council, has condemned what he calls the "utterly disgraceful scenes" of violence on site.

He said:

The pre-meditated and organised scenes of violence that we have already seen with protesters throwing rocks and bricks, threatening police with iron bars and setting fire to a caravan are shocking.

These are utterly disgraceful scenes and demonstrate the fact some so-called supporters were always intent on violence.

Nonetheless we are going to press on with this operation with our partners in a safe, dignified and humane way and will uphold the law."

8.18am: Here's a shot of police using Tasers earlier this morning. Still waiting to hear from Essex police on what equipment they're using at Dale Farm.

Police use Tasers as they break through a barricade during evictions from the Dale Farm travellers camp. Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images

8.16am: Just spoke to a member of the Dale Farm Solidarity Campaign, who's described the scene down there:

There's a stand-off at the gate where a lot of supporters are climbed up the scaffolding surrounded by riot police who have been using batons and shields and Tasers against protesters.

Further away, there's a small fire that was a bit bigger earlier. I think it was [lit] to try to keep the police back.

People here are incredibly frightened and feel that the barricade is all that stands between them and homelessness."

8.02am: Essex police, not surprisingly, have a dedicated Dale Farm press officer today. Have put call in to ask about use of Tasers. Awaiting call back.

7.58am: Supporters have set fire to a caravan placed across the street inside Dale Farm. They claim police have deployed Tasers, according to the Press Association.

7.57am: Here's a quick round-up of the #DaleFarm Tweeters on site now: @damongreenITV @fergalkeane47 @DominicHurst @essexalliehb @benjkendall @danielnobody.

7.53am: Lots of good tweet-reporting going on at the farm.

Fergal Keane has just tweeted this:

Large clouds of black smoke from inside camp. Prob barricade on fire. Protestor arrested+carried past us

7.48am: Quick correction: My colleague Shiv Malik is on other duties today, so won't be tweeting from Dale Farm as previously mentioned. Apologies.

7.41am: This from PA:

One resident, Nora Egan, said she was struck as she told police they were not entitled to break down fences, which are legal.

She said:

This is being led by the police, there is no sign of bailiffs.

Margaret Sheridan also claimed she was injured.

They're rough and there is no reasoning with them.

7.40am: Here's the latest dispatch from the aforementioned Dale Farm Solidarity Campaign:

Early this morning riot police and bailiffs stormed the Dale Farm community in a dawn raid. Police violated the court order and used sledgehammers to smash through the walls of a fully legal plot on the site in order to force entry. Human rights observers reported several injuries of residents and supporters from police action as they forced their way onto site. Police are using Tasers on those protesting the eviction.

Residents and supporters remain inside the site, many locked on to blockades and caravans together in order to resist the eviction. Police breached the perimeter to initiate the eviction.

Kathleen McCarthy, a Dale Farm resident, said:

The memory of Dale Farm will weigh heavily on Britain for generations- we are being dragged out of the only homes we have in this world. Our entire community is being ripped apart by Basildon Council and the politicians in government.

7.33am: Things seem to be kicking off very quickly on site, with several Dale Farm supporters reportedly detained after violent clashes.

PA says that electricity supplies have been cut, which, according to supporters, has meant that crucial medical equipment belonging to elderly residents has gone down.

Supporters quickly erected barricades inside the site as police held the line, securing the rear area.

They are chanting: "Fuck the police, no justice, no peace!"

7.26am: It looks very much as if the worst fears of Dale Farm residents are finally coming to pass. On Monday, their barrister told the high court:

There will be a number of families on the roadside if your lordship rules against us today.

Residents say that have nowhere else to go. In the most recent press release put out by their very professional media people, one resident said:

We are staying until we are forced from our land because we have nowhere else to go. Everyone we know is here on Dale Farm, all our families and friends. Who else is there to turn to … They are tearing apart our community, leaving us to bring up our kids on the roadside.

7.21am: According to PA, police in riot gear entered the site after breaking down a rear fence just after 7am, prompting angry confrontations.

The move came as police and bailiffs held discussions, described by supporters as a distraction, at the main gate.

Female residents ran to their homes and broke down in tears as the police line advanced.

7.20am: Our Dale Farm reporting team can be followed and contacted on Twitter. Follow:
@lexytopping @Johnny_Howorth @ShivMalik1 and @swajones.

7.09am: Breaking news: PA reports that supporters have clashed with bailiffs and riot police at the rear entrance of Dale Farm as the eviction gets under way.

7.09am: Residents of Dale Farm, the UK's largest Travellers' site, are preparing to resist an expected attempt to evict them today after they were refused permission on Monday to appeal against a high court ruling allowing Basildon council to clear the site.

Supporters have also been arriving at the site in Essex, where three people were said to be preparing to chain themselves to the gate by their necks, and two cars and a former Russian military vehicle have been moved into place as obstacles.

According to Tony Ball, the leader of Basildon council, "all preparations have been completed". Although he refused to confirm that the eviction would begin at first light today, he said the clearance was imminent and that no further negotiations would take place.

Dozens of bailiffs arrived at a council compound neighbouring the site for final preparations and two diggers and a crane were on standby.

Ball said:

The time for talking is over. We have given the Travellers every chance to leave peacefully and they have not taken it. Now our job is to clear the site in a safe and humane manner.

It is quite clear to me that the majority of the public want us to do that.
My biggest fear is that somebody - be it a bailiff, a police officer, a Traveller or a supporter - gets hurt.

I would call on those inside Dale Farm to behave sensibly and responsibly.

Supporters have reinforced the barricade inside the main gate and smaller barricades are in place throughout the site. Piles of wood and bricks have been gathered at various key points.

Dale Farm traveller site eviction starts with violence

Oct. 19, 2011 BBC

Jeremy Cooke watches as police move in on activists occupying a 'gantry'
Continue reading the main story

Bricks and debris were thrown at police as they moved in to prepare the
way for bailiffs clearing the illegal part of the UK's largest travellers'
site.

Essex Police said two people had been Tasered and one arrested.

Officers in riot gear entered the site after breaking down a rear fence
just after 07:00 BST, prompting angry scenes.

The travellers lost a last-ditch attempt to stave off the evictions at the
Court of Appeal on Monday.

They said police entered the rear of the site during discussions,
described by supporters as a distraction, at the main gate.

One caravan at the site has been set on fire.

Electricity supplies were cut and protesters wearing masks said this had
turned off crucial medical equipment belonging to elderly residents.

One resident said she had been hit by a baton.
'Heavily outnumbered'

The BBC's Jeremy Cooke, who is inside the camp, described it as a "very
dramatic situation".

He said the protesters were "heavily outnumbered by the police".
Advertisement

Aerial footage shows a large number of police moving in on activists at
the site

"They have met with a lot of resistance here. Stones have been thrown,
we've seen Tasers deployed," he said.

He added: "Police quickly moved through the site to the main gate once
they had gained entry as this was the most important point. Bailiffs and
heavy machinery have to come on to the site through this barricaded gate."

Police vehicles had lined local roads from the early hours of the morning
and an ambulance station had been set up in a compound nearby.

Officers have now begun removing protesters from the 40ft (12m) high
scaffolding on the main gate.

Several masked protesters have been taken away in handcuffs. About 25
protesters remain on the rampart and officers are removing them one by
one.

Resident Nora Egan said she was struck as she told police they were not
entitled to break down fences. She said: "This is being led by the police,
there is no sign of bailiffs."
Talks broke down

Resident Kathleen McCarthy said: "The memory of Dale Farm will weigh
heavily on Britain for generations - we are being dragged out of the only
homes we have in this world.

Julian Sturdy Inside the Dale Farm travellers' camp

The occupation of the Dale Farm by police began at first light when they
streamed through a rear perimeter fence in riot gear.

An alarm siren sounded inside the perimeter and protesters gathered at the
main gate rushed to the eastern side of the site where police were
streaming in.

They engaged in hand to hand fighting with the officers who had come
across the adjacent fields.

The operation was entirely police led and they were moving at jogging
pace, driving back the protesters in a running battle.

Well in excess of 100 officers pushed people aside as they made their way
through the site and I saw one traveller dragged and unceremoniously
dumped.

Within 15 minutes they had complete control but I did not see a single
bailiff with them.

Ranks of officers, including many from the Met force, lined up in front of
the main gate and its gantry which has now become the symbol of the fight.

They were pelted with bricks, bottles and other debris and used riot
shields above their heads as protection.

"Our entire community is being ripped apart by Basildon Council and the
politicians in government."

Essex Police said officers entered the site "following intelligence which
informed the commanders that anyone entering the site was likely to come
up against violence and a serious breach of the peace would occur".

In a statement, the force said: "Intelligence received indicated
protesters had stockpiled various items with the intent of using these
against bailiffs and police.

"First officers on the site were attacked with missiles being thrown
including rocks and liquids. These officers were fully equipped to deal
with this situation."

It added: "Consistent attempts have been made, both on Tuesday and this
morning, to negotiate with protesters to leave the site peacefully."

The eviction, which could cost up to £18m, marks the end of a 10-year
battle between travellers, who bought a former scrap yard on green belt
land in 2001 and established their caravans there, and the council.

More travellers joined them and some semi-permanent chalet dwellings were
built.
'Organised violence'

Over the past few days, travellers and their supporters have reinforced
the perimeter of the 49 illegal plots at the site.

Basildon Council leader Tony Ball condemned the violence between police
and protesters.
Riot police at Dale Farm Basildon Council leader Tony Ball said the
travellers had rejected 'alternative bricks and mortar accommodation'

He said: "The pre-meditated and organised scenes of violence that we have
already seen with protesters throwing rocks and bricks, threatening police
with iron bars and setting fire to a caravan are shocking.

"These are utterly disgraceful scenes and demonstrate the fact some
so-called supporters were always intent on violence.

"Nonetheless we are going to press on with this operation with our
partners in a safe, dignified and humane way and will uphold the law."

Mr Ball added: "I feel some sympathy for the women and children who have
been misled by their own community who said that if they settled on the
site they would be granted planning permission and this was never the
case."

He said that "alternative bricks and mortar accommodation" offered to the
travellers had been turned down."
'Minimum force'

Basildon Council's initial application to have them evicted began a series
of legal cases which saw the local authority and the travellers explore
every part of the justice system to settle the dispute.

As appeals were made by the travellers on humanitarian, medical and other
grounds it became apparent they would have to go.

Conservative MP for Basildon John Baron said: "Police are using the
minimum force required and when you are being pelted with bricks and rocks
you are entitled to defend yourself.

"This is a site clearance not a forced eviction and we hope it will become
peaceful but that is up to travellers and protesters."

Labour MEP Richard Howitt said: "The smoke above Dale Farm is the most
visible sign of the failure of Basildon Council to seek a mediated
solution."



UK police begin clearing illegal Traveler camp

By ROBERT BARR - Associated Press | Oct. 19, 2011

LONDON — British police in riot gear on Wednesday used sledgehammers to
clear the way for the eviction of a community of Irish Travelers from a
site where they have lived illegally for more than a decade.

A large force of police and bailiffs faced resistance from residents and
supporters who threw objects or struggled with officers at the Dale Farm
site, 30 miles (50 kilometers) east of London. One mobile home was set on
fire as police moved in and several protesters chained themselves to
barricades with bicycle locks in a bid to slow down the evictions.

Essex Police said two protesters were Tasered and one person arrested and
that police officers had been attacked with rocks and other missiles as
they tried to enter the site.

The conflict over the settlement has simmered since 2001, when Travelers
bought and settled on a former scrap yard next to a legal Travelers' site.

The local authority says it's a simple planning issue — the 86 families
lack permission to pitch homes on the land. The Travelers, a traditionally
nomadic group similar to, but ethnically distinct from, Gypsy or Roma
people, call it ethnic cleansing — the latest chapter in a centuries-old
story of mistrust between nomads and British society.

"We are being dragged out of the only homes we have in this world," said
Kathleen McCarthy, a Dale Farm resident. "We will do our best to stay but
it looks like we have no hope."

Lily Hayes, who identified herself as a human rights observer, accused the
police of using unnecessary force. Authorities said the violence was
coming from the Travelers and their supporters.

"The premeditated and organized scenes of violence that we have already
seen with protesters throwing rocks and bricks, threatening police with
iron bars and setting fire to a caravan are shocking," said Tony Ball,
leader of Basildon Council, the local authority.

"These are utterly disgraceful scenes and demonstrate the fact some
so-called supporters were always intent on violence," Ball said.

There are estimated to be between 15,000 and 30,000 Irish Travelers in
Britain, where they are recognized as a distinct ethnic minority by the
government.

The legal battle over Dale Farm dragged on for years, through eviction
orders and last-minute reprieves, until the Travelers lost a final appeal
last week.

Traveler evictions are common across Britain, but few are as high-profile
as Dale Farm. Oscar-winning actress and political activist Vanessa
Redgrave came to the community's support, and the U.N. Committee on the
Elimination of Racial Discrimination urged authorities to find "a peaceful
and appropriate solution" to the crisis.