Journalist arrest after Kent refugee camp protest shows how the Tories put down dissent
Napier barracks: I believe this is one of the images that led to the police arresting Andy Aitchison. But if he was behind a camera, how could he have been carrying out criminal damage?
Whoever would have predicted that the United Kingdom would descend to this?
The Conservative government, under xenophobic Home Secretary Priti Patel, has opened a series of concentration camps where they have dumped hundreds of asylum-seekers.
I wrote about them in December last year.
The camps have inadequate and poorly cooked food, no privacy, and inadequate shower and toilet facilities.
Camp residents are unable to socially distance, or to take proper precautions to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
They have to sleep in dormitories of up to 28 people – which is probably why more than 100 people at the Napier Barracks camp in Kent have contracted the virus in the last two weeks.
The Home Office reaction was to blame people living in the camp, saying residents (inmates would be a better word) refused to self-isolate or follow social distancing rules that they could not have followed because of the conditions forced on them by the Home Office.
Conditions there led to activists protesting outside the site on Thursday morning, where they allegedly threw buckets of food colouring, water and shampoo or conditioner – fake blood – at the gate and on the ground in front of the gate.
Demonstrators had signs reading: “Close Napier now” and “Priti Patel: there will be blood on your hands”.
Freelance photographer Andy Aitchison attended and took photographs, some of which appeared in local press reports of the protest.
Around six hours after the protest, matters took a sinister turn when police arrived at Mr Aitchison’s house and arrested him for criminal damage.
Really? Criminal damage? He took some photos of a demonstration that was embarrassing to the Conservative government and to Priti Patel and this arrest looks like suspicious use of the police for political purposes.
On Friday afternoon (January 29), a fire broke out in the camp – cause unknown. Fortunately Mr Aitchison can’t be blamed – one of his bail conditions is not to go to the camp.
Patel herself had the cheek to publish a statement accusing people at the barracks of vandalising property, threatening staff and putting lives at risk.
She actually told us that this behaviour was “deeply offensive to the taxpayers of this country”:
Napier Barracks has been deliberately run down for decades. Surrounded by housing development as the land was sold by the MofD. It is nothing but a slum that could make even the Gorbals from the 60's appear luxury in comparison. https://t.co/PmtGaTU0b4
— Carole Hawkins (@hawkins_carole) January 29, 2021
No, Priti Patel. You are deeply offensive to the taxpayers of this country. You have made us complicit in providing facilities of such poor quality that they actually endanger the lives of the people you force to live there.
This Writer thinks there should be an investigation into what is happening at Napier Barracks and any connection between that and Patel.
I think the use of the police to intimidate a photojournalist for doing his job must also be probed.
Sadly, I know the UK’s institutions are as corrupt as they come. No such investigations will happen and if there has been corrupt behaviour, those responsible will be protected. Over the last 40 years, it’s what we’ve all been voting for.
Have YOU donated to my crowdfunding appeal, raising funds to fight false libel claims by TV celebrities who should know better? These court cases cost a lot of money so every penny will help ensure that wealth doesn’t beat justice.
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Arresting journalists is becoming more and more common. It’s always a political story and charges are held over them in order to create the desired ‘chilling effect’ The obvious example is Assange but then there’s also ex diplomat Craig Murray (and others) for their reporting on the Salmond Trial – Murray reported the facts of the trial and has been charged with Contempt for it. Apparently this is the first case of its type in Scotland (none in England either) The fact that he made some people look very bad by simply reporting the facts (when no other outlet did) is obviously the reason.
NB Murray was the only journalist reporting daily from the Assange Hearing. He made his reports free to reproduce and yet the facts didn’t get very far at all. The BBC, for example, had a guaranteed seat (Murray did not) and failed to report 99% of the trial..