How could police raid G7 activist’s home without warrant or reason?
Police: it seems they are expanding their powers unilaterally, so they can harass you even before you have given them any reason to.
It seems Boris Johnson’s fascist government has decided to accelerate its attack on your right to protest by putting planned restrictions on your freedom into action before legislation has passed through Parliament.
How else are we to understand the raid at G7 activist Rob Higgs’s Cornwall home, workplace and the business where he keeps his boat, last Thursday (May 13)?
Rob, who is a theatre maker and co-founder of climate action group Ocean Rebellion, said of the raids: “They searched the premises without any warrants, interviewing all my neighbours and tenants, asking about me, what I do and telling people at the boatyard that I am a ‘person of interest’.
He told CornwallLive: “The police’s quote was, ‘We’re just letting you know that we will not in any way stop peaceful protest but we can arrest you at any time that we believe you might be considering disrupting the G7 Summit’, which wouldn’t be legal as normally you’ve got to break a law to be arrested, unless what they’re hinting at is conspiracy charges.
He added: “It’s because I’m a co-founder of Ocean Rebellion, which is an entirely peaceful, legal organisation trying to raise awareness of the oceans.
“We basically make photo shoots and small pop-up theatrical performances that gets good media and global coverage about ocean degradation and how the seas are dying. We’re trying to raise awareness of that and push legislation from the UN to reverse the ocean degradation.
“For the last few months the G7 police have been asking what our plans are and made contact early on saying they’d like to facilitate a peaceful protest. We said ‘thanks but generally you stop it whenever we tell you what we’re doing.’
“We’ve got a dedicated police liaison officer already who has been in discussion with them for months now trying to get them to tell us what we can and can’t do and where we can and can’t go, and we will design all our actions around that to stay within the legal frameworks. I don’t want to break any laws.
“They have refused to let us know, specifically on the water, where the exclusion zones are. They come back to our police liaison officer asking what we’re planning and we tell them we can’t say until they tell us where we can do it!”
Mr Higgs is filing an official complaint to the police and had also taken it up with the Cabinet Office.
What a bizarre situation – it seems the police are being deliberately obstructive of these campaigners’ attempt to mount legal protest, in order to have a reason to arrest them!
I think it would be hard to make a conspiracy charge stick when this group has a police liaison officer who has been trying to plan legal activities but has been foiled by the police’s refusal to co-operate in any way.
But it seems clear in any event that the police are being used as political tools – sent to harass this organisation in order to frustrate its efforts.
And what is the terrible, terrorist act that Ocean Rebellion wants to do?
It wants to raise awareness of the fatal effects of climate change and pollution on sea life – effects that will eventually impact on human beings like you and me in possibly catastrophic ways.
Bang goes Boris Johnson’s attempt to claim environmental credibility.
I can’t wait to hear him try to justify it but I bet he won’t even acknowledge that it has happened.
Source: G7 summit activist in Cornwall files complaint after police ‘raid’ his home and work – Cornwall Live
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These G7/G20 etc meetings create chaos where ever they are staged. I remember my brother telling me about one in Ontario. Caused havoc. Heavy police etc. What a world.
Untill that day hay they came for the man on the other side of the estate then they came for the disabled woman then they came for me but they attacked the disabled they attacked the mentally ill they even attacking the unemployed and even those working now they attacking those who show them up but where are the peasants it’s not real they say you talking rubbish oh dear didn’t another one all those years ago attack those who went against. Rolling on is aktion t4 but hay ho it’s not happening