Background - weekend of 6.6.99, the hacienda nightclub, shut down and sold to luxury flat developers is squatted by the EF! ok cafe collective who get together a whopping great techno party as a benefit to support 11 people arrested at a manchester reclaim the streets a few weeks earlier. soon after the start time the same riot cops from the rts try to storm the building but fail to get in. in a strop they sealed off the area closing down two major roads all through the night while the party continues inside. they make sporadic arrests as they harrass and assault the ones who never made it in on time. at 8.00am the following morning the party, crew and equipment come out en masse to glorious sunshine, cheering crowds and bleary eyed journalists who bill it as a riot anyway. the arrest count is around 15.
Court update - most people were charged under sec 5 of the public order act, the catch all 'keep quiet or you're nicked, right that's it in the van now' law (abusive or threatening language or behaviour likely to cause distress or alarm). some with no experience of police or the courts plead guilty early on and were fined. the others took it to trial. at court recently on 6th march nine defendents were offered bind overs on the first day,(a sign of a weak prosecution case) six accepted. three contested. during the following two days even the magistrate laughed at the difference between the scenes decribed in police notebooks (riot, violence and threatening crowds) and that seen on the defence supplied video ( luvd up clubbers chatting to cops, and cops smashing people to the ground and beating them with truncheons). the magistrate gave them bind overs and fines anyway. the defendants plan to sue the cops. and jack straw plans to extend this use of magistrate non-jury trial. also, had there been no d.i.y. video evidence showing the good nature of the crowd, the brutality of the police and the blatant discrepancies in their statements there is no doubt that this magistrate would have believed the cops and most of the defendants would have got custodial sentences.
a final defendent is awaiting sentence. kennet simon's case was
separated from the others. outside the hacienda as the cops tried
to stop people getting into the building, he watched a friend get
arrested. he asked for the numbers of the arresting cops, the
charge and the police station. he was thrown to the ground, cuffed,
beaten and taken away. his charges, 2x assaulting a police officer,
sec 5 public order act and obstruction. despite a lack of evidence
and a strong defence the magistrate found simon guilty on all
charges leaving the packed court room shocked and the barrister
saying that he felt 'sick to the depths of his stomach'. sentencing
will be on 22 march and simon has lodged an appeal against
conviction until which hopes to remain on bail.
And the ones from the rts trial? they have a three week crown court
date beginning on June 19th.
DGN
