Demonstration in support of Gary McKinnon, at the Home Office, Tuesday 2nd September 4pm

There will be a peaceful demonstration in support of Gary McKinnon, at the Home Office in Marsham Street, London, this coming Tuesday 2nd September 2008, at 4pm.

Time:
4pm, Tuesday 2nd September 2008

Location:
Home Office main entrance, Peel Building (between the defensive / ornamental moats ponds) , Marsham Street, Westminster, London - see this location map

Nearest Tube stations:
Westminster or St. James Park - see the Transport for London website for journey planning details.

Buses:
London Bus Route 88 Clapham Common - Vauxhall - Westminster - Oxford Circus - Camden Town, stops directly outside the Home Office main entrance in Marsham Street, supposedly every 7 or 8 minutes.

Contact details:
email us here at info@Freegary.org.uk. If you are IT security conscious, and technically capable, then you can make use of our PGP Public encryption key.

We will pass on your messages to the demonstration organisers, or try to answer your queries ourselves.

Home_Office_4_300.jpg


Serious Organised Crime Act 2005 section 132 - 138 Designated Area

Many people in the UK and the rest of the world might be surprised at the extent of the restrictions on the fundamental human rights of free speech, freedom of assembly and freedom to protest politically, which have been imposed in an excessively large Designated Area around the Houses of Parliament in central London.

The Home Office in Marsham Street is, sneakily, just within this Designated Area around Parliament Square, covered by sections 132 to 138 of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005.

This controversial legislation, may well be repealed, sometime next year, but it is still the law right now:

Even if a protest or demonstration consists of just one person, you are meant to notify the Metropolitan Police either 6 days or 24 hours beforehand (stupid and contradictory, but that is the law).

Many people have been arrested and convicted for holding peaceful demonstrations without such Notification.

The Metropolitan Police have a somewhat misleading web page, with a so called Form 3175a to download, available as either an Adobe .pdf or as a Microsoft Word .doc file.

What they imply is that you have to use this standard form (based on one used also for major events involving thousands of people), which demands far more information than the law requires, and which will be retained for at least 7 years, and that you should hand it in to the Charing Cross Police station.

However, the SOCPA law only requires that you Notify the
Metropolitan Police in writing (email or fax is not allowed for the official Notification, but can be used for subsequent correspondence) either by using registered postal mail, or by handing in your Notification at any Police Station within the Metropolitan Police area.

"133 Notice of demonstrations in designated area

(1) A person seeking authorisation for a demonstration in the
designated area must give written notice to that effect to the
Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis (referred to in this
section and section 134 as "the Commissioner").

(2) The notice must be given--

(a) if reasonably practicable, not less than 6 clear days before
the day on which the demonstration is to start, or

(b) if that is not reasonably practicable, then as soon as it is,
and in any event not less than 24 hours before the time the
demonstration is to start.

(3) The notice must be given--

(a) if the demonstration is to be carried on by more than one
person, by any of the persons organising it,

(b) if it is to be carried on by a person by himself, by that
person.

(4) The notice must state--

(a) the date and time when the demonstration is to start,

(b) the place where it is to be carried on,

(c) how long it is to last,

(d) whether it is to be carried on by a person by himself or not,

(e) the name and address of the person giving the notice.

(5) A notice under this section must be given by--

(a) delivering it to a police station in the metropolitan police
district, or

(b) sending it by post by recorded delivery to such a police
station.

(6) Section 7 of the Interpretation Act 1978 (c. 30) (under which
service of a document is deemed to have been effected at the time
it would be delivered in the ordinary course of post) does not
apply to a notice under this section. "

Only one Notification is needed to cover the whole demonstration, but the Police also try to force you to put in a separate Notification for each time and date of every demonstration you
hold.

Even if you do this, they will probably still try to get you to fill in their standard form.

Technically this law applies not just to the streets and pavements within the Designated Area, but also to any public access area.

This includes the sunken courtyard between the moats / ponds in front of the main Home Office building entrance (Peel building).

The advantage of protesting there is that Home Office and Ministry of Justice officials will have to pass by , but you will not be "obstructing the pavement or highway", for which the Police (or ill trained Police Community Support Officers PCSOs) may try to harass
you, or detain or arrest you.

Photography

Amateur and even professional press photographers are all too frequently illegally harassed by jobsworth public officials and security guards, partly as a result of the Home Office's "climate of fear" anti-terrorism propaganda.

There are no laws which prevent you taking photos at the demonstration (ideally, if it is to have any effect, the mainstream media should be present), and the Home Office is not anything special as a building,

The Home Office is not a Protected Site (formerly called Designated Sites) as per SOCPA section 128 which makes simply crossing the boundary of the site (provided that it is signposted) into an offence of criminal trespass i.e. like the nearby Houses of Parliament, Portcullis House (MPs offices) , Downing Street and the
Cabinet Office, Ministry of Defence and the MI5 Security Service building.

The Home Office buildings in Marsham Street are not even owned by the Government any more, they are leased back from Ann Gate Property plc, under a Private Finance Initiative scheme.

No PCSO or private security guard has any power to seize your camera or mobile camera phone.

Even if you are arrested, the Police constables (not PCSOs or private security guards who have no powers of arrest) have no power to delete digital photos etc. even if they have seized your camera or mobile phone, since that would be tampering with evidence.

Conversely, there are no laws to prevent the Police or security guards from taking photos or video of you, either.

See: Home Secretary Jacqui Smith: "no legal restriction on photography in public places", but supports legal harassment of photographers

Terrorism Stop and Search harassment

All of London within the M25 orbital motorway appears to be an area where Police constables in uniform (and Police Community Support Officers in uniform, but only under the direct supervision of a Police Constable, not on their own), can conduct Terrorism Act 2000 section 44 stops and searches, without reasonable suspicion.

They can stop you and search you, supposedly for weapons or explosives or anything that might be used for terrorism (i.e. just about anything). Despite tens of thousands of such stops and searches, they have never caught a real terrorist as a result. Unless it is a proper armed police checkpoint, then what exactly an unarmed PCSO is expected to do if they do find any weapons or explosives, except panic, is unclear.

If you are stopped and searched under normal Police powers, where there is some "reasonable suspicion", then you do have to give your name and address. If you refuse to do so on the street, then you will be dragged back to a Police station for fingerprint etc. checks on your identity

If you are stopped ad searched under Terrorism Act section 44, without reasonable
suspicion, then you do not have to give your name and address.

You have to be given a Stop and Search form, stating where, when, and by whom you have been stopped, and under what law. However, if you do not demand one, then you will not necessarily be given such a form.

What the Police and PCSOs often try to do, during such searches, is to copy, or at least rifle through, any wallet or notebook or mobile phone address books which you might have on your person , so do not bring private stuff with you on such a demonstration.

What to bring on a demonstration

  • Several friends and supporters.

  • Press and Broadcast journalists and reporters.

  • Posters, banners, leaflets, petitions etc. - N.B the Metropolitan Police can arbitrarily impose restrictions on these beforehand, and they can then arbitrarily change those restrictions at any time during a demonstration within the SOCPA Designated Area

  • If you smoke, something to collect and extinguish your cigarette butts - Westminster Council bylaws and Government Anti-social behaviour laws and policies, could allow various public officials to slap you with a £60 Fixed Penalty Notice for littering if you throw you cigarette butt onto the ground.

  • Something (non-alcoholic) to drink and eat etc.

  • An umbrella (summer is over).

  • Cameras and video recorders

  • Spare batteries and USB memory devices for digital cameras and mobile phone cameras.

  • Contact details of firms of legal solicitors who deal with human rights issues and arrests at demonstrations e.g. Bindmans - telephone: 020 7833 4433 or Kaim Todner - telephone: 020 7353 6660 (Gary McKinnon's solicitors)

What NOT to bring to a demonstration

  • Alcohol - even Police Community Support Officers now have powers to confiscate alcohol within a Dispersal Zone. All of the London boroughs of Westminster and Camden are now such Dispersal Zones.

    Being seen to be drinking alcohol on Transport for London Tubes or Buses is also now banned.

  • Illegal drugs - obviously.

  • Personal address and contact books or Mobile Phones or Personal Digital Assistants containing contact names, addresses, email, phone etc. details - jobsworth PCSOs and Police constables often attempt to rifle through these, during "stops and searches", even though they often have no proper legal power to do so.


    If you must bring your normal mobile phone with you, then you should set a security PIN code, for both for the power on and keyboard locks, which might prevent arbitrary snooping, but which will not, of course, prevent forensic examination of the phone if you are arrested.

  • Loudhailers - these are banned in the SOCPA Designated Area under SOCPA section 137 - see above.