‘Ratcliffe 114’ Protestors at Court — Callout for support — updated

The Rat­cliffe pro­tes­tors being per­se­cut­ed for ‘con­spir­a­cy’ are at court next week — show some sup­port!

There are 3 groups appear­ing in Not­ting­ham Mags on the 12th 13th and 14th — they need our sup­port to show we will not be intim­i­dat­ed.

Sol­i­dar­i­ty — No con­spir­a­cy!

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Rat­cliffe 114 — one more charged, now 25

The Guardian men­tions the M1 case:

“Some­times these cas­es – such as the con­spir­a­cy to com­mit pub­lic nui­sance charge brought against mem­bers of the “No M1 Widen­ing” cam­paign in 2007 – are just thrown out by the judges. But some­times, as in the con­spir­a­cy cas­es against ani­mal rights activists and anti-arms man­u­fac­tur­ing cam­paigns, they are treat­ed extreme­ly seri­ous­ly. The impact on the lives of the accused is enor­mous, because under the terms of a con­spir­a­cy charge, you can be for­bid­den to talk to any­one involved, which can involve house­mates, fam­i­ly, friends. Your pos­ses­sions can be seized (Julie White of the M1 cam­paign had her door bro­ken down by police, her com­put­er seized and held for a year, and even items tak­en off her wash­ing line) and held on remand for the dura­tion of the tri­al.”

…

“if the court allows the case and con­vic­tions fol­low, it has cat­a­stroph­ic impli­ca­tions. Any activist involved with plan­ning any kind of ille­gal direct action could be charged with con­spir­a­cy to com­mit aggra­vat­ed tres­pass.

As White says: “You could pick up any­one you want­ed. We’re get­ting into thought crimes now.” Is that what the police are after?”