In response to a prolonged campaign of police harassment and intimidation of peaceful protesters in the city centre, members from a wide range of active campaigning groups in Merseyside have come together to form Liverpool Freedom of Expression and organise regular “mass stall” events. By all running stalls together, the groups offer each other solidarity and form a united front against the tactics of bullying and intimidation that have so often been employed against them.
[...]
The first arrest came when an activist at the Anarchist Federation stall refused to give his name and address, the second when one of the stall-holders shouting “shame!” and “let him go!” at the arresting officers happened to touch the police van door with her hand (thus leaving an unsightly clean patch), and was promptly dragged inside for criminal damage.
As the remaining stalls were picked clean, activists, supporters and the public gathered around the police van holding the arrested activists, chanting “Let them go!” and “Police State!”. When the engine started, three women sat down in front of the van and others moved behind. The chants continued, and pallid police officers started murmuring anxiously into their walky-talkies. As activists with loud-hailers informed the passing public of what was happening, passers-by joined the chants and the crowd grew.
[...]
Though the police succeeded in arresting the two activists, the levels of unnecessary force (not to mention the pointless and suppressive nature of the entire operation), were extremely visible to the public. Today, a packed square of city centre shoppers saw first-hand the brutal repression of freedom of speech that has become endemic in this city, and they made a stand against it. The spontaneous, joint action of people who know a wrong when they see it turned what the police clearly thought would be a simple and quiet operation into a near riot. They have embarrassed themselves; they have shown themselves to lack judgement, intelligence, capability and a sense of common decency, and they have lost yet more of the public’s faith in a corrupt system that takes our money to pay for the thugs who limit our freedoms. This is a victory for those who try to educate and disseminate information on the injustices of our society, above and beyond anything our stalls would have achieved alone. Today, the police demonstrated our point for us.
