Open Letter to the Argus and Sussex Police re 16th September Mass March

Dear Editor,

We (SMASH EDO) are holding a rally and march starting at noon on the Level on16th September to demand that Brighton&Hove Council pass a resolution condemning the arms trade and explicitly EDO MBM, who manufacture weapons components used by the UK, US and Israeli militaries. We believe that as a UN Peace Messenger City, Brighton should be taking a stand against those who profit from bloodshed. The 16th is the Saturday before UN International Peace Messenger day. We intend to march from the Level to the Town Hall via North Rd , Queens Rd and Ship St.

We intend to have an entirely peaceful demonstration to pass off with the maximum of exposure and minimum of inconvenience. However we have once again been threatened with attempts to ban the demonstration by Brighton Police. Previous demos have been attended by hundreds of officers. Are we about to face the same kind of massive over-policing suffered by the marches against the attacks on Lebanon ? We have received the following e-mail from a Chief Inspector Lawrence Hobbs
Police Notice
Sussex Police have learnt that an anti war protest may take place in Brighton on Saturday 16th September 2006. It is a requirement of Section 11 of the Public Order Act 1986 that organisers of assemblies or processions should give notice to Police. No such notification has been received.
The purpose of such notification is to allow sufficient time for Police to plan such events safely and if such notification is not received Sussex Police will conduct investigations and if necessary seek to prosecute organisers. If such notice is not received Sussex Police may on the day need to invoke Sections 12 and 14 of the Public Order Act which prescribes routes and assembly areas.
I would therefore urge the event organiser to make contact with us so that the event can be planned with safety in mind which may negate the need for us to invoke powers available to us.

Lawrence Hobbs
Chief Inspector

Put simply we are not negotiating with the police because we cannot trust them – We were the victims of an attempt to stifle our rights with an injunction suggested to EDO MBM by Sussex Police. Over thirty arrests have been made to do with our campaign, with two men spending time on remand in Lewes prison, only to have the cases collapse in court. We are particularly concerned that the threat to prosecute organisers is a deliberate attack on our rights to free speech and free assembly. We trust that this open statement of our intentions will be sufficient. We will be exercising our democratic rights and marching in any case and ask all those in favour of civil rights and against the arms trade to join us.

Andrew Beckett
www.smashedo.org.uk

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