It's That Time of Year Again.

Yesterday (27/4/11) London's Metropolitan Police (the Met) raided three properties in Brighton & Hove - a full two counties outside their jurisdiction. The purpose of the raids was to execute arrest warrants relating to offences committed during 2010's student protests. However as only one of the seven arrests related to the warrant the true purpose of the raids seems to have been to evict two squats without due process that would have included forcing the person attempting to take possession to prove that they were the rightful owner of the property.

The seven who were arrested were all transported to London where they weren't even questioned before being released on police bail - effectively dumping them in the middle of a strange city in just their pyjamas. Therefore the whole operation stinks of being a harassment mission designed to disrupt protest networks ahead of April 30th's "Brighton MayDay" protests. It also has the effect of the police busing potential troublemakers into London ahead of the Royal Wedding.

Also yesterday the Met announced that of the 277 people arrested during the student protests they have charged just 16. The majority of the rest remain of police bail some four months after the event. One of those charged is Alfie Meadows who received widespread media attention after being so badly beaten by the police on the December 9th protest that he needed emergency brain surgery to save his life. Obviously I will need to look in detail at the alleged offence and the evidence the police have to support it but at first sight the decision to charge Mr Meadows seems to be driven by the notion of "If you cause trouble for the police then the police will cause trouble for you!"

In Bristol, at around 20:30, a protest has been called in Stokes Croft tonight (28/4/11) to mark the one week anniversary of the last week's Stokes Croft riot. Last night (27/4/11) someone tried showing a amateur film about that riot in a private residence in the Mina Park area of the town. The police responded by sending two dozen officers to try and shut the event down using anti-rave legislation. Although completely illegal the police's efforts seem to have been successful even if they did lead to a non-violent stand-off between the police and local residents. I should explain that Bristol likes to think of itself as the trendy and creative home to artists like, Roni Size, Massive Attack and Banksy. In reality the town hasn't had a hit in more then a decade. Since then it's fashionable and dare we say bourgeois lifestyle has been paid for by the government through Quango's, research grants, enterprise zones and other forms of subsidy. With government spending cuts most of this funding has now gone meaning that Bristol is feeling a lot of pain. Officially tonight's protests has been called off but if enough people turn up anyway it could create a tense start to the Royal Wedding as Bristol tries it's hand at four day eventing.