Heavy-handed policing as "proportionate response" in bolstering unavailable for comment landlord's rights indicates the state we are in

Heavy-handed policing as "proportionate response" in bolstering unavailable for comment landlord's rights indicates the state we are in

Arrest attempt turned demonstrator's skin blue as vulnerable tenant was evicted

By Swheatie of the KUWG

There is this report from Camden New Journal website:

14 arrests as protesters link arms around property ruled 'too small to live in'

Photo caption: The scene this afternoon on Lymington Road in West Hampstead

Published: 10 April, 2014

FOURTEEN people were arrested at an eviction protest in West Hampstead today, writes Jacob Mignano.
An estimated 40 police officers broke up the demonstration in Lymington Road after a stand-off began at around 3pm.
Members of Camden Housing Action and the Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group (KUWG) had linked arms around the property.
The campaigners said a tenant had been ordered to leave private rented accommodation after a council inspector had ruled that the room he was renting was too small to live in.
Pamela Aukle, 45, from the KUWG, who was arrested during the protests, said the man – known as Mark – had “no money” and the “council have nothing for him”.
“Anything they offer is outside of Camden,” she added.
Police said that two of the 14 arrested were later de-arrested. They described the high-level presence as a “proportionate response”.
The landlord was not available for comment.

The report mentions nothing of the injury caused to John Tymon of Kilburn who was the first that the police tried to arrest, apparently for being the most vocal. Eye-witnesses reported that the police bundled JT to the ground so hap-hazardly that he appeared to have been rendered unconscious to the point of his skin turning blue and an ambulance being called.

As stated in the article though, supporters of the evicted man were very concerned for his mental health, a fact that the police seem to have completely ignored while they describe the high-level presence as a "proportionate response." What will they get up to with the new paramilitary hardware that a researcher has told me they have bought?

There is space on that Camden New Journal page for people to put comments.

History made by those who were arrested into not attending our meeting, but the meeting still went on of a sort

Meanwhile, I note that the eviction that had been timed for earlier this morning prevented some of our most frequent Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group members attending the regular business meeting that started at the same time that the police got really heavy-handed. Yet the meeting went on 20 people in attendance including a member of the BAMER [Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic or Refugee] community who had been sanctioned off Jobseekers Allowance for three months even after having done unpaid work for exploitative 'charities' British Heart Foundation and YMCA, left malnourished and obstructed in stating his claim for Employment & Support Allowance as a man not fit for work. "They say that they are waiting for proof of my immigration status, even after I have been receiving Jobseekers Allowance up till the point where I was sanctioned," he said. "It has made me feel that I no longer want to live. It is worse than slavery."

He left our meeting a little more hopeful, negotiating how he could get some support in approaching Brent Council toward his making a NIL INCOME claim for Housing Benefit. The motto of Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group is: "Never attend anywhere official alone."

STOP PRESS FROM KUWG'S FRIENDLY BLOGGER KATE BELGRAVE:

Hi all people are saying to get to Holborn police station at 8pm as they
are there. I'll just pass on what I see come past as I'm not sure what's
going on.

FURTHER STOP PRESS FROM KATE BELGRAVE:
 http://www.katebelgrave.com/2014/04/video-and-pictures-from-police-breakup-of-anti-eviction-protest-in-camden-today/