Five arrested in UK ahead of G20 London protests

[KurtFF8]

Source (http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090330/wl_nm/us_britain_security_arrests_2)


Mon Mar 30, 12:20 pm ET
LONDON (Reuters) – Five people suspected of planning to join protests against the G20 summit in London on Thursday have been arrested after weapons were found during a raid on a house in southwest England, police said Monday.
The five, three men aged 16, 19 and 25 and two women aged 20, were arrested in the city of Plymouth between Friday and Sunday and are being held under counter-terrorism powers.
Police said their inquiries indicated there was "no religious agenda" to the investigation. Four of the suspects are British and one is thought to be an international student.
Thousands of officers are taking part in a huge security operation this week when world leaders arrive for the G20 summit on the financial crisis to be held on April 2.
Anarchists have threatened to bring chaos to the streets of the British capital. A police source told Reuters the five suspects were believed to be planning to take part in the protests.
"These arrests would appear to be isolated at this time," said assistant chief constable Sharon Taylor of Devon and Cornwall police.
"Those arrested people will remain in custody while further enquiries take place."
The investigation was launched after officers arrested a 25-year-old man in Plymouth Friday for spray-painting graffiti on a wall.
A search of his home led to the arrest of three others for drugs offences. Detectives later found a number of imitation firearms, improvised explosives made of fireworks and material "relating to political ideology."
The fifth man was arrested Sunday and all five were then detained under the Terrorism Act.
(Reporting by Michael Holden; Editing by Kate Kelland; Editing by Robert Woodward)


It will be interesting to see how this develops.

[Voice_of_Reason]

It will be interesting to see how this develops.

Makes me wish I lived in London.

[redarmyfaction38]

Source (http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090330/wl_nm/us_britain_security_arrests_2)




It will be interesting to see how this develops.

i'm not the only "international terrorist" in the "westcountry" then.
so much for the "intelligence services" then, they missed me!
really, how the fcuk could they?
bet all the suspects are fcuking innocent.

now where did i leave my plastic explosives?

[bcbm]

A friend and I were talking about the G20 protests and we suspected they would bear a closer resemblance to the RNC protests here than, say, Rostock. If they're already preemptively arresting people and detaining them as terrorists, I'd say we hit much closer to the mark in our guess than I would like. This all seems too familiar.

[Black Dagger]

The same laws in the wake of G20 in melbourne in 06, and before and after the APEC summit in sydney.

Just an FYI - this article doesn't mention it - but the house search that prompted these arrests took place after a person was arrested for graffiti - wow, serious business guys:



The arrests occurred after a raid by police on the home of a man who was accused of graffiti. He was accused of spraying the word 'Antifa', which stands for anti-fascist and is the name of an anti-racist group which fights far-Right groups.


Horrdenous! I agree people who publically express anti-fascism should be locked up! I mean, could you think of anything worse to write on a wall?

I also love the quotes from the pigs on this one too (again from a different article):


At a press conference, Assistant Chief Constable Paul Netherton said the man was arrested for spraying graffiti on a wall. A further search uncovered the other materials. "Quite obviously, people are going to make a connection to the G20 and we are looking into that as part of our investigation.

"Use of the Terrorism Act is a serious step and not taken lightly, but the items we found justified its use. We found a range of imitation firearms, from handguns to long-barrelled rifles and a Kalashnikov-style rifle, but they had been disabled and could not be used with live ammunition ... the devices were made out of fireworks and had explosive component to them. They have adapted some fireworks. They are probably not even lethal. We would like to stress this was not linked to religious extremism."


Police also found political pamphlets and "political literature" including anti-capitalist and anarchist flyers.

These are illegal?

So um, it's 'not a decision we take lightly' - coz you know... fireworks, toy guns and 'political literature' is all serious business. Lol terrorism.

[bcbm]

The use of terrorism laws against political dissidents is part of the ever growing militarization of police forces globally that began in the 70's and 80's. They're using the same counter-insurgency strategies as the military uses in places like Iraq to crush domestic dissent. As the economic crisis continues, I can only imagine this well get worse.

[Stranger Than Paradise]

Wow. Well Wednesday should be very interesting...