SUNDAY 2 th MARCH FIRST ARRESTATION

Today was a long and ridiculous day for the Reclaim Your Food collective, and for the Brixton Metropolitan Police. The morning was full of the usual joyful cooking, this time with extra joyful chaos provided by the presence of a mini film crew making a documentary about surplus and waste in western society, including a section on the Food Not Bombs movement. The selection of fruit and veg was both fine and plentiful as usual, and we made a very large amount of very nice food. We packed the trolley and all of our hands and began the journey to brixton town square, only to find that the police were waiting for us with two police vans, 2 police cars and a mobile surveillance van. 400 yards away from the town square, before we even arrive, the police are threatening to arrest us if we set up. Aware that they did not have reasonable grounds to arrest us under the Anti Social Behavior Act because we were in no way causing harrasment or distress or alarm to anyone, we set up and began serving regardless. Immediately, one of us is arrested and taken to Briton police station. Half an hour later, the person who the police saw as the "spokesperson of the group" was also arrested. Both of them spent the next 13 hours in individual cells. The police had told us that they would arrest everyone surrounding our stall if they did not leave, so they started taking names and intimidating everyone (all on camera!), but then they suddenly realized that they didn't have any where near enough facilities to actually do it. So they gave up. They then shifted themselves to the side of the stall, where they spent the rest of the day trying to look menacing while we danced, sang, ate, fed everyone, and fixed bikes all day long! (Our friends set up a free bike fixing workshop this week! They strangely didn't get any attention from the police whatsoever…) When all the food had gone and all the bikes were fixed, we marched the banner down brixton high street in protest against the arrests, and set ourselves up in front of the station. The 'RECLAIM YOUR FOOD' banner was slightly out of context in front of the police station, so we attracted lots of attention from confused passers by. When we told them our story, they were both shocked and disgusted, and had their own horror stories of the brixton police to share with us, and we felt a powerful sense of solidarity. Every hour the police told us "one more hour" before our comrades would be released – until 2am. We put up our banner over the 'metropolitan police' plaque and sat down right on the station doorstep, a local friend made some tea in a pan, we made some informative signs to show buses as they stopped at the bus stop, and ended up continuing the fun of the day into the night. When it got colder, we went inside the station where a friend performed his best break dancing in the foyer! Finally, 2am came and our friends came out, but not without bad news – both are on bail and banned from Brixton for however long the police like, making it impossible for them to come and serve the food without being arrested. And one them had had his phone confiscated by the police because they had decided he had stolen it, due to some complications he had been having insurance. Still, the group were happy to be together again and the arrestees are now working on challenging the police's decisions. It was a hard day, but the point is: all the food got eaten and some said it was the best they'd ever had! 





Pictures :

Lot of people...


But lot of cops too...



First arrestation



Second arrestation

  

   Arrested to do it ???



The fixing bike worshop





DIY wallet and recycling workshop



Resistence and solidarity !


The film crew have published a small film about the day, which you can view here:  
! AND we have a new myspace: www.myspace.com/reclaimyourfood AND a facebook group!