CPS decision to prosecute the Space Hijackers
The investigation into the G20 have at last resulted in charges. Not of any of the cops involved in Ian Tomlinson’s death of course, that would be ridiculous. Instead eleven people from the Space Hijackers group have been charged with ‘impersonating police officers’ and ‘wearing items of police uniform’.
The Space Hijackers are a group of “Anarchitects, we oppose the hierarchy that is put upon us by architects, planners and owners of space. Through the events that we hold and the objects that we produce we are attempting to corrupt the culture of architecture, and destroy the hierarchies that exist.” Among other things they are famous for bringing a tank to be auctioned at the DSEI arms fair in 2007.
The crime they are charged with under s90 of the Police Act 1996 carries a six month maximum sentence and involved them driving around London in said tank with the word ‘riot’ written on it while dressed in comedy police outfits.
The Space Hijackers are of course are not real hijackers, the name is as a Special Branch copper told a Judge about the Wombles: “An attempt at anarchist wit M’Lud”. Hijacking is serious crime carrying a maximum of life imprisonment. What’s more, hijacking involves something that moves such as a plane or car, static objects cannot be hijacked. Here is clear evidence against the Space Hijackers of their deceitful nature, pretending to be what they are not. Anyone needing further proof of their guilt has only to check out their so called ‘tank’, which was in fact only a Saracen Armoured Personnel carrier. What’s more the Saracen name is also a complete lie having no connection to the Middle East but instead being manufactured by Alvis in Coventry.
The decision to prosecute is, of course, not made by the police but by the Crown Prosecution Service, headed by Director of Public Prosecutions Keir Starmer. Older readers may remember him as a crusading civil liberties lawyer and he was a barrister on good (but losing) side at the first hearing of the Austin v Met Police case concerning kettling at Oxford Circus during Mayday 2001. It’s always nice to be proved right that the problem is with the system not the odd bad apple. With his radicalism Keir also seams to have lost his grip on the law. In particular that prosecutions need to be not only for actual offences but in the public interest. If there was ever a case…
The next stage in the farce will be their appearance at 10am on the 3rd September at City of London Magistrates Court, right next to the Bank of England where thousands of people were detained for over six hours on 1st April and just a few hundred yards from where Ian Tomlinson died. Come along and show your support from the harmless hijackers and contempt for the ‘real’ constabulary and the system that supports its crimes.
