It’s just not Cricket – fur protester’s anger at arrest

Dec 24 2007 by Caroline Innes, Liverpool Daily Post

ANIMAL rights activists who have been campaigning against a Merseyside boutique selling fur say Merseyside Police are denying them their human right to stage peaceful protests.

The anti-fur campaigners said they were forced to return to the Mathew Street boutique, Cricket, on Saturday to demonstrate not against the use of real fur, but in support of the civil liberties they claim police are attempting to curtail.

The protest was arranged after campaigner Katy Brown, of Edge Hill, was arrested outside the store for handing out leaflets close to the shop doorway.

Merseyside police say they respect people’s rights to make “peaceful protest”, but will apply the law if those rights are abused.

Ms Brown claims she was sworn at and “man-handled” by officers.

She was taken to St Anne Street police station, where she was held for six hours, interviewed and charged with failure to comply with a condition imposed by a senior officer under Section 14 of the Public Order Act.

However, Ms Brown said she was shocked and horrified when bail conditions forbade her from entering Liverpool city centre and she claimed it is unclear as to whether her own home lies within the mile and a half radius exclusion zone.

Ms Brown said: “The campaign against Cricket has been ongoing for the past 12 months. The police reaction has been at times excessive and highly inconsistent.

“But what happened to me only further strengthens the need for as many people as possible to attend and stand up against the oppressive behaviour of the police who seem hell-bent on stifling legal protest.

“I really feel that this campaign is becoming as much about defending what little right to protest we are still allowed as much as Cricket selling fur.

“Our protests are always peaceful and we never obstruct entrance to the store. Yet the police’s response has been over the top, draconian and heavy-handed.”

Ms Brown continued: “I am more angry about the erosion of civil liberties generally and the increasing illegalisation of any form of effective protest than I am about my individual treatment.

“However, I did try and explain that my bail conditions would not only prevent me form being at home but would stop me travelling into the city centre for work.

“They restrict me from going about the majority of my normal lawful business.

“I won't even be able to go home to my parents for Christmas using public transport, according to these conditions – which have been imposed basically because I was stood in a street handing out leaflets. It is ridiculous and wrong.”

Ms Brown has complained to Merseyside Police about the way she was treated by officers and on Friday her bail conditions were lifted to ban her only from Mathew Street.

In a letter to Ms Brown, City Inspector Damien Walsh said: “Merseyside Police respects the right of individuals to mount a ‘peaceful protest’, but if protesters abuse that right or use unlawful means to further their aims, they can expect to be dealt with in accordance with the law.”

carolineinnes