Camden's students ‘criminalised’ by cops following tuition fees protest at Millbank Tower
Published: 10 March, 2011
by TOM FOOT
STUDENTS who joined last year’s protest at the Conservative Party’s headquarters are being unfairly criminalised by the police, solicitors have warned.
Lawyers at Hodge Jones & Allen say hundreds of young people have been cautioned or are facing caution for “aggravated trespass” following the tuition fees protest at Millbank Tower on November 10.
Aggravated trespass is normally reserved for those that cause “disruption or intimidate”.
Lawyers say this is disproportionate for many peaceful protesters they argue simply followed the crowd and stood about inside the building on the north bank of the Thames.
Hodge Jones & Allen public order specialist Raj Chada, the former leader of Camden Council, said: “I had one young guy whose mum’s house was raided at 7am. He was given a caution for aggravated trespass. The mum was in tears. It seems to me there is a lot of concern that the response from the Met has been disproportionate. Police have to act with some humanity and consider whether it should be taking proceedings at all.”
The crackdown has also been criticised by solicitors at Birnberg Peirce in Camden Town, including Alistair Lyon. He told told the New Journal he feared the Met was confusing “political anger” with “criminality” over a series of arrests for “violent disorder”, which carries a maximum of five years in prison.
Mr Chada said: “There are hundreds of students who did nothing more than cross a threshold. Everyone who went into Millbank, after the initial surge of people that broke the windows, are being cautioned or facing caution. That’s wrong. Are the police saying that everyone that went in should get a caution and that is the right thing to do?”
Mr Chada said he was representing 26 students but that many more have been bailed and are likely to be cautioned in May.
A Met spokesman said it had issued 26 cautions for aggravated trespass after the November 10 protest. The spokesman said that no one else had been issued with a caution for this offence after subsequent protests, on November 24 and 30, and December 9.