Along with hundreds of other Brightonians, on St George’s Day I helped prevent the English Defence League from holding a successful fascist rally in Brighton – they were barracked throughout their entire parade and called off their speeches due to the background noise we created. I wrote extensively about the event before it occurred, encouraging people to stand up to the fascists. During the rally I was assaulted by one of the fascists so afterwards I complained to the police about that and later posted on the question can three police officers arrest someone whom they’ve wrestled to the ground? The answer, that day, was apparently not.
Since one of the fascists assaulted me, you’d think that they would know what I looked like on the day. That hasn’t stopped them from using twitter to make a false allegation against me:
Click on all these images to enlarge them. Anyone who knows me, knows that I don’t look anything like the chap this picture shows throwing a bottle. It’s a screen dump from a video, which I have seen. I don’t recognise him, which is a shame because I would gladly assist the police with their enquiries. A few bottles were thrown at the fascists on the day in question and I hope the police prosecute the criminals who did that.
The police were filming extensively on the day. I had a chat with a nervy looking police officer who was filming the people in face masks. She gave me a series of stock responses until I asked if she had filmed me earlier – I wasn’t wearing a mask. She confirmed that she had and so I asked if she would like me to identify myself. She said yes and I gave my name directly into her camera. Therefore, the police will know that none of the footage shows me throwing any bottles. Not only that, they will know what clothes I was wearing on the day – they were rather different than the ones worn by the fellow in this photograph. Finally, I was clean shaven for once!
The particularly bizarre part of this allegation is that the fascists know that I was using a megaphone on the day to express my disgust at them. I explained that in my complaint to the police and in the post I wrote about that, which is what has upset them and focussed their attention on me.
Therefore, they could narrow down what I look like because there weren’t that many people using megaphones – maybe half a dozen. I think they do know what I looked like on the day because I saw several of them photographing and filming me. Clearly this is a false allegation. Arguably, it is a deliberate attempt to waste police time.
The only point of making false allegations like this is to somehow intimidate people who campaign against fascism. As a political strategy it is both shabby and highly sophisticated for the English Defence League.
Let’s get the facts clear. Bottles were thrown at the fascists. The police filmed everything. There were children in the fascist contingent; I counted three who looked like teenagers and one much younger girl. The fascists later said that a child was hit on the head with a bottle but that her parents chose not to take her to hospital. Whilst that is completely possible, it is also a bit weird. If I saw anyone hit on the head by a bottle, I would insist that they got themselves checked out!
These images are from one of the main twitter feeds for a grouping of football hooligans who have answered the fascist call. On one hand it complains about what happened to the so-called “March for England” in Brighton and on another hand it calls it fun.
This must be some new definition of the word “fun”, which I wasn’t previously aware of. Why anyone would describe being “attacked by scum” as fun, I do not know. It sounds like this person enjoyed their outing in Brighton. It sounds like they enjoy violence.