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A-Spire V – Wonderful Party/Police Raid "I went to the party at the latest A-spire squat in Headingley on Saturday night. Whilst there I was inspired to write this article about what a positive experience I had, unfortunately I now have to also write about the police raiding and everything going horribly wrong…….. I’ve been to A-spire before and was really inspired by such an organised, positive place with so much going on in a short space of time. I’ll refer you to their website (http://www.a-spire.org.uk) for more details, but basically A-spire are a group of people who sometimes squat buildings in Leeds for a few weeks, not just to live in but to run a free shop, café, dozens of events and generally "provide a place where people can go during the day or night and socialise away from the buy, buy, buy mentality that is present day capitalism." (from A-spire website) To me it’s both a refreshing break for those of us who feel surrounded by a world/system/culture which we don’t really connect with, and also a powerful coming together of all kinds of political, social, protest, environmental movements/campaigns/groups/people. The most recent A-spire in Headingley was open from November 14-24, taking over a disused building to create a phenomenally busy, well organised and creative space for 10 days which provided a home for talks, workshops, open mic nights, bands, kids’ activities, alternative health/healing, protest meetings etc. etc. etc. To me, a community centre in its truest sense. Having been unable to go all week I was really looking forward to going to the final night party this Saturday….. We walked into the huge building to be greeted by a cheerful man on the door collecting donations and spent a few minutes getting our bearings – what a place! A huge amount of care and energy had obviously been put into making this a special place: everything from an indoor skate ramp, to a glow in the dark decoration-adorned rave room, to a room full of information on what had been happening during the week and the activities of the many and various groups who have been involved (Rising Tide, Peat Alert etc.). There were even fully functional and very clean toilets – better than I’ve seen in many places I paid a fortune to get into. The whole thing was clearly well run, well organised and the result of a lot of hard work – instantly dismissing the stereotypes of shambolic, disorganised hippies/crusties (not my view I might add!). Obviously filling a largely unventilated building with few windows and exits full of people might be a bit dangerous, but this had clearly been considered as a crowd of people were waiting (peacefully) outside having been told the building was full. I felt considerably safer than I have in many supposedly safe night-clubs etc. – both in physical terms and a million times more so in emotional/spiritual terms. Which was the main reason I had such an amazing night, I’m not a person to quickly feel comfortable anywhere but within minutes I felt completely at home, safe and comfortable in every sense. It appeared everyone else did too, even those who had clearly wandered in not knowing what to expect, been a bit freaked out, but then realised just what a special place this was. We spent 5 hours sitting around in various rooms, having lovely chats with complete strangers, watching everyone else having as good a time as we were, dancing to fantastic music, smiling, laughing and surrounded by more positive energy than I think I’ve ever felt in one place. And that’s where this article should have ended, but I’m sorry to say it doesn’t…. One minute there I am dancing with a crowd of wonderful, happy people, feeling utterly content and free and hoping this won’t end for a VERY long time, when suddenly my friend runs into the room, panicking and screaming at me that ‘we have to get out, they’ve gassed us’. Then an announcement comes over the sound system that the police have broken in (smashing the front window) and we are all to leave quietly. It was a testament to the atmosphere of the place and the attitude of all involved that there was absolutely no panic, no pushing, we all just left, confused and a little scared but very peaceful, and walked out the door to one of the most bizarre and unnecessary sights I have ever seen – the main road (Otley Road) completely blocked by at least 20 police cars, several vans and at least 50 police officers. I’m sad to say that I then witnessed something which, although I’ve read about it so many times, I didn’t quite believe happened just this way – blatant, unprovoked and unjustified provocation of violence by the police. I watched as they randomly picked on people, treating them in a violent and frankly inhumane manner (by inhumane I mean without any regard whatsoever for people as human, thinking, emotional, spiritual beings as opposed to objects to be moved, disposed of/punished) and throwing them into vans. As we all stood on the road trying to find our friends (again a testament to the spirit of the night that we weren’t with the friends we came with because everyone was making new friends) and find out why exactly this had happened, suddenly a row of police clad in full bullet proof black gear (believe me, this is VERY intimidating and scary in itself before any action is taken) marched up to the Headingley end of the area of blocked road and started shoving people in the opposite direction, yelling at us to move – no consideration, no polite request, they just shoved us. Our crime? Standing quietly in the middle of a road block caused by the police. Everything was designed to confuse – rows of flashing lights, cold faced police people, being so quickly ejected from a building into the freezing cold night and shoved around with no explanation, not knowing where to go – I know the area like the back of my hand but many people didn’t and had no idea where their friends were or how they were going to get home. I didn’t realise how confused and dazed I was until today when I wondered why I hadn’t talked to more people, found out what was happening, gathered information for this article. The whole operation (and I call it that because it was clearly very well organised and planned) was certainly very effective in turning a happy, friendly bunch of people into a mass of confused, upset and occasionally angry souls with no idea of quite what was going on. I had a strange mixture of feelings, no anger though, just sadness: sadness that this can happen in a ‘civilised’ society; sadness that the police, who are human beings just like you and me, could treat other human beings in such a barbaric way; and sadness that just a few minutes earlier I had been surrounded by such positivity but that this is somehow unacceptable. This positive spirit still continued despite the confusion as we walked away – I stayed for a while and did not see one scrap of violent or aggressive behaviour that was not initiated by the police. I can only hope that there were enough police left over in the city to deal with the rapes, beatings up, abuse, drink driving, speeding and other violent crimes that were no doubt occurring at the same time as a few hundred peaceful souls were being treated like objects. What I find so strange is that on Saturday night I broke several laws, I could very easily have been arrested if the policemen I talked to, trying to explain what a peaceful event this was, had taken a dislike to me or I’d been caught up in one of the skirmishes, and I could in theory as a result have lost my job as a teacher. Why? Because I chose, along with many and various others, to reject the money-oriented, negative, mistrusting society we find ourselves in for one night, and celebrate an alternative with people who feel the same way as me in a united, peaceful, positive, open and overall HAPPY space. I live most of my life surrounded by people whose lifestyles, opinions and beliefs I find odd (sometimes downright crazy and wrong) but accept completely (everyone has their own choice), but given the rare chance to be around people who feel just like me (in a very broad sense – there were a huge variety of people there), for just a few hours, I am treated as if I am behaving wrongly and unacceptably (where’s my choice?). I am a tolerant, decent, open minded member of society, I wouldn’t harm a soul and I’m certain that nothing I or anyone else at A-spire did on Saturday night did, what exactly have we done that is so wrong? Please let me know ‘cos I can’t figure it out. I have yet to discover why the police raid happened and what their justification was – as soon as I do I’ll add to this article. The only news report I’ve found was on teletext – they reported that 12 people had been arrested (four later charged of affray) at a ‘party’ in Headingley. If you have any further info/opinions please send them to: freedom@Leeds365.com. I sincerely hope that I’ve written nothing in this article which might misrepresent or offend anyone involved in A-spire or anyone who was there on Saturday – please please let me know if I have, or if you want me to add/remove information from this article." - Catherine Tonge (Monday November 25th) For further information please check out the following links -
The world has gone very, very wrong......... !!!!!! Check out http://www.dirtytechno.org/leeds/aspire/index.html for more A-Spire info.
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