A police raid on a Hackney-based arts area in June 2021, throughout which 4 folks have been arrested however later launched with out cost, has been declared illegal by the UK’s Excessive Courtroom.
The main focus of the raid was a bamboo and cabled momentary pavilion created by the organisation Mission Bunny Rabbit, which was put in on the roof of Antepavilion, a Hackney-based arts and structure charity. Titled All Alongside the Watchtower, the development resembled protest constructions utilized by the local weather motion, Extinction Rise up, however the work had no formal hyperlink with the group.
The Metropolitan Police unit entered the area, seized property and arrested 4 people, who have been all launched with out cost.
“It received’t cease right here,” says Russell Grey of Shiva Ltd, the constructing’s proprietor and Antepavilion’s sponsor of commissions. “There are nonetheless unanswered questions concerning the grounds for the motion taken and who took the choice to behave on this approach.” He provides that submitting a Freedom Of Data request is simply one of many methods the organisation may search additional data.
The court docket order signifies that the police at the moment are required to destroy any materials seized throughout the raid on the premises at Colombia and Brunswick Wharves in Hackney. It additionally signifies that any property taken can’t be utilized in future legal or civil proceedings, ought to they come up. Shiva Restricted and Antepavillion have been requested to substantiate particulars of any losses (each injury to property and any property taken which was not later returned). Inside 14 days of receiving this data, the police service is to indemnify this loss, as nicely repay all court docket charges.
The raid was carried out below Part 18 of the Police and Legal Proof Act however no data has been publicly supplied as to the reasoning or grounds for the search. Video footage of the incident emerged on-line quickly after.
The Metropolitan Police Service didn’t reply to a request for remark.
