Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Police ticket me for begging and forcibly remove me from Liverpool Street Station

This morning at 7.30am, while I was begging in Liverpool Street Station (where we wash daily after the Methodist Church-run Whitechapel Mission barred Declan and me on 18 June due to, er, concerns about our safety), I was stopped by two police officers just as I was about to be handed some money.

They took me aside to issue me a ticket – begging is illegal in England. And as the male officer is getting on with the business of writing down some of my details, like I am wearing a red T-shirt over a blue long-sleeved T-shirt, PC 136 was, well, insulting me – "scum of the earth" was one of the derogatory terms she used a few times to describe me. When I politely told her that I would be coming back to the station to beg because I had no choice on the matter, she menacingly told me not to talk back to a police officer or I would be arrested on the spot.

As soon as I presented the ticket to Declan, he headed off to Bishopsgate Police Station to find out how many times I would be ticketed before being subject to arrest and a mandatory court appearance. He was duly told that I was lucky I hadn’t been arrested and that I would be the next time. Declan informed this police officer that he had been run off his Big Issue pitch yesterday evening by a street distributor of the free London Lite (once again on record by email with The Big Issue, although since the founder and editor-in-chief wrote on 10 September telling Declan to more or less stop bothering him, things seem to have fallen on deaf ears) and that I was left with no choice – it was beg or starve. To this, the police officer told Declan that he would personally ensure that not only would I be arrested, but I would be given a "rough ride".

Back in the train station after Declan returned, I was again met by the same two police officers. This time they didn’t waste a second and, each taking me by the arm, forcibly removed me from the station. When I politely asked if I was being arrested, the policewoman again reminded me that I am the scum of the earth, the policeman adding why would they arrest me, to be able to get warm and be given a hot cup of coffee and some food? I won’t be that lucky he told me, as I was pushed onto the wet street.

So why this sudden rush of activity by the police when I have been begging in the train station for so long now? Clearly one reason is to stop us from being able to survive day-to-day … So, despite attempts to consign Declan and me to the trash can, we are somehow still making it, although for how long is anybody’s guess.

For the record, this is Declan’s registered letter last Saturday to the project manager of Medecins du Monde UK’s Project: London, a copy of which he also sent by registered post to Prof Paul Hunt, UN Special Rapporteur on the right to the highest attainable standard of health:

Dear Ms Raymond

NHS Exemption Certificate

I was assured by a member of your medical team on 5 October 2007 that Medecins du Monde UK's Project: London would be applying on behalf of my wife and I for a National Health Service (NHS) exemption certificate for the each of us as rough sleepers, having had our entitlement to jobseeker's allowance ceased by Birmingham Erdington Jobcentre Plus on 27 September 2006 (because I did not sign on two days before I was due to do so on 29 September 2006).

I enclose copy of my letter of 6 October 2007 (without enclosures) to the Registrar of the European Court of Human Rights, citing, among others, Medecins du Monde UK, in further reference to my urgent request for expedition of my case against the UK made on 8 September 2007 under Rule 41 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

I understand that a valid NHS exemption certificate would entitle my wife and I to the following free of charge: (1) NHS prescriptions, (2) NHS dental treatment, (3) sight tests, and (4) glasses and contact lenses.

I can confirm that neither my wife nor I is in receipt of any such certificate to date, and that we have both been in need of an exemption from charges to access healthcare since becoming rough sleepers on the streets of London on 3 November 2006.

Yours sincerely

Declan Heavey

Enc

cc  Prof Paul Hunt, UN Special Rapporteur on the right to the highest attainable standard of health, University of Essex (by registered post – with enclosure herein referred to)