Church and State blog: More racially aggravated harassment in the Dellow Centre

Friday, May 16, 2008

More racially aggravated harassment in the Dellow Centre

Life as a rough sleeper is never boring. This afternoon Declan had to send another email letter to the head of the Catholic Church in Britain, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor (Abhreception@rcdow.org.uk), in his capacity as the Archbishop of the Diocese of Westminster, regarding the Sisters of Mercy Dellow Centre:

Subject: Sisters of Mercy Dellow Centre

Dear Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor

I refer to my email letters to you of 21 and 28 April regarding the above, to which I did not receive acknowledgement.

I wish to confirm that, pursuant to sections 2 (causing harassment) and 4 (fear of violence) of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997, this morning at 11.00am at Brick Lane police station I submitted the following memo for the attention of the crime investigation officer to be allocated to the case (crime reference number 4212667/08):

[In the Dellow Centre’s men's washroom] I'm well out of the shower. "Are you finished with the showers?" the suspect asks. I ignore him (history of threatening and abusive behaviour - reckon he is just looking for trouble). "What are you doing in my country, you bastard?" "What are you doing here?" he repeats, demanding an answer. I ignore him again, and quickly get my things together to leave under a barrage of racial and threatening abuse. Washed in the park this morning in event I might have to vacate the washroom at a moment's notice. When I passed the suspect in the canteen, he fakes a head-butt at me to within an inch of my face.

Postscript: With regard to the Dellow Centre's [warning] letter to the suspect, I stated that would be up to the centre, but that I would be reporting the matter to the police.

I further confirm that the police officer who opened the file in this case for "racially aggravated harassment" informed my wife and I that an investigation officer would visit the Dellow Centre this afternoon, and that if the suspect harasses or puts either one of us in fear of violence in the Manna Centre (whose building is provided rent-free by the Catholic Archdiocese of Southwark) this weekend 8.30am - 12.00noon, we should report him to the local police station. (On 11 April in the Manna Centre the suspect indirectly informed my wife that she would be found one morning with a knife in her back, and last Saturday in the same centre he provocatively (and without any provocation) blocked her passage on her way back to her chair.)

Please would you acknowledge receipt.

Yours sincerely
Declan Heavey
Chain no. 69828

cc Ms Jo Ansell, CEO of Providence Row Charity (of which the Dellow Centre is a part)

Today’s Times has published a letter from sixteen scientists under the title “Stem-cell therapy is no miracle cure: Scientists from around the world express a note of caution on stem-cell therapy”. The letter states that “given the current state of more conventional embryonic stem-cell research, of adult stem-cell research, and of induced pluripotent stem-cell research, there is no demonstrable scientific or medical case for insisting on creating, without any clear scientific precedent, a wide spectrum of human-non-human hybrid entities or ‘human admixed embryos’.” (Last Monday British MPs voted to allow controversial plans to update human embryology laws to continue to their next Parliamentary stage, despite deep splits among MPs. The main battle will come this coming Monday at Committee Stage, when MPs will have a free vote on the part of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill - a flagship bill of government - relating to research using “admixed” cytoplasmic hybrid embryos.)

Prime Minister Gordon Brown – whose youngest son has cystic fibrosis, a condition that could one day benefit from embryo research – has called on MPs to back the use of hybrid embryos for research.

The Medical Research Council, the Royal Society, the Wellcome Trust and the Academy of Medical Sciences also support the research. In a briefing document (reported by the BBC on 15 January), the four research institutions spell out why they see hybrid embryos as so important: "This research has massive potential to provide treatments for serious debilitating disorders ranging from developmental abnormalities in young children, to stroke, cancer, HIV/Aids, diabetes and Parkinson's disease, as well as better and safer treatment for infertile couples." The Association of Medical Research Charities and the Genetic Interest Group, which between them represent more than 200 patient charities, said the research "could greatly increase our understanding of serious medical conditions affecting millions", and have written to all MPs urging them to support the bill. The UK National Stem Cell Network Steering Committee, which organised a three-day conference in Edinburgh last month attended by the world's leading researchers in stem cells, has called for MPs “to enshrine tight regulations in the HFE Bill but to ensure that all types of derivation remain open to researchers.”

Critics, including pro-life groups and Catholic leaders, have branded hybrid embryos "Frankenstein science". The Catholic church has been accused by the government’s fertility watchdog of using “fatal” dogma to oppose all forms of research on embryos and most IVF treatment. Lisa Jardine, chairwoman of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, points out that the church, unlike other religions, had an “insoluble problem” in its fundamental opposition to the destruction of any human embryos, regardless of their stage of development. In an article in the Sunday Times of 11 May, Jardine is quoted as saying:

There is a fatal impediment in Catholicism to all discussion of research on embryos that involves the destruction of embryos at whatever stage. This is not clear to the public in my view. The Catholic church is opposed to hybrid embryos, but then it is opposed to all embryonic research. The public hasn’t taken this on board. For the most part, people don’t realise how fundamental this [stance] is.

Jardine says that once the public understands why scientists wish to create hybrid embryos they approve of the research. She is right: a poll for the Times revealed on 10 April that the creation of human-animal embryos enjoys broad public approval, with 50 per cent backing new laws that would permit it and only 30 per cent opposed.

Church and State

MAYOR OF LONDON RSI PROPERTY
DAY 406 IN A WEEKLY PERIODIC TENANCY
SUBJECT TO A SECTION 21 NOTICE

(SEE PARA. 3 BELOW)

1. Our 308 Honorary Associates include 20 Nobel Prize laureates. Declan and I are engaged in a project that deals with the publication of issues significant to social policy in a number of key areas, e.g., climate change, population, futurism, atheism, and free speech. Established as Network for Church Monitoring, a non-profit company limited by guarantee, our main publication, found at the website, Church and State, calls attention to subjects, not the least which have been critical of the interaction between religious and secular institutions. We have been the target of numerous threats and actions, e.g., the former resulting in threats to Declan's life, and the latter, which have led to vandalism. The various incidents are on record with the police and other official agencies.

2. There are no less than 63 Nobel Prize laureates on the Church and State website from 20 Honorary Associates, eight articles, nine book excerpts and 33 petition signatories. (For example, one Nobel laureate signed our Nobel petition in support of human embryonic stem cell research and gave us permission to excerpt from one of his books.) Our list of associates also includes 18 US National Medal laureates, and six Turing Award laureates (the equivalent of the Nobel Prize in computer science). We have published one article and excerpted from the books of seven members of the British House of Lords. And there are 31 knighted professors on the site from 13 Honorary Associates, one book excerpt and 21 petition signatories. These figures are despite the never-ending assault on our email (this link reveals the targeting of our emails to, among others, a close colleague in Washington, DC as well as space advocates and Nobel laureates).

3. This is Day 406 for us living under the threat to life of a 'no fault' eviction by Peabody Trust.[1] We live in a Mayor of London's Rough Sleepers Initiative (RSI) property. Peabody's appalling new terms of tenancy have forced us into an unstable weekly periodic tenancy that poses a threat to Declan's life and inhibits our ability to exercise our rights. Declan accumulated quite a history with the Housing Ombudsman Service before he received the Ombudsman's decision not to investigate a referral from Lyn Brown MP on jurisdictional grounds. The Ombudsman was asked to consider whether or not our tenancy has been renewed like for like; and whether, if not, it should be in light of the landlord having accused us of not signing a like-for-like agreement. The Equality and Human Rights Commission will not accept a referral of discrimination from Ms Brown, the Commission's helpline (EASS) having grossly distorted the complaint against Peabody. We no longer have pro se access to the courts (see next paragraph).

4. This eviction matter came before District Judge Ruth Fine at the Central London County Court on 30 June 2020, when both counsel for St Mungo's (the charity in effective control of our tenancy) and Declan presented their positions. Declan lost the case and was ordered to pay £1,850 in costs. A publishing colleague in America cleared these costs within 24 hours of my blog post about this hearing for strike out on a related issue that was the essence of the claim, i.e., that St Mungo's would take a phone call to confirm that we are clients of the Mayor of London's RSI programme. Within a week of the hearing, St Mungo's had agreed to take this phone call for us both, the Court having ruled that they were not obliged to do so despite our circumstances. This time we escaped bankruptcy (counsel for St Mungo's asked for £3,407.50 in costs), but consider that to seek pro se access to justice in the courts has become far too dangerous for us. Declan currently has before the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman the decision of the Information Commissioner that allows St Mungo's to continue processing coercive support plans without our knowledge or consent and that also poses a threat to his life.

5. When it comes to traffic, we have had 10.7 million hits in the past three years on Facebook; however, I left the platform on 13 March 2021 for one year rather than risk being banned for life. It is indisputable that with any sort of level playing field Church and State would have far exceeded 2.5 million hits last year. In addition to a large variety of blocks without explanation, Facebook had so severely restricted our Page's distribution by October 2020 that it was almost as good as an unpublished page.[2] Currently, we are up to their 85th block since 1 December 2015, and as usual without an explanation. This block records as one half of their 3rd double block in the first five weeks of this year that lasted 60 days. Our traffic has also been curtailed by over 2.5K blocks on access to Church and State since 26 July 2016, including 29 full distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks since 17 May 2019 that have lasted for as long as 54 hours at a time.[3] About 70% of our hits are from Americans.

"This is precisely the hard hitting kind of response needed to clarify the unfair way Facebook is treating your highly reputable site." Don Collins, Founder, International Services Assistance Fund, Washington DC

Last updated: 26/06/21

_________________________

[1] Once a fixed term has elapsed, the landlord has the option to seek eviction even if the tenant has upheld their obligations in full (though of course the landlord must still apply for and obtain a county court order).

[2] 17/10/20: We have permission to publish this ISAF letter of 30 September to Facebook COO Sheryl Samberg. Facebook has so severely restricted our Page's distribution since 4 September that it's almost as good as an unpublished page

[3] Since October 2019, we have been defining a full DDoS attack as having such a high volume of up to 4-minute blocks on access to Church and State that we don't bother recording them all.

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Friday, May 16, 2008

More racially aggravated harassment in the Dellow Centre

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