Church and State blog: Yet more police intimidation at the place we sleep, Salters

Friday, June 19, 2009

Yet more police intimidation at the place we sleep, Salters

This morning Declan again wrote to City of London Police Commissioner Michael Bowron – his letter to him yesterday was copied to the City of London Police Professional Standards Directorate, one step off the Independent Police Complaints Commission (see previous blog).

Last night at 1.00am we were woken rudely by a female police officer, PC 111CP from Snow Hill police station, who said that pursuant to Operation Poncho II we must move ourselves and our things away so that the two City of London Corporation street cleaners that were with her could wash and disinfect the porch floor – located ... on a derelict highwalk! In his email to Commissioner Bowron, presented below, Declan also takes issue with this police officer on her record of the stop. (See blog of 5 June “Salters back in the spotlight” for two Google map photos of the sleeping pitch.).

Normally on a Friday Declan takes a round trip walk of two hours to the Catholic Manna Day Centre for a bite to eat for lunch – something he decided was wise to skip this morning. For more on the Manna, see blog of 14 May “Letter to Archbishop Vincent Nichols”; essentially this letter covers harassment and intimidation, and robbery, in the RC Sisters of Mercy Dellow Day Centre, but in it Declan also refers to being assaulted in the Manna and our barring from the Methodist Church-run Whitechapel Mission due to concerns about our safety after I was assaulted in an unprovoked attack in the canteen of the premises two years ago, almost to the day.

This is Declan’s email to the Commissioner, just acknowledged safely received by his PA, Sara Coker, who says there will be a response forthwith:

Subject: My complaint against the City of London Police

Dear Commissioner Bowron,

I refer to your email of 18 June signed by Darren Pulman, Staff Officer to the Commissioner, acknowledging receipt of my email to you of 17 June regarding stop at Salters' Hall (CAD 10903 of 16/06/09).

I attach copy of my email of complaint to you of 18 June (and attachments) against the City of London Police, having been further issued on the morning of 18 June with false records in relation to said stop. This email was copied to the City of London Police Professional Standards Directorate.

As you are aware, my wife and I are of no fixed abode and have been sleeping rough in the City of London since 3 November 2006. (We slept in the same porch until a trellis gate was installed on 4 September 2008; as from 12 September, our sleeping pitch has been located at Salters' Hall, Fore Street, Moorgate.)

I wish to confirm that at 1.00am last night PC 111CP from Snow Hill police station insisted pursuant to Operation Poncho II that my wife and I move out of our sleeping pitch at Salters' Hall to allow two City of London Corporation street cleaners to wash and disinfect the porch floor - located at (derelict) St. Alphage Highwalk, Fore Street. When my wife requested a court order to which she is entitled, PC 111CP informed her that she knew nothing about court orders but my wife needed to vacate the porch nonetheless. My wife refused to move as a result of having nowhere else to sleep, the upshot being that PC 111CP left with the two street cleaners; the street cleaners did not wash and disinfect the porch floor, and my wife and I went back to sleep in the porch.

Before PC 111CP left I took issue with her on the location cited on the copies of the record of the stop we were issued: PC 111CP insisted on "St. Alphage Highwalk, Salters Hall", arguing that she was standing on St. Alphage Highwalk; in fact, the location of the stop was "Salters' Hall, St. Alphage Highwalk, Fore Street", as evident from the CCTV notice I drew to the police officer's attention above my wife's head, stating: “CCTV Surveillance. Salters’ Hall. Images are being monitored and recorded for the purposes of crime prevention and public safety. The scheme is controlled by the Salters’ Company.”

I beg to again point out that Salters’ Company describes itself as a Great City Livery Company very largely devoted to charity; it also plays an important part in the system of local government in the City of London, reflecting its historical roots. The company not only fund raises for science education (my petition to the United Nations on research cloning of embryos and stem cells has now been signed by 591 scientists and academics, who include recognised authorities from the world’s leading universities and research institutes, as well as 24 Nobel laureates, and this despite several months of serious spamming), but runs a project for the homeless.

In the event of error in transmission, please note that the order of attachments is as follows:

bowron(18.6.09).htm
bowron(17.6.09).htm
cussen(13.6.09).htm
cussen(12.9.08).htm
cussen(10.6.08).htm
broadway(15.6.09).htm

Please would you acknowledge receipt.

Yours sincerely
Declan Heavey

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, June 19, 2009

Yet more police intimidation at the place we sleep, Salters

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