Thursday, November 16, 2006

Third visit by the police

Last night, Declan and I were visited by the police a third time. Our NAC website was also suspended yesterday, so we were not expecting a quiet night. And we sure didn't get one!

We arrived at our patch - a porch that serves as a side entrance to an office building - at about 11.00pm. It was like a disco! The whole building was lit up; and the porch alarm flashed a blue light without a sound. We had a bet. Declan reckoned we were going to be visited by the police. I reckoned we were being threatened by a late-working employee who doesn't like homeless people sleeping on the porch of the building in which he works, and that it was his intention to summon the police if we didn't move on promptly.

Plausible as my theory was, Declan was right. Between 11.00pm and 11.45pm, a police car passed us six times. The fourth time it actually stopped for a few seconds. We were then no sooner in our sleeping bags than a police officer turned up on foot. He points his baton at the alarm and asks what is the story with the flashing blue light. Then it was question time. Have either of us ever been arrested? Are we leaving the spot clean in the mornings? Are we having any problems with people from the buildings around? How long have we been sleeping rough on the porch? These were just some of the questions. Before leaving, he asked to see the tickets the two police officers issued us last Saturday night.

At about 4.00am, the same police officer returned. This time he is in a police car. He shouts to wake us up and asks if anybody from the building has left. I say no and he leaves, but only to return a few seconds later. When I look up, he is talking from inside the police car with a security guard – both looking with great interest at the flashing blue light. Then they leave. Declan slept through all of this bit! I had to tell him about it in the morning.

So although Declan won the bet (now I have to give him my next free McDonald's coffee), my theory stands for another night. We are expecting an increase in police activity as we approach our High Court judicial review renewal hearing against the Department for Work and Pensions on 11 December. This follows the termination of our unemployment benefit from 19 September because Declan did not sign on two days before he was actually scheduled to do so.

The Whitechapel Mission didn't have any clothes to give me today either; and this, despite the fact that yesterday was women's clothes day. I was told next Wednesday it will be women's clothes as usual.

Today at 1.30pm, when I accessed a computer in our local library, I found an email from Bravehost about the suspension of our NAC website yesterday. It was a problem with their servers, they say. That cuts no ice with me. How can a problem with servers result in a suspended website? Anyway, NAC is back!