Church and State blog: Letter to the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis

Monday, April 16, 2007

Letter to the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis

At 7.00am this morning, while I was having my first shower since last Friday (when Declan and I were denied access to services in the Sisters of Mercy-run Dellow Centre, see previous blog), Declan narrowly escaped a serious assault in the canteen area of the Methodist-run Whitechapel Mission.

The homeless guy that wanted to assault Declan was, er, a friend of Ali, the homeless guy who twice punched Declan in the face on 17 February, also in the Whitechapel Mission’s canteen area – an attack the Metropolitan Police are refusing to investigate, despite that it was totally unprovoked and eventually stopped by one of the floor staff. The mission is fast becoming a place of safety hazards; only yesterday morning I was seriously harassed in the women’s washroom (see the end of previous blog).

These two homeless are not just friends, but must be quite good friends because a few minutes before the attempted assault by this homeless guy, Ali’s girlfriend was happily chatting with him.

The scenario was not unsimilar to the last time: homeless guy wants to sit at our table, not in the seat available, but in my seat, which Declan is protecting with his rucksack; he insists on my seat and starts untying the rucksack; Declan grabs the rucksack, unties it himself and surrenders my seat to this choosy guy; the homeless, now sitting in my seat, is not apparently content with his victory and calls Declan gay, a c*** , and a lot more besides; finally, when Declan has had enough and stands up to untie our bags and leave, this guy also stands, and comes at Declan with every intention of throwing a punch.

After the assault by Ali, Declan is fast enough to avoid being trapped by grabbing the lose rucksack, moving away from the table and shouting for floor staff to come to allow him to leave in safety (he still had to untie our remaining bags from under his chair). Did he get much help from staff? Not really. Apparently it was his fault for not wanting to talk with the homeless that frequent the establishment! We must look like we came down in the last shower of rain.

Because Declan is very concerned that avoiding assault is now going to be his daily diet while frequenting the mission – where we arrive every morning at 6.00am (opening time) to wash – he took me straight to Bethnal Green Police Station to get a progress report on the case against Ali. There is no progress at all, Declan was informed.

Well, that was so reassuring that when the police officer gave Declan his notepad to initial the officer’s entry that Declan did not wish to take this morning’s incident further, Declan first wrote: “I am happy to pursue my case as it stands. No contact was made. All is on CCTV.”

This afternoon Declan sent a registered letter to the most senior police officer in the country, the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis, Sir Ian Blair with a serious complaint. The question now is: will Declan end up in hospital before he lodges his case against the UK in the European Court of Human Rights by introductory letter? They would have to have me seriously assaulted also; because as a relative I can not only put the finishing touches to this introductory letter, but lodge it.

This is the letter to Borough Commander, Chief Superintendent Mark Simmons that Declan enclosed with his letter to Sir Ian (“chronology” can be found in this blog):

Dear Chief Superintendent Simmons

Re: Crime ref: 4204886/07

I refer to the enclosed copy of letter to me of 29 March 2007 from PC Katherine Jones of Bethnal Green Police Station with copy of my letter and enclosures of 26 March 2007 to DC Alexander Head of your Beat Crime Unit, to which PC Jones refers.

I note that PC Jones states:

I acknowledge your letter regarding Crime ref: 4204886/07, which was received on 29th March 2007. This has been referred to DC Head who will be responding to your letter as soon as possible.

In reference to chronology in relation to my efforts to 26 March 2007 to have my statement taken in respect of the assault on me in the Whitechapel Mission on 17 February 2007, I wish to confirm that I have yet to hear back from DC Head or anyone on his behalf.

Yours sincerely

Declan Heavey

cc Sir Ian Blair, Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis (by registered post – together with enclosures herein referred to)

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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.

Church and State blog

Monday, April 16, 2007

Letter to the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis

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