Roughing things up

The Bishopsgate City of London police are indeed roughing things up: we have narrowly escaped being attacked (as I wrote in the previous blog, Declan foresaw this new escalation of harassment and intimidation last Sunday when he woke me up and told me we had to work fast on the introductory letter to lodge our case against the UK with the European Court of Human Rights).

These are the facts. Two nights ago (Thursday night), while we were sleeping, 3 or 4 guys decided to party at our porch – the porch is situated in a business area, which is generally stone quiet after 8.00pm. During the course of this rather unconventional party, one of them roared at us, “Get up!” A few hours later, the same individual came back with one of his friends, screamed at the top of his voice, “Tramps!” as he passed us by and kicked a metal A-board pavement sign by the porch (which has been out for the last few nights) down the pavement.

Now this A-board happens to advertise fake-tan services, although there is not a tanning business in sight. So I think I can safety conclude that the board is removed during the day, only to be put back at night, perhaps as a bargaining chip? Fortunately, the individual on Thursday night decided to boot it a few feet down the pavement rather than hurl it at us. Still, last night, in addition to the A-board, there was a pallet!

This narrow escape has a special timing. Only that morning in the Whitechapel Mission a member of staff put a stop to all conversations to broadcast for the sake of the general homeless population, and in particular for the benefit of Declan (I say that because he was determined to catch Declan’s eye), that two of the homeless present – two middle aged friends who seem to be always drunk – were assaulted the night before while sleeping rough.

If Lord/Lady Justice Scott Baker’s order of 22 March (refusing us permission to appeal Judge Walker’s decision of 11 December to refuse us permission to apply for a judicial review against the Department for Work and Pensions) is so in accordance with the law, why do the police need to threaten us with assault (Declan says that he will be the one to end up in hospital)? Are they actually trying to prevent Declan from lodging our case with the European Court of Human Rights? And when this orchestrated assault is being carried out, will our bags (containing legal documentation, etc) be stolen too?

This week I am also seeing a new level of nastiness towards me in the Sisters of Mercy-run Dellow Centre and the Methodist-run Whitechapel Mission: a homeless woman moved all my things from one place to another while I was drying myself in the shower (Wednesday at 10.30am, Dellow Centre); a homeless woman took possession of the only two sinks in the women’s washroom a few seconds before I came out of the toilet, having changed my clothes (Thursday at 6.15am, Whitechapel Mission); and I was prevented from having a shower when a volunteer handed me a towel that wasn’t big enough to dry my feet, telling me it was the only one she had: shower or no shower (this morning at 6.30am, Whitechapel Mission).

Now that I am on the subject of the Metropolitan Police, this is Declan’s letter of 26 March to Detective Constable Alexander Head of the Beat Crime Unit in Limehouse Police Station concerning the lack of anything in relation to the assault on him in the Whitechapel Mission on 17 February (when he was punched twice in the face by a homeless called Ali in an unprovoked attack):

Dear DC Head

Crime Reference Number: 4204886/07

Please find enclosed copy of my informal statement of 19 February, which I handed in to Bethnal Green Police Station for the attention of PC Richard Bentley (823 HT) on Monday, 19 February in respect of the assault on me in the Whitechapel Mission on Saturday, 17 February.

I also enclose copy of letter of 23 March from the Whitechapel Mission regarding your letters of 26 February and 9 March, neither of which the mission received for me.

I also enclose chronology in relation to my efforts to have my statement formally taken.

I hereby request (1) copy of the aforementioned letters from you of 26 February and 9 March, and (2) an appointment to have my statement formally taken.

Yours sincerely

Declan Heavey

This is the chronology, to which Declan refers:

19 Feb - 9.30pm, 1st visit to Bethnal Green Police Station. Hand in informal statement of 19 February for the attention of PC Bentley.

21 Feb - 10.00pm, 2nd visit to Bethnal Green Police Station. PC Bentley on his holidays. PC Calabrese of Limehouse Police Station to phone back.

23 Feb - 11.30am, 1st phone call to Limehouse Police Station. Told to phone back on 26th for PC Calabrese.

26 Feb - 6.15am, 2nd phone call to Limehouse Police Station. Told to phone back at 7.00am for PC Calabrese.

- 7.15am, 3rd phone call to Limehouse Police Station. Told to phone control room.

- 7.20am, 4th phone call to Limehouse Police Station – Control Room. To be phoned back immediately. (No call.)

- 7.25am, 5th phone call to Limehouse Police Station – Control Room. PC Calabrese to phone back.

- 8.30pm, 1st phone message from Limehouse Police Station. Asked to phone DC Head.

27 Feb - 7.30am, 6th phone call to Limehouse Police Station. Told to phone back at 9.00am for DC Head.

- 9.00am, 7th phone call to Limehouse Police Station. DC Head to phone back.

1 Mar - 7.00pm, 2nd phone message from Limehouse Police Station. PC Bentley says he is to arrest assailant, after which my statement will be taken.

23 Mar - 5.30am, 8th phone call to Limehouse Police Station. Progress report not available over phone.

- 7.00am, 3rd visit to Bethnal Green Police Station. Progress report includes letters from DC Head of 26 February and 9 March, neither of which I received. Asked to call back at 8.00am for phone call to DC Head. (7.30am, Whitechapel Mission issue letter stating no letter arrived for me since 20 January.)

- 8.00am, 4th visit to Bethnal Green Police Station. Asked to phone DC Head between 10.00pm and 6.00am.

24 Mar - 5.30am, 9th phone call to Limehouse Police Station. DC Head to phone back.

26 Mar - 12.30pm, 1st registered letter – DC Head. Request (1) copy of letters from DC Head of 26 February and 9 March, and (2) appointment to have my statement formally taken.

And this is the reply of 29 March Declan received from Bethnal Green Police Station:

Dear Mr Heavey

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 the meantime, if you require any further information, please do not hesitate to contact the office at the above address. Please quote the above reference number on any further correspondence.

Yours sincerely

Katherine Jones
Correspondence Clerk

A few days ago, I read avidly an article in The Times by Matthew Parris in favour of reason – as opposed to faith. It states: “You are living, dear reader, at a watershed in human history. This is the century during which, after 2,000 years of what has been a pretty bloody marriage, faith and reason must agree to part, citing irreconcilable differences.”

And it leaves me thinking that religious leaders – I think I can safely include here not only religious Christian leaders but Islamic leaders also – would agree to no such parting, at least not so long as the Government thinks it can have a shot at burying people like Declan and I: two people who are seeking to establish a global network of groups and individuals campaigning against the involvement of religion in science and public policy.

Request for access to case file

Last Sunday morning, we spent the whole day in the library Idea Store Whitechapel – Declan actually woke me up at our usual time of 5.00am, which I didn’t initially appreciate because Saturday and Sunday we treat ourselves to an extra two hours’ sleep.

Because we are taking Lord/Lady Justice Scott Baker’s order of 22 March (refusing us permission to appeal Judge Walker’s decision of 11 December to refuse us permission to apply for a judicial review against the Department for Work and Pensions) to the European Court of Human Rights, Declan thought the Bishopsgate City of London police might like to rough things up a bit, and we should work fast on our introductory letter to the Register to the ECHR, giving careful consideration to which articles of the European Convention on Human Rights we contend have been breached.

Declan was highly motivated and also wrote a letter to the Deputy Master of Civil Appeals requesting access to the case file and sight of this letter from the Department for Work and Pensions cited in paragraph 32 of the transcript of Judge Walker’s judgment of 11 December, a letter we have never been privy to. (All is made bare and open in Declan’s letter to the Deputy Master of Civil Appeals below).

Yesterday morning we went to The Big Issue head office to have our pitch slip stamped and our pitches registered in pitch listings, minus of course the Covent Garden pitch we had taken off us on Saturday based on the unfounded allegation that we had not been working it for the last two and a half weeks (see previous blog). When we arrived there, a member of staff and a vendor were talking about someone who had recently been debadged by the Big Issue and what bad shape he was in. Assuming he is not receiving any benefit, I wouldn’t doubt he is in bad shape: he is probably destitute if not selling drugs or running the gauntlet of illegal begging.

When I recall the cameo between this staff member and vendor, I am concerned that I too could end up destitute and wonder: should I pass on to head office a written account of the hours I work my regular pitch at the George Pub by Liverpool Street Station, just in case an outreach worker has to investigate pitches in the area?

Last night at 12.10am, we were woken by two workers who went through the door of the porch we sleep in, only to leave the building a few minutes later. At 5.00am, as we were about to get up, the same thing happened; only this time it took the worker 15 minutes to exit. Are the police looking for a complaint against us? Because blocking workers’ right-of-way sounds pretty good to me.

Needless to say, this eventuality was foreseen by us a long time ago and every night we put down in a way that blocks nobody. We have also been sleeping in this porch without complaint since we first arrived in London on 3 November.

Anyway, this is Declan’s registered letter of 2 April to the Deputy Master of Civil Appeals:

Dear Sir/Madam

Re:  Access to court documents in the matter of the Queen on the application of Heavey v Birmingham Erdington Jobcentre Plus and the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Appeal Court Ref. No. C1/2006/2638)

As directed by the Civil Appeals Office, I am writing to you on the above matter.

I enclose copy of the order made by Lord/Lady Justice Scott Baker on 22 March 2007, which states in respect of my application for permission to appeal that the reasons for refusing permission are explained in the judgment of Walker J.

To precede the lodgement of my case against the UK with the European Court of Human Rights by introductory letter, I hereby request access to the case file.

Paragraph 32 of the judgment of Walker J states:

“… there is a letter from the Department which says that in the letter of 27th September the reference to him having failed to sign on was a mistake. The Department says that there is another good reason for terminating payment ...”

I seek sight of this letter from the Department for Work and Pensions which says that there is another good reason (unspecified by Walker J) for terminating payment of my joint claim for Jobseeker’s Allowance on 27 September 2006, and a copy of same.

I can confirm that I have had no sight of any such letter from the DWP, nor have I been provided with any reason for the termination of payment other than that provided in the letter to me of 27 September 2006 from Birmingham Erdington Jobcentre Plus, namely that I did not sign on (two days before I was due to do so on 29 September 2006).

Yours sincerely

Declan Heavey

Fifth visit by the police

On Friday night we had our fifth visit by the police. Imagine the scenario: a policeman goes up the two steps of the porch we sleep in; he wakes Declan, who is sleeping on the inside with our bags, by kicking the end of his sleeping bag; checks that the porch door is closed; and then asks Declan: “Are you OK, mate?”

I think it was just to wind us up because of what happened to me a few hours later in the Whitechapel Mission. When I enter the washroom, this middle-aged homeless woman who is always running into difficulties with other homeless – once, a guy threw two packets of rice over her – is also there. She always splashes water all over the floor, although her bags are nicely aligned against the wall at the other side of wherever she is and protected above and below with newspaper.

Anyway, this time she is splashing water in style: she is having a shower with the door fully open and the floor resembles a baby’s swimming pool, even the floor of the toilet cubicle I go into has been covered in water. So I soak up the water with toilet paper and I change my clothes; and then I go to a sink and soak up the water around my spot; and as soon as I have soaked up the water from the floor underneath the sink (where I put my rucksack and toiletry bag), from behind me she comes out of the shower, naked and dripping water, and passes straight by my dry spot.

Declan had some troubles of his own next door: he had to tell – quite aggressively and three times – a homeless not to use his sink, that he was at it.

The day before, Friday, was more of the same. When I arrived at my pitch outside Liverpool Street Station around 7.30am to sell The Big Issue, I found mushy food had been smeared all around it. After last Friday, when a guy with a placard and fliers tried to put me out of business, I was kind of expecting it and this time had my hair washed in the Whitechapel Mission at 6.05am (oops, I will not get a sink next Friday morning) just in case I would have to miss my shower and breakfast in the Dellow Centre in order to type my blog in the City of London Camomile Street Library – like I had to do the previous Friday. (The two only computers that accept a USB Flash Drive in this library are now back working again but because they only give a meagre free one hour a day, Declan and I have to go to the Bishopsgate Institute Library (£1.00 an hour) to finish the job and upload it. Problem is that since last Monday the eight computers in the library have been either occupied or out of order during our mid-afternoon break. Which means we have to take a bus to the nearest internet café … it just never finishes.)

The reason why there are plays on my pitch on Fridays in particular is because Friday is the working day of the week that vendors make the most money selling The Big Issue – fancy holding down a permanent job!

Anyway, my pitch has now become like the Whitechapel Mission: there is always something happening. I have three (motivated) beggars passing by me all the time: one of them sells The Big Issue – he is not a vendor, so I don’t know why he is so keen to pass by me when I could report him to my co-ordinators across the road; the other two are friends and pass by me like the police are chasing after them and they are desperate to get lost.

These two beggars, they are in their twenties, are quite something else. Every Friday evening, as we eat our dinner outside The Hamilton Hall in Liverpool Street Station, these two are going around stealing glasses of beer from people drinking outside the pub, drinking beer left over by others, and hassling passers-by for money, cigarettes, whatever.

I have other homeless passing by me too, some of whom I recognise from the Whitechapel Mission and the Dellow Centre – what they are doing in the heart of London’s business district, I don’t know. The thing is, I don’t smile at them, as I do at everybody else, in case they think they can start a conversation with me.

There are two events though that stand out in particular: the first involves the police and a nun; and the second, a Big Issue vendor. Ok, the first event. On Monday afternoon – I am at my pitch – a police van pulls up in front of me. And just in case I don’t suspect that it is on my case, this policewoman comes out and gives me a long look. At that very moment who is turning the corner to walk past my pitch but a nun in full dress, which I have never seen, not in the business district, not at a rush hour.

Five minutes later, a Polish guy on a bicycle stops to ask me how many magazines The Big Issue sells, that he is selling them as from the next day ... when he is gone the police van drives off. So what is it? Do I have to be nice to nuns? Or befriend homeless Poles? Or both? Resourceful perhaps, but the police are no slaves to logic.

The next morning at 6.00am in the Methodist-run Whitechapel Mission things become more apparent. There are notes all about informing the homeless that at 9.30am that very morning there is a prayer meeting and also some meditation and we are all invited – a first since we started visiting the mission on 3 November. Who are they kidding? I think at this stage we all know our differences are irreconcilable.

Declan says that the police are getting more desperate because though we have not greatly advanced since coming to London, a Lord Justice can’t just ignore Declan’s amended appellant’s notice of 17 January to seek permission to appeal Judge Walker’s decision of 11 December to dismiss our claim for judicial review against the Department for Work and Pensions (which Declan initially filed on 24 August).

The second event. Thursday morning at 8.30am, in the heart of the morning rush hour, a Big Issue vendor approaches me. He wants to buy some magazines and asks me if I know of anybody around who is selling them. No, sorry, I say and go back to selling my magazines to the passing crowd. He doesn’t go away though and asks me again: who is selling in the area. I tell him that I don’t know and ask him if I can get back to my job, to which he retorts in a loud voice that there is no need to be “rude”. He must have repeated that word at least three times before he eventually took off.

Declan had a similar experience on Thursday also: he went to our pitch in Covent Garden only to have the vendor we share it with (and who Declan had to threaten with a complaint the last time he encountered him) going on to a former vendor about how unfriendly Declan was.

Yesterday morning while selling The Big Issue in a pitch in Covent Garden (well, Strand to be specific), I see this guy in the coffee shop I am facing surfing the internet on his laptop; and it got me wondering about my own laptop, which I had to sell when we knew for certain the DWP was making us homeless after terminating our unemployment benefit on 27 September because Declan, as stated in his Grounds of Appeal, did not “sign on” two days before he was due to do so on 29 September.

Back to sleep deprivation techniques

For the last two nights the Metropolitan Police have been using some of their usual sleep deprivation techniques against us: alarms close-by (although this time none of them came from the medical centre across the road) and cars parking by our porch at all hours of the morning despite that both sides of the entire street were free for parking, with drivers and/or passengers banging doors.

The police are so desperate to shake our world – well, the one we have been reduced to – I wouldn’t be surprised if next they turn up and ask us to leave the porch we have been sleeping in since 3 November (save a brief period in WLCHC rolling shelters), that they have received complaints. That is going to be a difficult one to pull though. We sleep at the side of an office building, and leave at 5.30am every morning – hardly the material for a complaint.

The Whitechapel Mission is the best place to measure the temperature, so to speak, of the whole situation. Yesterday morning it was piping hot ... we hadn’t even sat at a table and this homeless guy approaches holding some pastry he wants me to accept. When Declan declines the offer, he starts hurling abuse at him. We were actually close to walking out of the building, even though it was only 6.10am and we had nowhere to go. The last thing we are going to do is wait around for an assault. (On Sunday morning there were five different fights in the Whitechapel Mission within the space of a half an hour. As I mentioned in my last blog, the police were called after a guy had apparently been head butted.)

This lunch time, while I was selling The Big Issue at Liverpool Street station, this old homeless appeared out of nowhere and started selling some plants for £1 each to passers-by just two metres away from my pitch. He was there for 45 minutes and was not removed by the police for selling in the street illegally, despite that Liverpool Street is heavily patrolled by police … they are so concerned about a terrorist attack that there is not a single bin inside the station. Needless to say, I did little selling while he was there. Anyway, I have told Declan that if he is back tomorrow, I am going to Chelsea library to buy 30 of their 10p books and I am going to sell them beside this homeless man – obviously this is a spot where street traders need not to worry about Council approved vendor ID badges.

Two days ago we went to another journalist – do the Metropolitan Police think that we are going to take a trip to the River Thames and jump into it? In addition to pertinent documents in the case of Heavey v Birmingham Erdington Jobcentre Plus and the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Declan again enclosed some pages from our NAC website so that the journalist can see where everything is emanating from. We know that when our story breaks domestically, we are going to get a tremendous amount of local support. After all, England is a secular country and most people have little time for religion. Add to that the serious threat that the Vatican and the Christian Right present for progress and secular values, and the best cards are with us.

Has a Lord Justice ruled?

Declan eventually got the two Westminster vendor jackets from the Big Issue head office yesterday – after three visits to the office to sort it all out. It means that we can now sell The Big Issue in the City of Westminster after 6.00pm. We might as well, because after the difficulties we ran into last weekend with pitches in Covent Garden, not to mention our loss of earnings yesterday, we have been hit financially.

To receive letters from the Royal Court of Justice, Declan has the Whitechapel Mission as a care of address. However, since last Monday there has been no listing for post received by the mission for the homeless appearing on the monitor installed in the breakfast area. Monday and Tuesday Declan had to return to the mission mid-morning, to be told through the intercom that there was no post for him. Yesterday, because Declan was in and out of the Big Issue head office well into the afternoon, he had to phone instead. And all he repeatedly got was a voice mail.

This morning he established with a member of staff that all post is sorted for certain by 1.00pm and that he should phone after that time – he still could get a voice mail, nothing he can do about that – and if he has post he has until 3.30pm to collect it. So if he is selling The Big Issue at his pitch in Liverpool Street and there is post for him in the Whitechapel Mission, he will have to pack his bags and, in the heart of London’s traffic, take a bus to the mission to collect his post. The thing is he has no choice in the matter, especially now that he is waiting for a Lord Justice in the Court of Appeal to rule on whether or not we can appeal Judge Walker’s decision of 11 December to deny us permission to apply for a judicial review against the Department for Work and Pensions. Perhaps he has been called to a hearing to determine the matter, and we don’t know.

On Monday also, Declan found out that three of the four sink stoppers in the men’s toilet in the mission had been removed. All the homeless now use bits of toilet paper in an attempt to contain water – how do you shave otherwise? More than once, Declan has walked into sinks full of dirty water with clumps of toilet paper strewn everywhere. Declan wanted to buy a stopper for himself – he even had the one remaining stopper measured up – but he was told this morning by a member of staff that he couldn’t and that they would fit stoppers when they can. I have seen one homeless guy shave himself in the breakfast area in one of their foam cups for the coffee.

This morning also, while I was in the women’s toilet in the mission at 6.10am (we now wake up at 5.15am), a homeless woman came in. Without minding that I had my mouth full of toothpaste, she wanted me to give her something of mine – I assume some of my toiletry. She was so pushy and aggressive that I went into one of the toilets and locked the door – toothpaste and all.

This is not the first time I have ran into a homeless woman, or to better clarify, a homeless woman has ran into me. A few weeks back another homeless woman hassled me while we were both queuing outside the Dellow Centre after I wouldn’t get into conversation with her.

Still waiting for a Lord Justice to rule

Well, I have to say that there is nothing I miss from the WLCHC (West London Churches Homeless Concern) rolling shelters: the food was bearably eatable (with the exception of their Monday shelter at the Chelsea Methodist Church); the women’s rooms were of late unheated; homeless were catching scabies off blankets and mats; and the women had to usually share toilets with the men. Then, of course, there were some of the homeless themselves. I wonder if faith-based initiatives can provide anything other than half-baked services.

From now until April, our biggest challenge is going to be the weather - apart from the usual police harassment. It snowed two nights before we had to quit the WLCHC programme on 28 January.

We have bought high quality thermals (top and bottom) for the both of us with money we earned this week selling The Big Issue. Other expenses were two seven-day bus passes (£28), plus food (lunch and dinner, sometimes breakfast). On Friday, the base of my left foot was swollen as result of all the standing around I had been doing. Anyway, if you take out the cold, and people are sauntering, we both enjoy selling The Big Issue.

Covent Garden is where we have been going on weekends – our pitches at Liverpool Street station just die for us on Saturday and Sunday. And up to last weekend we had been getting two pitches in Covent Garden that worked very well for us, while at the same time keeping our bags safe. Not any more. Yesterday, one of the Big Issue coordinators in Covent Garden informed Declan that both pitches are restricted. When Declan asked for two other pitches that have also worked for us, he was informed that one is restricted and someone had just been sent to the other.

Our new pitches turned out to be almost a washout. We didn’t know where to put our bags and passers-by were not buying the magazine. In regard to the bags, the majority of Big Issue vendors – we get on with a number of them, especially in Covent Garden – carry only a small rucksack. The reason is that they are either in temporary accommodation or hostels. But you need benefits for such placement and our claim for unemployment benefit was terminated on 27 September.

On the subject of benefits, Declan lodged his amended appellant’s notice (to include transcript of judgment) in the Civil Appeals Office in the Royal Courts of Justice on 17 January, and still a Lord Justice in the Court of Appeal has to give us the go-ahead to appeal Judge Walker’s decision of 11 December to refuse us permission to apply for a judicial review against the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). Funnily enough, when Declan first lodged his application for judicial review on 24 August, he did so with an application for urgent consideration. I don’t know why they bother providing such an application when it can be so easily disregarded.

Our case certainly casts a shadow on the whole idea of the integrity of the Court, especially when the DWP can so blatantly deny us the right to the internal review process prior to irrationally terminating our claim on 27 September (because Declan did not “sign on” two days before he was due to do so on 29 September), and we are still waiting – having been forced to sleep rough – for the Court to rule on permission to appeal.

Nelson Mandela, in his autobiography Long Walk to Freedom, writes: “I went from having an idealistic view of the law as a sword of justice to a perception of the law as a tool used by the ruling class to shape society in a way favorable to itself. I never expected justice in court, however much I fought for it, and though I sometimes received it.” I can’t think of anybody more qualified to make such an assessment, so I am happy to go with him.