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.

Declan assaulted in WLCHC shelter

Last night Declan left the Wednesday WLCHC (West London Churches Homeless Concern) rolling shelter at Riverside Community Church in Hammersmith at 4.30am, and walked into Hammersmith Police Station to report a physical assault on him by one of the homeless guys he sleeps with. It may not be long now before we find ourselves back in the porch we have been sleeping in since 3 November, despite the winter weather.

I was actually totally unaware of the drama that had taken place because I was in another room and Declan didn’t want the night staff to wake me up. So when lights went on at 6.00am – I had been awake since 5.30am because I could hear the volunteers in the kitchen talking and making noise – I was told Declan had been assaulted during the night and was waiting for me out on the street.

Last week at the Friday WLCHC shelter at the Hall of Remembrance in Chelsea a homeless guy was seriously assaulted by another homeless guy in the queue prior to entry and the police had to be called to the scene. So, I really didn’t know what to expect.

As it turns out, at 3.30am one of the homeless – a black guy in his fifties, whose Lithuanian partner sleeps with me – crossed the hall to where Declan was sleeping and came down with considerable force on Declan’s crotch with a flat hand.

As Declan was telling me while we were waiting outside the gates of the Dellow Centre to do a laundry, he is well accustomed to physical conflict and injury as result of all the sport he has played, but somebody less physical could well have suffered an injury from the force of the assault. Actually that was one of the questions he was asked by the policewoman that took his statement.

What makes this assault all the more shocking is that just before dinner we had been speaking to one of two WLCHC coordinators for over 10 minutes about all the bullying we have been experiencing over the past two weeks, especially Declan, both inside and in the queue to the WLCHC shelters we have been sleeping in. This coordinator told us he would be putting a stop to it and that in future we should bring to his attention any intimidation and/or bullying that occurs.

Anyway, the incident has been reported to the police, as well as all the bullying prior to it, and although Declan didn’t receive a copy of his statement, the policewoman (PC 737FH) said the matter would be investigated by her and that Declan would be phoned with a crime reference number.

The WLCHC night duty staff told Declan that on their part they would be reporting the assault to the director of WLCHC, Michael Athienites. The coordinator we had been talking to actually asked us if we would like to talk with Athienites, as he was at the shelter. Declan didn’t think it was necessary. If only he had known!

Yesterday afternoon Declan and I delivered an envelope to a journalist containing some pages from our NAC website and documents in the case Heavey v Birmingham Erdington Jobcentre Plus and the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions: his sealed appellant’s notice of 17 January together with grounds of appeal; order of Mr Justice Walker of 11 December together with transcript of judgment (see blog of 11 December “Judge Walker refuses us permission to apply for judicial review”); and grounds of resistance by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions of 14 September. I keep thinking that this is London, and that surely we can find a competent journalist that can cut an angle for publication. It is not as if NAC is not potentially a very important organisation, not only nationally, but internationally. You only have to have a look at the calibre of the NAC trustees and honorary associates to see it.