28th October 2008, London, Whitechapel:
the police unexpectedly intruded the rampART social centre in their lunchtime. they must have been starving, because they felt like breaking the doors. we wonder if it was appetite, that made them force their way in, or curiosity, to see the progress of our efforts to barricade the rampART. still, we art not amused of officers on the scrounge…
… although we are generally open for people to come by to wine and dine with us, but we’d like to invite people to knock on the doors, rather than knocking them down. and we don’t support gluttony of greedy developpers, groping houses to convert them to luxury flats, because they want to bite more than they can chew…
… as you might know, the rampART is under threat of immanent eviction, so these three coppers might have been the vanguard of the 80 riot cops that are expected to come by with the high court bailiffs to evict the space. so we are thinking how many people we will have to cater for breakfast. needless to say, we’d prefer to pamper our friends and supporters. so feel welcome to join the feast & fight the beast and defend your favourite social centre…
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Rampart newsletter 28th October 2008
A small number of police broke down the front door and entered the Rampart today. They searched people for drugs and photographed them as well as the barricades and the building itself. They explained their actions saying that it is because the area is a high-risk drugs area. This is unfortunately true of the street but we are concerned that this may be related to our eviction as well. They entered the Rampart without a warrant and then left after they had photographed. This was NOT an eviction attempt.
Difficult right now to say what it means in relation to an eviction, but on the side of caution, we are asking people to come to the Rampart tonight (Tues 28th) to stay over to defend the building and help with barricades for what might be an early morning eviction. We will also need people to assist outside if the time comes so send us your mobile number to be informed. There will be a hearty breakfast for the brave.
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29th October 2008
Some pretty heavy barricades were put up last night, and a number of people stayed over night. More people are needed though – the Police can come any night, so there needs to be enough people in there every night.
It’s your social centre – come and help it out !
Source: Indy London
