Brighton: Section 144 appeal successful! Calling Mike Weatherley MP a coward case continues

By: dolph-l - November 1st, 2013  Filed under: News

We won the appeal!!

A squatter convicted under s144 had the conviction unanimously overturned for lack of ANY evidence. Our barrister was ninja and the judge laid down some stringent guidelines on what the police must do to establish proof that someone lives in a squat. Unfortunately he refused to define what constitutes residential…

A deeper analysis will follow, for now we can only say if you are accused of squatting a residential building, don’t talk to police at all (no comment interview) and plead not guilty. This law is fucked and unenforceable.

Also, the #mikeweatherleyisacoward case continues so our @housingwar twitter will continue with court updates. Continue reading for tweets from court today:

[Read More]

Tags: , , , , , ,

Halloween in Brighton (and Hove)

By: sisulscz - October 30th, 2013  Filed under: News

So tomorrow (Thursday 31 October) the appeal against the s144 conviction continues in Hove Crown Court (today went quite well, we will be posting a full report after the trail concludes) AND also the two day trial of a man accused of calling Member of Parliament Mike Weatherley a coward begins at Brighton magistrates court (yes it does really).
[Read More]

Tags: , , ,

Brighton: Appeal coming up!

By: sisulscz - October 25th, 2013  Filed under: News

The appeal of the third squatban resister is coming up in Brighton!

In a week and a half, on the 30th and 31st of October, our friend Dirk will finally have his appeal against his conviction for Squatting a Residental building. We call on all squatters to come to this appeal and support Dirk! Fuck S144!

Down with Weatherley, up the squatters!
[Read More]

Tags: , , , ,

UK: SQUASH Newsround August – September 2013

By: sisulscz - September 19th, 2013  Filed under: News

The NewsRound is be a monthly post, keeping tabs on articles being posted in MainStream Media (MSM) sources, as well as independent channels (eg IMC, SchNEWS) about squatting, the new law (s.144) and possible new legislation (eg commercial). If you spot any articles of interest, please let us know by emailing: info AT squashcampaign DOT org. Disclaimer: All views expressed in this blog are that of the compiler and not necessarily that of SQUASH.
[Read More]

Tags: , , , ,

Hungary is about to criminalize homelessness once again

By: sisulscz - September 15th, 2013  Filed under: News

By passing a new law that would criminalize street homelessness, the Hungarian government is once again about to violate the fundamental right to human dignity, defy the country’s international obligations, and go directly in the face of the judgement of Hungarian Constitutional Court.
[Read More]

Tags: , ,

UK: Labour MPs Call For Extension of Squatting Ban To Protect Profits of Property Tycoons

By: sisulscz - September 15th, 2013  Filed under: News

As homelessness in the capital soars, three senior Labour Party figures have launched an all out attack on homeless people by demanding new laws to protect property developers and landlords from squatters.

Head of Lambeth Council, Lib Peck, MP for Streatham and Shadow Business Secretary Chuka Umunna along with Dulwich MP Tessa Jowell have all signed a joint letter this week written to bungling Justice Secretary Chris Grayling demanding that the squatting ban be extended to commercial properties.
[Read More]

Tags: ,

Brighton: Statement At Adjournment of the Trial

By: sisulscz - April 24th, 2013  Filed under: News

Today the squatting trial in Brighton was adjourned until the 24th May as it ran out of time due to extreme faffing.

Two squatters had already had the case against them thrown out of court when the magistrates realised the prosecution hadn’t actually presented any evidence that they lived in the building. And the case against the third squatter looks pretty flimsy.

One of the freed defendants, said:
[Read More]

Tags: , ,

UK: Is Mike Weatherley Dead Yet (a brief interview)

By: sisulscz - March 10th, 2013  Filed under: Interviews, News

Some stories enrage you because there shouldn’t have to be anything more to say: no National Debate or serious frowny faces on Question Time. The HIV-positive asylum seeker and her 10-month-old child who starved to death in a Westminster flat last March. The teenager who set himself on fire in a council office in December after they refused to find him a home.

And now there’s 35-year-old homeless man Daniel Gauntlett, who died of hypothermia in Aylesford last week on the porch of an empty bungalow that he could not enter without facing arrest and a criminal record.
[Read More]

Tags: ,

UK: Criminalising squatting, empty homes and property guardianship

By: Rosa - February 23rd, 2013  Filed under: News

‘Property guardianship’ or ‘anti-squatting’ is a phenomenon which started in the Netherlands in the 1990s and has now spread to five other European countries, including the UK. Property guardians are essentially unofficial security guards, who pay to inhabit a building as their home, under the tenure of ‘license’.

Crucially, this is not a tenancy, and has none of the corresponding automatic rights of security of tenure. ‘Guardians’ usually pay £15-100 a week to do this, depending on the company involved, and the area they are in – the cost is always below market rent.

[Read More]

Tags: ,

UK: The First Squatter Is Jailed

By: sisulscz - September 28th, 2012  Filed under: News

This afternoon, on my way back from a disturbing bike ride around Mayfair, where money is almost literally oozing out of every orifice of those who find it easier than ever to enrich themselves at the expense of society as a whole, I arrived back at Charing Cross, to catch the train back to south east London, where I was confronted by the front page of the Evening Standard announcing, “London Squatter First to Be Jailed,” which threw me into an angry depression.
[Read More]

Tags: , ,

Brighton: First arrests under squatban

By: sisulscz - September 4th, 2012  Filed under: News

The first known arrests over the new squatting law happened today.
Three squatters occupying a commercial property in Brighton, who were using the upstairs residential area as an un-lived in social centre, were arrested after a seven hour standoff. The two rooftop occupiers vanished into thin air!

There are also unconfirmed reports of arrests in Somerset.
[Read More]

Tags: , ,

Birmingham: Homeless campaigners squat council house

By: sisulscz - September 1st, 2012  Filed under: News

Birmingham Tenants & Homeless Action Group have occupied an abandoned council house with the intention of handing it over to a homeless person. They’ve contacted the council and demanded that they put the property back into use as low cost social housing and then do the same with the other nearly 12,000 empty properties around the city. Otherwise they have said that despite changes to the law on squatting they will continue with occupations of the other empty properties with the intention of handing them over to the homeless. With 11,924 empty properties, the highest rate of homelessness in the country and an estimate by city planners that Birmingham is currently short of 11,000 affordable homes, putting the abandoned houses back into use is the only logical step

[Read More]

Tags: , , ,