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Charlie Veitch: The Police Don't Want Me At The Wedding

By Charlie Veitch

UPDATE: Charlie has been arrested. Read about it here.

In the run up to the crowns-and-clean-bedding-benefit scrounger wedding, Met Police Commissioner Lynne Owens said: "Any criminals attempting to disrupt the day, in protest or otherwise will be met by a robust, decisive, flexible and proportionate police response.”

And she meant it – even arresting six known anarchists yesterday, in preemptive Minority Report-style, to hand out temporary banning orders for central London (it's pretty ironic that they expect anarchists to obey banning orders).

I was sure I was going to be detained next (or as they say, dawn-raided, snatched and grabbed), so I chain-smoked a few rollies and made a video-log, anxiously awaiting the dreaded knock on the door... there is blow-back, you see, for inadvertently making yourself Public Enemy Number One.

You see, I've been speaking to the press. A lot. Since starting to write for VICE and my appearance in the Evening Standard and on CNN, I've media-whored myself to get as much publicity for us anarchists as possible. Though I've been careful about what I say, Associated Press edited my interview so that all I said was:

“We're likely to see a large group, dressed in black engaging in destruction of corporate and government property”.

Even though I went on to explain that there is a vast chasm between, say, destroying a bank window (destruction), and raining depleted uranium upon Iraqi civilians (violence), the media, ever ready to juxtapose and sensationalise, simply broadcast my sound-bite.

And so I decided to pre-empt any kidnapping of yours truly by turning up at Scotland Yard HQ and informing the cops that I was not planning any destruction myself – though I would not be dismissive of angry and ignored protesters who do, in fact, smash shit up.

Continued on page two