An armed siege? A terrorist munitions factory? No, just the Police breaking into our studio building in Haggerston on Friday 25th June because there is a sculpture on the roof that Priti Patel doesn’t like.
You get 10 years in prison for protest of historical statues, but someone erects something subversive and the full muscle of the state comes knocking.
The building was ransacked and three people were arrested, but released without charge the following day.
WTF is happening?
The roof sculpture is a construction made of bamboo and cables as used by Extinction Rebellion in their protest and blockading of the printing plants of Murdoch’s media last Autumn.
The structure was designed by the collective @probunnyrabbit who submitted it for the annual @antepavilion annual architectural open competition, and it is installed on the roof as part of that competition.
It not officially associated with Extinction Rebellion. It is a sprawling structure fixed to the roof that took six weeks to construct and it could not play any kinetic role in any XR protests at short notice.
XR were planning further protests against Murdoch last weekend. The police intended to remove it (but failed). It takes a certain skill-set to erect it, and anyone with such skills would have been a target of the raid.
The Police were simply operating as stooges for Murdoch.