5 anti-fascist protesters were vindicated today after the case collapsed: the prosecution admitting they had “no evidence” to proceed due to their key witness Chief Inspector Williams being “on leave”. The police had almost a year to prepare for this case which involved just 5 of the 59 people originally arrested during a demonstration which stopped the BNP from marching on the Cenotaph in June last year. That police operation proved to be a dress rehearsal for the arrest of 286 anti-fascsists during a mobilisation to stop the EDL from marching on Tower Hamlets in September 2013. Mass arrests, restrictive bail conditions, months of waiting, then a handful charged; this is the face of anti-fascist policing; but today the anti-fascist five scored an important victory against them.
Hugh Muir in The Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/apr/14/hugh-muir-diary-cps-anti-fascist-prosecution
Video reactions of the Anti-Fascist Five and Amy Jowett - whose leg was broken by police on that day.
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