Socials alst Drop the charges
Socialist Organiser1981 1981-08-20Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 16 →
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FOR THE 3,000 youth randomly arrested and even more randomly fixed up with "charges' during the riots, appearing in court is no more than a formality. The idea of a "fair" trial evaporated into thin air as the Tories and police began to take legalised revenge on young blacks and whites.
Most were remanded to borstals, locked up for a week or more before anyone had even heard their cases.
Most were also denied legal aid - the way the bosses' state tries to prove that justice is free' to all -leaving unemployed youth bills of £150 just for defending their innocence.
As for the trials, most were a mockery. As with 'outhall in 1979, magistrate ere taking it as read that i one cop appeared to giv vidence against you thei you were guilty, and your évidence was lies - even if you had ten witnesses.
Mick Liggins, National Left Wing Youth Movement Secretary, lifted in Leicester and charged with threaten ing behaviour, found him self. on the dav accused of throwing a bottle and a brick prosecutor claimed, entirely independent of eachother, picked the same fictitious spot.
When witnesses appeared for Mick to testify to the real events and to correct police geography, the magistrates smiled - and found Mick guilty!
That is the practical experience of Tory 'justice' that the riot youth are t getting.
With the police already geared up for their next attack in the form of the conspiracy trials in Bradford, what is needed now is a massive defence campaign for all these youth.
*Drop the charges now!
*For a labour movement inquiry to establish the real guilty parties at Westminster and in the police.
PETER FLACK rioters'. ORGA
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