Bodycam footage of alleged sledgehammer attack on police shown at trial of Palestine Action activists Six Palestine Action members face charges for a coordinated break-in involving sledgehammers at Elbit Systems UK, with one officer suffering a spinal fracture, police said.
Authorities say six people used a prison van to break into the Elbit Systems UK factory near Bristol on Aug. 6, 2024, in a 'meticulously organised' attack. Palestine Action had previously targeted the Bristol plant during the Gaza conflict, spraying paint and smashing windows, and was proscribed under UK terrorism laws after a separate RAF base incident. Police evidence, including bodycam footage, depicts activists in red overalls using sledgehammers and axes to attack officers, with one clip showing Samuel Corner swinging a sledgehammer at PC Buxton. PS Kate Evans told jurors that an X-ray showed a lumbar spine fracture, leaving her unable to work for three months and reliant on painkillers and assistance with basic tasks. The trial at Woolwich Crown Court is underway and expected to last until January; Elbit Systems UK said the Bristol site supplied only the British military and later closed the plant, while prosecutors said proscription is not relevant.
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via Lierre Keith who depicts it as an act of misogynist violence:
Lierre Keith @lierrekeith Nov 28 In case you're confused, the people who smash a woman's spine with a sledgehammer are the baddies.
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No Lierre, it was a cop, who was there to assault & arrest the activists, as the video also shows. But because the activists are pro-Palestine she immediately discards any critical analysis about the role of the police in suppressing dissent, and it's just about a violent man attacking a defenceless woman. Does she now believe the property of Elbit systems and the wellbeing of the goons they hire to defend it is more valuable than the lives of Palestinian children?
I expect the episode will be a textbook illustration of a point Keith's co-author Derrick Jensen (silent about the Gaza genocide afaik) made rather well:
'Premise Four: Civilization is based on a clearly defined and widely accepted yet often unarticulated hierarchy. Violence done by those higher on the hierarchy to those lower is nearly always invisible, that is, unnoticed. When it is noticed, it is fully rationalized. Violence done by those lower on the hierarchy to those higher is unthinkable, and when it does occur is regarded with shock, horror, and the fetishization of the victims.
Premise Five: The property of those higher on the hierarchy is more valuable than the lives of those below. It is acceptable for those above to increase the amount of property they control—in everyday language, to make money—by destroying or taking the lives of those below. This is called production. If those below damage the property of those above, those above may kill or otherwise destroy the lives of those below. This is called justice.' - https://derrickjensen.org/endgame/premises/
The apparent attack by this PA activist on a police officer will mean he gets the book thrown at him, and corporate media is already taking it as evidence that PA deserve their terrorist designation. Meanwhile the far worse violence embedded in the business conducted by Elbit will be rendered invisible, aided by the likes of Lierre Keith whose only concern is the health & wellbeing of perpetrators and those who defend them.
Thanks Morrissey, there have been a number of ploughshares actions in the UK too over the years, many saboteurs acquitted after trial - presumably one of the reasons for the avoidance of jury trials for UK Plc's more recent kangaroo courts. Here's one I hadn't heard of, smashing a hawk military aircraft due to be sent to Suharto's Indonesia:
Seeds of Hope (short for Seeds of Hope East Timor Ploughshares Group,[1] but also known as the Ploughshares Four[2] or the Warton Four[3]) was a plowshares group of women who damaged a BAE Hawk warplane at the British Aerospace Warton Aerodrome site near Preston, England, in 1996.[4] The four were part of a larger group of 10 who planned the action.[5] The additional six women involved as the support group were; Lyn Bliss, Clare Fearnley, Emily Johns, Jen Parker, Ricarda Steinbrecher, Rowan Tilly.[6] Their aim was to stop the aircraft from being exported to the Indonesian military, for use in the illegally occupied country of East Timor. They left a video and booklet in the cockpit of the aircraft to explain their motivation.[7] Direct action
On 29 January 1996, Andrea Needham, Joanna Wilson, and Lotta Kronlid broke into BAE's Warton Aerodrome and caused between £1.4m[8] and £2.5m,[5][9][10][11] worth of damage to Hawk tail number ZH955. Damage focused on components related to weapons and targeting.[12] The damage or disarmament was done to the Hawk with ordinary household hammers.[13] The warplane was part of a £500 million deal to supply 24 planes to the New Order regime of Indonesia.[7] In the tradition of plowshares actions, they stayed at the site intending to wait until they were found by security; however, they had to call security using a phone in the hangar because their presence remained unnoticed. They were arrested for criminal damage and conspiracy to commit criminal damage. A week later, a fourth woman, Angie Zelter, was also arrested and charged with conspiracy after stating she planned to do the same.[14] The four spent six months on remand in HMP Risley before a seven-day trial at Liverpool Crown Court in July 1996.[15] This was the 56th ploughshares action and the third ever in Britain,[16] the group called it "Seeds of Hope - East Timor Ploughshares - Women Disarming for Life and Justice".[9]
Trial
Accused of causing, and conspiring to cause, criminal damage, with a maximum ten-year sentence, they pleaded not guilty arguing that what they did was not a crime but that they "were acting to prevent British Aerospace and the British Government from aiding and abetting genocide",[7][17] referring to the genocide taking place in East Timor. They were found not guilty of criminal damage at Liverpool Crown Court, after a jury deemed their action reasonable under the Genocide Act 1969.[18] This made it the first Ploughshares action to result in a not guilty verdict.
nmThe last working-class hero in England. Clio the cat, ? July 1997 - 1 May 2016 Kira the cat, ? ? 2010 - 3 August 2018 Jasper the Ruffian cat ??? - 4 November 2021 Georgina the cat ???-4 December 2025
Thankfully it is a tiny minority that gives a sh*t ..
on December 1, 2025, 7:57 pm