Yusef Asad was unjustly sentenced to two and a half years in Prison for defending himself from racists attacking a Palestine March in Cardiff in July 2014. He received the heaviest sentence despite only responding as racists at a pub started the violence throwing bottles, glasses and chairs at the demonstrators, who included young families.
Yusef welcomes letters of support.
Yusef Asad
A4424DD
HUNTERCOMBE PRISON
NUFFIELD
HENLEY-ON-THAMES
OXFORDSHIRE
RG05SB
This Mayday, in the wake of the death of Ian Tomlinson, who died during the G20 demonstrations after being struck by baton and pushed to the ground by a member of the territorial support group (TSG), over 50 people gathered outside Cardiff central police station to protest against police violence. The protest was a lively one lasting about two hours, with music and singing throughout the demonstration. There was a mix of protesters from a cross section of the radical political ‘scene’ in South Wales, with representations from all the local Anarchist groups and Socialist parties, as well as campaigners for peace, social justice, human and animal rights.
Unsurprisingly, following recent criticism of the Metropolitan Police over their thuggish behaviour during the G20, nearly all the Cardiff cops stayed behind closed doors, with only one coming out to attempt to talk to people in the crowd. What may have been an attempt at appeasing the demonstrators was, however, treated with scepticism by those who’d previously been on the receiving end of police violence during protests and are more than aware of the systematic and deliberate way in which public demonstrations are repressed and criminalised.
South Wales Anarchists not only condemn police violence, but will confront officers who commit violence against those who protest. We oppose the continued deployment of “Forward Intelligence Teams” (FIT) who photograph and harass demonstrators. These tactics are unacceptable and we are committed to disrupt them as much as possible. More than that we see the role of the Police force as nothing more than the protectors of the interests of the rich and powerful, which cannot be reformed. The police are the violent arm of the state in our communities. They are the enemy of the working class!
buffoon?
Welsh labour’s new blog Aneurin Glyndwr is crap. That’s the consensus among journalists and the wider blogging community in Wales. From the risible duo of MEPs Eluned Morgan and Glenys Kinnock trashing Tom Jones’ hit Delilah – ditched due to copyright infringement – to puerile comments about other politicians, including south Wales anarchists, this blog is certainly not the ‘modern platform for the politics of the progressive left’. You can’t even leave comments which flatly contradicts the authors’ proud boast of creating ‘a positive and constructive debate about the future of Wales’.
So what of labour’s claim that south Wales anarchists are buffoons? We invite readers to consider the issues we’ve raised and make their own minds up.
Back in January we revealed the hypocrisy of our assembly members (AMs) whose £10 million pension pot (paid for with our money) is being invested in companies which are among the world’s worst polluters and human rights violaters and include Shell, BHP Billiton and Atlas Copco.
Since the last assembly elections we’ve campaigned against the abuse by AMs of the £12,000 per annum additional costs allowance, which permits a number of them to trouser serious amounts of money, buying and selling second homes at the taxpayers’ expense. Welsh labour’s Huw Lewis and Lynne Neagle are among the culprits.
We highlighted the scandalous 10.2% hike in salaries accepted by the majority of AMs in 2008 when public sector workers were being forced to accept increases worth a fraction of their political masters. Let’s see if our hard-pressed AMs take a pay rise this year as thousands of people all over Wales are thrown on the unemployment scrapheap. No prizes for guessing what the answer to that question will be…
We’ve consistently exposed the crass behaviour of south Wales police.
We vigorously opposed the illegal war against Iraq, while welsh labour politicians dithered.
buffoon?
We’ve written extensively about the growing militarisation of Wales, a pet project of Rhodri Morgan. Wales is now home to 180 arms and aerospace companies, a very worrying development in our opinion and one which needs to be stopped. Millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money are being channelled to weapons manufacturers, such as Raytheon and BAE systems, with links to some of the most brutal regimes in the world, including Israel. In the meantime the welsh economy is left to go down the pan.
buffoon?
Perhaps those behind the blog: Peter Hain, found guilty of a ‘serious and substantial’ breach of parliamentary regulations after failing to declare £100,000 of donations to his dismal deputy leadership campaign, MEP Eluned Morgan, ex-Plaid Cymru member, Alun Davies AM, who accepts ‘hospitality’ from US burger chain Macdonald’s – flying in the face of assembly attempts to tackle obesity – free clothes and opera tickets, and ex-liberal democrat Leighton ‘piggy’ Andrews may like to respond to the issues ‘buffoons’ like us have raised?
They’re free, of course, to leave comments on our blog.
On 12 February 2009, as a police helicopter hovered overhead, four heavily armed cops raided the Grangetown home of jazz musician Victor Frederick, 63, his partner, Andrea Heath and their 12 year-old daughter.
Ms Heath described what happened:
“I heard some scuffling sound and shouting. When I opened the door there were four police officers armed with machine guns which had infra-red sights.
“The whole street had been cordoned off. I could see Victor in his underpants outside with police training guns on him. Other officers trained their guns on me. I was told I would be shot if I moved. It was absolutely terrifying.
“Our daughter was upstairs. She told me later that she had a camera and thought about taking pictures of the police activity and commotion. It’s awful to think what might have happened if the police had seen a camera flash from the upstairs window and assumed it was a gun.”
Mr Frederick was arrested under suspicion of possessing materials likely to be used for making explosives and hauled off to Rumney nick where he was held for 24 hours before being released without charge.
In a published letter to Barbara Wilding, south Wales chief cop, Plaid Cymru AM Leanne Wood writes: “When [Mr Frederick] asked for [handcuffs] to be loosened, he tells me they were deliberately tightened to the extent that he was in extreme pain and circulation was cut off.
“He tells me that the police officers armed with machine guns appeared extremely nervous. They did not seem to have any background knowledge of why they were there. Other officers both in uniform and in plain clothes said they did not know what was going on…The family feels lucky and relieved that all three members are alive.”
And just what suspicious material did the cops find in Mr Frederick’s recording studio? A Mohammed Ali boxing video and a west Indian drink called mauby.
And as for south Wales cops? Still insisting, as they had done for the past six weeks, that officers had acted “in good faith based on genuine concerns”…until yesterday, that is, less than 24 hours after a much-publicised press conference given by Mr Frederick, Ms Heath and Ms Wood. Mr Frederick has now received a hand-delivered letter from Superintendent Bob Tooby, Deputy Divisional Commander of C Division, offering the family an unreserved apology. Bob has also offered to repair the damage the cops did to the family’s home.
Our advice? Tear the letter up and sue Barbara Wilding and her thugs for every penny you can get! But that won’t change much. South Wales cops seem to be out of control. We wonder how many other people have been terrorised by them and how many more will suffer at the hands of these people in “authority” who are meant to “serve” the community…
Resist police repression.
In the effort, perhaps, to distract public attention from serious allegations of corruption, “two homes” secretary, Jacqui Smith (left) has been doing the media rounds to announce her updated counter-terrorism strategy, CONTEST 2, designed, as usual, to make people even more afraid than they already are.
In the meantime another connected and more sinister announcement has gone unnoticed by the main stream media. On 19 March Ms Smith said that UK police inc. will get up to 10,000 new tasers and £2.3 million to pay for cartridges. South Wales cops will get 120 and the gun-toting Gwent force will get an extra 100.
It isn’t simply the huge number of these lethal weapons that needs to be highlighted and condemned, however. Of more significance is the fact that tasers, which deliver 50,000 volts in 5-second bursts, will no longer be issued exclusively to firearms officers, who, at least, have a modicum of training (so we’re told). From now on, ‘specially trained’ police response officers will be able to get their hands on the weapon, which since its introduction in the US has contributed to the deaths of 351 people according to Amnesty International. And what of this ‘special training’ received by the plods? “Kaiser Bill”, posting on the Police forum blog, gives us an insight:
“Training?….hahahahaha. Response is the lowest of the low…response policing tends to be something people try to escape at the earliest opportunity…. the blind leading the blind quite often.”
The blind leading the blind! Hardly fills you with confidence, does it? Neither does a recent episode when coppers in north Wales tasered a confused 89 year-old man, who’d wandered out of his care home. Jacqui, however, has no qualms: ‘Everyday the police put themselves in danger to 
protect us, the public. They deserve our support, so I want to give the police the tools they tell me they need to confront dangerous people. That is why I have given every police force the number of Tasers they have requested.’
We wonder if Ms Smith will still have her tongue firmly inside the police’s arsenal of lethal weaponry when numbers killed by tasers start to mount…
Could it be that tasers will be deployed on the streets of London during the G20? As interest grows in the April Fools Day gathering at the Bank of England, the MET are starting to get worried. And if they want to resort to tasers, they can rest assured that they’ll have another 150 of them to play with thanks to Jacqui’s generosity.
Protestors beware!
A row recently blew up at the Welsh arsembly after local government minister Brian Gibbons threatened to stop the money-grabbing cops from asking council taxpayers to pay more to support policing.
South Wales Police had been hoping to impose a hike of 10% and has warned of cuts to policing services if the force is not given extra cash. Cuts to policing services, eh?
In his response to Gibbons yesterday, police authority chairman Russell ‘three jobs’ Roberts threatened to ignore the minister when the authority sets its council tax precept later this month.
Who needs Ian Skivens 5494 MET?
Today is decision day. We urge Gibbons to hold his ground. Cuts in policing services are exactly what we need. We’re fed up of cops playing around in helicopters, of cops driving round our streets like loonies, harrassing people, shooting pensioners with tasers, systematically abusing their power. Let’s face it. We don’t need the police at all.
And as for Brian Gibbons and Russell ‘three jobs’ Roberts?Answers (abusive ones only please) to:
cardiffanarchists@riseup.net
A total of 1,601 complaints were levelled against South Wales, Gwent, North Wales and Dyfed- Powys Police; that’s a rise of 77% over the past five years! And the biggest culprit? None other than the South Wales cops, of course, Wales’ biggest force, which recorded the most complaints, 682 in 2007-08, compared with 242 in 2003-04 – a rise of 61%.
South Wales chief cop, Barbara Wilding, has a lot to answer for
According to the near-useless Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), six out of ten complaints alleged neglect of duty, rudeness and intolerance and common assault.
In response to the piss-poor performance, a South Wales Police spokeswoman said: “We expect the highest standards of professional conduct from all officers and staff. The public can be assured that, if and when those standards are not met positively and complaints are received, they are recorded, assessed and any action needed is taken.”
And if you believe that…
PC Craig Bannister of Neath Road, Briton Ferry
Traffic cop, Craig Bannister, who crashed his car on the M4 at 122mph was found guilty of dangerous driving at Cardiff Crown court on February 13. Bannister thought it fit to hurtle along the motorway, putting other motorists at risk, even though he wasn’t answering an emergency response call at the time. And, even worse for the hapless cop, prosecutor Michael Hammett described driving conditions as ‘appalling, [with] heavy rain, lots of spray and standing water on the carriageway.’
You would have thought that Bannister would admit his crime, but according to Mr Hammett: ‘When PC Bannister was interviewed he refused to accept that driving at those speeds in those conditions was dangerous.’
And yet despite the fact that cops appear to be above the law, Bannister was found guilty!
Tom Davies, IPCC commissioner for Wales, commented: “Following the guilty verdict in court today, and after sentencing, I will then consider the force’s recommendation for any misconduct action.”
Don’t hold your breath. If cops in London can get away with murder, we don’t expect Pc Bannister to get anything else but a slap on the wrists.
We’re posting the backlog of our Copwatch stories and you’ll be glad to hear that we’ll be regularly updating you on the activities of the boys and girls in blue…
Cardiff Cops “Bullied” Witness in Lynette White Case
Mark Grommek
A witness in one of Wales’s most notorious miscarriages of justice was “bullied” into lying by police, a court heard recently. Mark Grommek, a Cardiff man, initially said he knew nothing about the murder of prostitute Lynette White, who was stabbed more than 50 times on Valentine’s Day, 1988. Later Grommek signed a statement which “he knew to be a tissue of lies” after what he called “bullying” by South Wales Police. His words led to three men being convicted of murder, although the conviction was later overturned.
The CPS is now reviewing the case again to see if it can bring charges against the cops involved, but how many more innocent people are in jail because of bully-boy tactics from Welsh rozzers?
Not content with spying on the public using CCTV and special anti-protest tactics, cops have started wasting public money by spying on their own officers!
watch out, there's a rozzer about
South Wales Police wasted £100,000 keeping one of its own coppers under surveillance after it wrongly suspected he was faking post-traumatic stress disorder following a football riot. Eleven coppers were used to spy on Pc Mark Pugh, a dog handler, who said he’d feared for his life while policing a footie match. Pugh later became “severely depressed and even suicidal” claiming he couldn’t work any more after being on the receiving end of some rough stuff at the hands of Cardiff City and Leeds United fans in 2002.
But the former rugby player was refused a full disability pension as South Wales Police suspected he was malingering. A special surveillance op was set up to keep watch him at his home in Quakers Yard, near Merthyr. Eleven cops from two forces spied on him for months. Evidence gathered included footage of him watching rugby matches and putting the rubbish out!
Dougie Woods, chief bean-counter for South Wales Police, tried to justify the expense: “As a publicly-funded organisation, the force has a duty to manage and reduce sickness levels. Sometimes, where there is concern about a person’s prolonged sickness, we will investigate further.”
Cardboard Copouts!
The Vale of Glamorgan’s bonkers bobbies have revealed the latest weapon in the fight against crime – life-sized cop-shaped cardboard cut-outs! The two-dimensional police officers are to be placed in the windows of businesses to deter criminals, and if successful, the scheme could be rolled out across South Wales.
spot the difference
So far Vale police have five cut-outs, which cost around £100 each to produce and will be put in petrol stations and supermarkets where shoplifting has been a problem in the past.
Unsurprisingly, the scheme’s precedents in Derbyshire have not been very successful – and a number have been stolen! CCTV captured a man carrying one out of a Co-op store in Long Eaton after paying for his shopping at the till. The theft has not been solved.
Welsh cop, Sergeant Matt Rowlands said: “We hope that, at a glance, thieves think the image is a real officer. We believe they will act as a deterrent and that will free up staff to deal with more serious crimes.”
One rule for us…
A South Wales police officer arrested on suspicion of drugs offences in 2007 is still suspended on full pay. Two rozzers were arrested in September last year but it’s already been decided not to press charges, and one of them is still getting his full pay-packet while putting his feet up at home.
Top cop Stuart Anderson, head of the force’s professional standards department, said: “The CPS has decided no criminal charges will be brought against either of the two officers. Any criminal or gross misconduct allegations against police officers are, as a matter of course, viewed very seriously and in this particular case a full and thorough investigation has been conducted by the South Wales Police professional standards department.”
We don’t speak fluent Cop-ese but we think this translates as something like: “Don’t you realise this is a police officer we’re talking about here? The same rules don’t apply to us, don’t you know? I can confidently predict the whole thing will be swept under the carpet in a couple of months once the newspapers have lost interest.”
Thug cop beats kid
Daniel Gaffney
Thug cop Daniel Gaffney from Greater Mancs Police has been jailed for three months after attacking a 12yr old boy in custody at a police station. Not content with leaving the boy with an apparent broken nose, Gaffney then lied to his bosses, claiming the boy had fallen. We can only hope that Gaffney discovers a similar problem with the stairs in whichever prison he ends up in.
Cardiff cops free to stop & search
South Wales Police is among 10 forces now being allowed by the government to stop and search people in so-called “knife-crime hotspots” without issuing a full record. This requirement was brought in following a recommendation from the Stephen Lawrence inquiry. Now cops will get away with giving a searched person a card, explaining how to complain if they are not happy with the way they’ve been treated. Police accountability? Don’t make us laugh.
Paedophile cop
Marc Mitchell paedophile cop
After working on a paedophile enquiry himself in 2005, sergeant Marc Mitchell was convicted in September of having dozens of images of child porn on his computer. Mitchell escaped prison after Liverpool judges took pity on him – now where have we heard of cops avoiding prison sentences before…?
Met anti-terrorist Det Sgt Richard de Cadenet has been convicted of running up more than £73,000 on the force’s American Express card. De Cadenet was convicted at Southwark Crown Court after the court heard how he paid for holidays in Mexico and Thailand, along with a corporate box at a Premier League club, with taxpayers’ money. De Cadenet got off with a mere 10 months and lots of sympathy from the judge.
More bent coppers shock!!
Freedom of Information requests have revealed how dozens of coppers across Wales have been arrested and convicted of a huge range of crimes in the past two years, including child pornography, sexual assault, arson, possession of Class A drugs, corruption, forgery, and best of all, intimidating witnesses. Some enterprising cops even managed to carry these crimes out while on the job. South Wales Police arrest on average a bent copper a month. And across the country, more than 800 police officers in England and Wales have been arrested for a range of offences including rape, paedophilia, child cruelty, assault, fraud, drink driving and drug charges. Between April 2006 and August 2008, 812 officers were arrested. 300 were Metropolitan officers, including 123 arrests for violence against the person and 17 for sex offences. Copwatchers won’t be running out of stories anytime soon!
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South Wales Anarchists 
