I think the ’street community’ who are drinking alcohol pose very little threat to anyone except themselves. I saw one poor guy collapse on a bench after drinking a bottle of something and being sick. This was down the side of the guild hall, and some sort of security guard was looking at him and speaking into her radio, I think she was from Lion Yard.

Google has images of astro shoes; quite why they’re forbidden I have no idea.

http://www.rtaylor.co.uk/dispersal-zone-renewed.html#comment-28272

If people get treated in an oppressive and unfair way by the police then I think the city and the country will become harder to police. I really don’t want to live in a country where disobeying an order from a PCSO is a criminal offence (where the only offence committed is disobeying the order).

I don’t think I take an extreme view on Civil Liberties / Human Rights. I worry that if we go further down the road of having an increasingly oppressive police force the country will become harder to police as people’s relationship with the police will become very different. I think abuse of powers like dispersal; along within increased use of stop and search and unjust police procedures such as holding DNA of innocent people and harassing photographers to threaten to tip the balance. There are innocent people now coming into contact with, and getting on the wrong side of, the police many times a year; innocent people used to get stopped by the police an average of just once in a lifetime.

My view is those who are actually causing problems and committing offences (including public order offences) need to be put in front of the magistrates and dealt with robustly; the police should not be empowered to take any action against the innocent. The magistrates court ought to be (and is to an extent) a route though which people can get the help they need to turn their lives around - something which is missing with a dispersal.