I got told today by a couple of plod they read this blog. Anyway, we've now got our computers, mobile phones and whatnot back from the police as apparently we're not domestic extremists just smell a bit funny.
The usual confusion. Most of us made it to Trinity Road police station to reclaim various possessions although one of us went all the way to Southmead cop shop by mistake. Ooops - that's one long bike ride there and back.
Anyway having left lots of our gear in the building we were arrested in, then getting mixed up about who's stuff was whose when booking us in and even more confused when releasing us about what possessions they were trying to give back to us and take off us I'd hoped - with no great conviction - a couple of weeks interval would have given the police time to work out what they had that belonged to who. No chance!
One of us was offered two mobile phones that had nothing to do with any of us, they just belonged to some entirely unknown third party with the same surname. I was offered a large bundle of keys that were nothing to do with me. A. got his mobile back but the police refused to give him his smartphone as they thought it belonged to B. The power cable for D's laptop and charger for his mobile have disappeared - ironic as in the unlikely event of us being charged with abstracting electricity they'd be key bits of evidence. And so on and so on and so on. For hours.
Before being - slowly - handed my stuff I got asked if I knew anything about the idiots who occasionally set fire to phone masts in Bristol. Obviously I don't and said so - I nearly died in a fire years back so have no time for serial arsonists. If I knew who it was setting fire to things and claiming political motives I'd tell the police and be open about it. I'd rather the arsonists decided to stop for themselves before they kill someone but if it takes the police to stop them I'm really not bothered.
Being asked about political arsonists does cast an interesting light on why the police decided to call us domestic extremists and arrest us when we squatted in Broadmead. We're just half-a-dozen arseholes who really, really, really needed somewhere to get a good night's sleep but the authorities seem to have mistaken us for someone else entirely. Oh well.
We still haven't got our push-bikes back and as mine is a Dawes Galaxy - currently retailing at an end-of-2012 bargain basement £950 - I'm really not going to let that drop. So it's back to our solicitors to make enquiries about where they ended up.
Then we wait and see if we're going to be charged with anything - we're all on bail 'till mid-December - and can we sue the police. They did a straightforward unlawful eviction on us, that's gotta be worth at least a written apology from the chief constable, a palletload of cider and a small tub of honey for each of my teddy bears.
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