Edit 11/05/08

WE CAN USE THE WORLD CULT!!!1

Edit 04/06/2008

As far as is known, we are legally allowed to flyer. Untill I recieve official reponce from BCC, I recomend that anons do not flyer in the free lit consent zones.

Fines are being contested, and will be fought through court proceedings if necessary.

Edit 02/06/2008

http://z9.invisionfree.com/Brumanon/index.php?showtopic=407

Edit 31/05/2008

OK! I'm ringing the police to get precise clarification of this on Monday. Also I'm contesting the fines. Also, prepare for epic lulz regarding this coming soon.

As far as this info goes it's only Brum Anon affected. All Anon at Protest will be classed as Brum Anon.

Until further notice:

1. We have been told we may not flier inside Birmingham City Inner Ring Road i.e. City Centre. We have been told we may flier outside it, places such as Broad Street and Brindley Place (which are, incidently, just the other side of the library). This is down to a statement from an enviroment enforcement officer who has given fine notices to some anons.I would advise that any anon wishsing to flyer goes with a group to brindley place, or broad street, and hands out flyers like crazy.

[We are going to contest the fines. We will let you know the outcome and the legal standpoint at the end of it.]

2. We can use the word cult! Lets get it on every sign if possible.

3. It has been advised not to get too close to/not to talk to the scientologists. They have been phoning up the police about harassment. Inform the public all you want but be wary.

4. Use of megaphones/Loudhailers is prohibited within Birmingham City Centre untill further notice. We advise that you don't use them at all, if you do then it's at your own risk. Note that boom boxes and small portable speakers are not megaphones/loudhailers.

If you do choose to ignore any of these, which you absolutely are free to do, it is at your own risk.

You have now been informed of the legal situations. Whether or not you to comply with these requests is entirely up to you as individuals.

You may be informed of this by an Anon volunteering as a Protest Marshall should you do any of these things.

It will most likely be recorded by a marshal to show your choice. As stated before, if you ignore these points you do so entirely at your own risk.

Thank you for your time.

TL;DR

1. You can use the word cult! It's official
.
2. Keep flyering to broad street

3. Don't chat to Scientologists or get too close if you can help it. Use a bit of common sense judgement.

4. Do not use Megaphones/Loudhailers. Use something else instead.[B][SIZE=7]

Fuckit. Is it just us, or are the other UK Anon affected too?

don't know,if this is for all anon but this was what a police officer told us, who also complied that the PC who we inform of our actions didn't tell him we would be there.

So the law varies, depending on the officer present?

That does somewhat seem to be the case here, we're looking to see what we can use atm.

*anonymitts looks for signs of Stalin, Mussolini, Franco, Hitler reincarnated and running the country :)

This is the thing, it wasn't the officer that fined us, it was a guy from the enviroment enforcement thingy. The copper was there to just check who we are.

The second officer was responding to complaints of harassment and religious hatred.

What about speakers for music?

As long as the noise doesn't go 10 decibels above the ambient is what I've found so far, still checking up though.

What if I said "Cult in my opinion"?

If not, we're pretty bollocksed.

I think we should be fine ;)

Fuck it

I was going to phone BCC tomorrow, and badger them to give you guys an answer on the leaflets tomorrow.

instead I think I'll slap in a complaint about human rights violations.

Did anyone point out to the copper who told you not to use the word cult that Liberty was considering climbing all over CoL police after the CPS decided there was no case to answer in London?

he hammered out that we'd be arrested when I tried, so I'll let him find that out.

This really ruins the cause.
Without flyers, most Birmingham pedestrians will forget about us, or not understand us anyway.
I'd love to come to Sea Arrrgh but I think it's looking much less likely now with these limitations - it's everything that made FairGameStop depress me, turned up to eleven.

Cheer up guys. We're not gonna just give up like this are we!? If we're not allowed to do something, we find a way around it or find some other way to get our message out. Could we get balloons with stuff printed on them? Kids love balloons. If kids see them, they'll want one then our message will be taken around with them. It's like getting the public to help us out without knowing it.

We can always find some loophole if appeals against this fall through.

If no leaflets, how about stickers? T-shirts with the websites printed on them? Writing down the website in icing on free caek, or the wrapping for caek? SRSLY BIG BANNERS? Ink stamps with Xenu.net on it, so we can print people's hands?
And so on and on. :D Balloons is a good idea, but I thought we weren't going to exploit children?

Stickers would be a no-go, same laws as leaflets.
T-Shirts, would be allowed.
Cake - need food hygeiene certificate and all that.
Banners, yes, we could.
Ink, I'm not too sure many people would want to be stamped.
And as you said, balloons are a bit too much like exploiting kids.

ATM I'd say signs only in the city centre, though we can flyer in brindley place and broad street.

Next protest we should be going down there and flyering the f**k out of it and the bars, pubs and ques.

UPDATE: we are receiving an official map of where we can and can't flyer from the council. There will be an emailed copy attached to the forum, I will also have a hardcopy for the flyer group.

http://forums.enturbulation.org/15-breakin...ications-16190/

From enturb

Very rough draft of an email to PC McCormack

I'm not entirely happy with it myself, so please feel free to chop it about suggest changes, additions or deletions.

Hold off, it's being processed at the moment. Don't send the email yet. I am in phone contact. They know about the incident as I've reported it.

Fuck man...The CoS seems like they have the police in their pocket. It's just an uphill struggle. But theres no way im quitting on the protests. We have to stick it out and overcome this bullshit.

Exactly, the scilons may think they have the police in their pocket but we have the LAW on our side.

There is a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes to get these issues resolved. We are having a major impact on them and that's why they are resorting to these measures.

The cult is crumbling, we just need to keep the pressure up.

They recently paid £4.5million for their new Moseley building.

This week was "Bookathon" week, where they tried to sell as many books as possible, they sold a grand total of 22 books.

That doesn't even pay for the front door of their new building. Their position is not sustainable.

We just have to do one thing... Don't give up!

They're obviously hoping we'll just give up under all these restrictions.

Also, I agree with what Anon76 said! They're kicking up a fuss now that they've realised that their cult is making losses.

WTF?!?!

Do I understand correctly that, Despite the crown Prosecution service's overthrowing the case against Epic nose Guy, Birmingham Police are banning us from using "cult"???

Bugger giving up, this makes me want to protest MOAR (after exams).

They can't ban the word. We were informed by an officer if we used it then people would be arrested. We advice against using the word cult, though if you want to we can't stop you if the interpretation is that it is allowed under the HRA.

We know what the legislation is, so we will happily vet cult signs for you.

Hell yeah! We got em on the run! We gotta move into the kill.

This is annoying, but that's pretty much all it is. I think the best way to describe it is as an "Embuggerance". We have multiple cases of legal precedent on our side.

That said, the guys who are pursuing this deserve medals. You folks rock.

EDIT:

This. Is there any reason why we can't contact the media over this?

Quick update:

Fined anons are appealing the fines, updates when we have more info.


I've sent a follow up email to senior figures in the Council Legal dept, see below:

If this doesn't yield results, I will be writing to:

The Rt Hon Hilary Benn MP, Secretary of State for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs.

The Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 1995 comes under his area of responsibility.

as well as them, why not contact various news agencies across the country? After the shenanigans in London, I'm sure they'd be very interested in more of the same.

Given that the Gruaniad already ran a series of not particularly flattering articles on the Scilons recently, I'd bet good money that they'd cover this.


http://browse.guardian.co.uk/search?search...h&site=guardian

UPDATE!

CHECK ORIGINAL POST!

NEW AND AMAZING INFORMATION!

Quick update:

I've just had a response from the Legal Dept of BCC,

I think it's time to contact Liberty, or someone similar if we already haven't.

not great news at all. But, hey, we'll just have to make more noise on the days we protest :)

"Colleagues in Legal Services are considering your enquiry and
I trust that you will receive a response shortly"

"The legal issues here therefore remain under review"

They are still considering it, lets wait for their final response.

Almajir, Liberty are fully aware and on the case.

Good.

I have a feeling you won't get an answer within 10 days - I think you'll be lucky to get one within 10 weeks - they're going to string this one out as long as they can.

Yeah i read on wikinews that liberty are investigating the censorship of the word cult.

I've had a response from BCC Legal Dept:

Yes I do consider it to be wrong and will get back to him on this issue, I'll post the draft email before I send it.

I'll send you a copy of the email I sent. point out the emails you sent, when you sent them, and that the fine occurred on the 28th of may, with regards as to when your replies from BCC cme through.

Hi Guys

Just a few thoughts on the email from BCC.

The Act does state that:

"4) Nothing in this paragraph applies to the distribution of printed
matter—
a. by or on behalf of a charity within the meaning of the
Charities Act 1993, where the printed matter relates to or is
intended for the benefit of the charity;
b. where the distribution is for political purposes or for the
purposes of a religion or belief."

So there is a clear exemption for the purpose of religion of belief, so what therefore constitutes a religion, the CPS states that:

"A religious group is defined as a group of persons defined by reference to religious belief or lack of religious belief. Therefore, having no religious belief is treated in the same way as having religious beliefs, so that it is possible for an offence to be committed against a person consisting of hostility based on the victim having no religious belief or faith; <Refer to Casework Bulletin 35 of 2001>."

http://www.cps.gov.uk/legal/section6/chapt...ml#_Toc44745558

I believe that the important sections are that:

a: religious group is defined as a group of persons defined by reference to religious belief or lack of religious belief

B:having no religious belief is treated in the same way as having religious beliefs

This is a line taken from the Equality Act 2006 which states :

Section 44: Religion and belief

170. Section 44 defines what is meant by "religion or belief" for the purposes of this Act. Section 44(a) defines "religion" as "any religion", a broad definition in line with the freedom of religion guaranteed by Article 9 of the ECHR. It includes those religions widely recognised in this country such as Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Rastafarianism, Baha'is, Zoroastrians and Jains. Equally, denominations or sects within a religion can be considered as a religion or religious belief, such as Catholics or Protestants within Christianity. The main limitation on what constitutes a "religion" for the purposes of Article 9 of the ECHR is that it must have a clear structure and belief system.

171. Section 44(B) defines "belief" as "any religious or philosophical belief".

172. Section 44© and (d) state that "lack of religion" and "lack of belief" are also covered by the phrase "religion or belief"."

http://www.opsi.gov.uk/ACTS/acts2006/en/06en03-b.htm


Anon defines its self by its philosophical belief that the COS is corrupt and that in its present form must be dismantled - this I would argue is a 'lack of religion and belief, in fact this is what unites us our lack of religion and a common philosophy.

Were it not for our 'lack of belief' and this 'philosophical belief' we would not be doing what we are doing.

By denying us the right to leaflet in the City I believe that BCC are breaking the law.

I hope this helps in someway.

I think that we're going to be better off working with the "political" bit, since many of our objections to the 'church' are political issues:

stuff about tax and general non-profit issues
secretive and deceptive lobbying for their own profit (and their political ambitions)

my minds gone blank on what other things may be defined as political issues. in a way they all are, I suppose, but the relevant people obviously disagree (or they just haven't bothered to look at what we've been saying)

arguing that we're furthering a religious belief is essentially taking the wording of the law above the spirit of it (the spirit being to let religions preach freely), whereas letting us voice our political opinions and spread literature stating them is the spirit of the law.


*at least, that's what I think you're getting at.