Western Daily Press (Saturday)
£16,000 raised to support people arrested at riots
AFUNDRAISER set up to help pay the legal bills of people arrested in connection with riots and protests in Bristol has already passed its initial target.
A group called Bristol Defendant Solidarity said it wanted to raise £15,000 to support people who will be facing the courts – and it has already passed £16,000, with one anonymous donor giving £500.
Dozens of people have been arrested and 16 people remain on an Avon and Somerset police website gallery of images of individuals they want to speak to in relation to the March 21 riot.
More than 50 arrests were made over a week of protests and police are still trying to identify others.
The organisation behind the fundraising appeal said it had been working for more than ten years to support people “facing police and state violence as a consequence of their activism”.
It said: “The proposed Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill currently making its way through Parliament would give police sweeping new powers to criminalise protests, intensify the attack on Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities’ way of life, and increase the harsh effects of the criminal justice system with longer sentencing.
“And while people take to the streets to oppose it, the police have cracked down hard on the demonstrations.”
Bristol Defendant Solidarity has set a new fundraising target of £30,000.
It said it would hand over money to people who needed legal support, prioritising those who needed to pay legal fees but were not covered by legal aid. After them would come people who spent money on travel costs getting to court and those who lost earnings as a result of attending court.
The group would support legal cases made against the police and would help to pay rent so anyone jailed would still have a home when they were released.
“In the unlikely event of there being any money left over from this, it will be held by BDS to support people in a similar way in the future,” the group said.
Meanwhile, the police said they had had “tremendous support” from the public helping their appeals to identify people on its gallery of images.
Senior investigating officer, DCI James Riccio, said: “Our investigation is continuing at pace and we continue to make significant progress in what is a really challenging inquiry.
“We’ve had fantastic support from the public so far and for that we’re incredibly grateful.
“I’d like to once again ask for your help to look at our gallery and see if you recognise any of the people in the images.”