The Church and State Seek Legal Action

Camp residents voiced anger this week as clergy and councillors alike threatened legal action to force them from a public square.

Between 200-300 campers from Occupy London Stock Exchange have held St Paul’s Square for more than a fortnight after police barred them from the privately-owned Paternoster Square directly outside the exchange.

But both St Paul’s Cathedral and the City of London confirmed late last week they were seeking an eviction order to break up the camp on grounds of obstructing a public highway.

City of London said in a statement they believed protest was “an essential right” in a democracy – “but camping on the highway is not.”

“We believe we will have a strong highways case because an encampment on a busy thoroughfare clearly impacts the rights of others,” it read.

Meanwhile the Cathedral said only that legal action had “regrettably become necessary.”

“The Chapter only takes this step with the greatest reluctance and remains committed to a peaceful solution,” the Cathedral’s ruling Chapter said in a statement.

The statements followed tense scenes at the council’s meeting in Guildhall, where councillors immediately voted 12-4 to eject press and members of the public – including the Occupied Times – before discussing the eviction.

Upwards of 30 protesters sat silently as the resolution passed: only then did protester Ronan McNern break the silence as the 30-odd protesters prepared to leave.

“We’re peaceful protesters — we have a just cause and we have a right to be able to demonstrate,” he said to applause.

It is understood Occupy’s lawyers will likely invoke a “lawful excuse” for the camp’s existence under the European Convention of Human Rights.

Legal volunteer James Smith, a law graduate from Leicester university with a background in conveyancing, told the Occupied Times the case would largely centre on whether or not the act of camping was itself a form of protest.

The camp would then be protected under the Convention’s binding right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, he said.

The camp has also accepted an offer from human rights monitors Liberty to mediate talks with councillors and clergy.

By Rory MacKinnon