Police “stand off” took place this afternoon in Tradeston, Glasgow.
The Glasgow Guardian was alerted to an altercation between police and squatters outside a disused homeless shelter in the Southside. Shelter residents said that others had been arrested earlier this afternoon after police blocked entry and exit from the building.
The police entered “Baile Hoose” after its residents were allegedly suspected of housebreaking, the crime of entering another person’s house by force. According to one resident, the police made arrests, however he believed squatters were “unlawfully detained” as the police had no evidence of forced entry or “proof of theft” to the building. The police reportedly told residents that they were stopping people entering or exiting the shelter.
The shelter, on 180 Centre Street, formerly the Hamish Allan Centre, is being occupied by COP26 “climate justice campaigners”, including “Indigenous Elders”, who cannot afford rent elsewhere in the city.
In a legal notice placed outside the building the occupiers have said that “it is illegal to remove someone from the premises for the sole purpose of terminating his presence there”, citing Henderson v Chief Constable of Fife Police 1988. According to the legal notice from the occupiers it doesn’t constitute a criminal offence as Trespass (Scotland) act 1865 as it is not “private property” nor is it “affecting [sic] a lodgement”.
The occupation is intended to last for the duration of COP26.
