Saturday, May 8, 2010

Vandals attack thousands of London parking meters

Parking meter
Parking meters have been injected with superglue and expanding foam

Almost 90,000 parking meters have been vandalised in London in the last five years, new figures have revealed.

The statistics, obtained by a Freedom of Information request, show councils spent more than £360,000 in repairs.

Meters were destroyed with hammers, injected with superglue and removed completely by "mechanical means".

Barrie Segal, who campaigns against council-enforced parking, said motorists should not seek revenge on local authorities by illegal means.

Some 27 of the 32 London boroughs responded to the BBC Freedom of Information request.

In the borough of Lambeth more than 40,000 parking meters have been attacked over five years.

In Harrow, industrial expanding foam was injected into the coin mechanism of a meter.

Wires dangling

Every parking meter on one street in Enfield was daubed with red paint.

And in both Richmond and Croydon machines were wrenched out of the ground with wires left dangling, the latter authority blaming "mechanical means" for the destruction.

Barrie Segal, a parking expert who campaigns against the current system of parking enforcement, said: "If you think you have got an unfair ticket, it is far better to use legal means and appeal it than destroy the meter.

"I know people get frustrated, but that course of action does not help the motorist because we all end up paying for it."

He added: "I would like to say I have a wry smile hearing about that sort of destruction, but its not really on. It's better to defeat them at their own game."

Payment options

Only three boroughs, Tower Hamlets, Ealing and Brent, provided figures for the amount stolen from machines.

A total of £132,000 was taken over the period.

A London Councils spokeswoman said: "Vandalism to parking meters is an issue in London.

"Many boroughs are using different ways to tackle the problem including mobile phone parking schemes and offering drivers the option of paying for their parking using a credit card rather than cash."

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Solidarity Poster for Polykarpos Georgiadis and Vaggelis Chrisohoidis (greece)



POSTER SAYS:
did anyone speak of a
KIDNAPPING?
“…A handful of capitalists
have organized a criminal gang
and have kidnapped the proletarians,
demanding for ransom
their labor force,
merchandising their human activity,
their time (which is turned into money),
their own being itself…”
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
to vaggelis Chrisohoidis and Polykarpos Georgiadis
who the persecuting authorities, exactly because they denied to betray values and people,
accuse them as participators in the kidnapping of industrialist Milonas
anarchists from Serres from north-greece


Anarchists solidarity protest outside Korydallos prison, the main prison in Athens, at the time of the change of the year. This protest happens every New Year's Eve for the past six years. This year more than 400 people took part in the protest that interacted with the prisoners inside through shouting mutual slogans and fireworks. The main slogan was "The passion for freedom is stronger that your prisons".
NEW YEAR OUTSIDE IN KORRIDALOS PRISON 2011
Watch live streaming video from agitprop at livestream.com
FIRE TO ALL PRISONS

A society that punishes/the condition of incarceration/the prison of the mind/the prison as punishment/the rage of the damned will sound on the ruins of prisons/those denying obedience and misery of our era even within its hellholes/will dance together on the ruins of every last prison/with the flame of rebellion avenging whatever creates prisons.

To the prisoners struggle already counting one dead and thousands in hunger strike across greece, we stand in solidarity and anger until the destruction of every last prison.


ARSON AND WILDFIRE FOR EVERY PRISON

SOLIDARITY TO ALL PRISONERS IN GREECE


Keny Arkana - La Rage English Subtitles

1976 - 2000 Greek Anarchists Fight for Freedom

(December Riots in Greece)