We are a group of young people from Cockermouth who are pissed off to fuck with the new "Red Zone" or as we call it, "The No Go Area". It's a new zone set up by the council and the police to target young people and abuse them. The pigs say in a letter sent out to parents "This Order will give police officers the power to disperse groups of two or more people from within the zone if they believe their presence has or is likely to result in a member of the public being intimidated, harrassed, alarmed or distressed". In our experience, this discribes the police in Cockermouth.
If you don't comply, the police will then arrest you and if taken to court, you may be fined up to £2,500 just for hanging around the town where you live. It's not like it's just Main Street either. It includes Harris Park and the Memorial Gardens. Where The fuck is there left to go?
We aren't going to do what the pigs and the council want us to do. We aren't going to sit back and let them take our liberties away. This isn't Nazi Germany, this is fucking Cockermouth, this is our home, we want our rights back. They say they are bringing this in because of an increase in anti-social behaviour by the youths of this town, we say, if you thought we were anti-social before, you aint seen nothing yet. We are planning on a campaign of graffiti and criminal damage on council and police property all around the town, concentrating on areas of the "Red Zone", (the no go areas). We are hoping that, should our movement take momentum as we know that we're not alone in feeling victimised, we are hoping to establish a full day of civil disobedience involving the whole of the youth of Cockermouth as a protest against the draconian laws we're placed under.
Obviously if you live and hang out in Cockermouth, this is already affecting you directly. If not, then it won't be long untill it will. Should it work in Cockermouth, it will spread to the rest of Allerdale and then the rest of Cumbria and beyond. That's why we urge everyone, whether a Cockermouth resident or not, to join in with our campaign and make sure that this won't last and won't spread.
First they came for the youth of Cockermouth, I did not speak up for I did not hang out there, then they came for the youth of Workington, I did not speak up for I did not hang out there, then they came for the youth of Whitehaven, I did not speak up for I did not hang out there either, then they came for us and there was no-one left to speak up for us.
If you want to get involved or just show us your support then please use our e-mail address takebackthestreets@hotmail.co.uk or sign our guestbook. Please note that using a fake name in the guestbook is advisable.
