Fight This Criminal Act
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BECAUSE OF THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE ACT, AN OFFICIAL STATE OF EMERGENCY HAS EXISTED IN N. IRELAND SINCE JULY 1ST, AND UNTIL LORD GRAY, THE GOVERNOR, DEGLARES THE "EMERGENCY" OVER, MAGISTRATES HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO SEND PEOPLE TO JAIL FOR A WHOLE ASSORTMENT OF :
PART IN A BANNED DEMONSTRATION. LAST WEEK THE CRUMLIN ROAD JAIL DEMANDED THE Armagh..... 3.00 pm RELEASE OF PEOPL& IMPRISONED BECAUSE OF Belfast...... 3.00 pm THE 'MANDATORY 6-MONTHS' RULE. THIS WEEK- § Newry.......3.00pm END PEOPLES DEMOCRACY WILL HOLD PUBLIC Beleek....... 5.00pm. OFFENCES.
UNDERTHE CRIMINAL JUSTICE ACT WHICH WAS RUSHED THROUGH PARLIAMENT IN A DAY, THERE IS A COMPULSORY 6-MONTH SENTENCE FOR DISORDERLY BEHAVIOUR, TAKING PART IN AN UNLAWFUL ASSEMBLY,. SITTING DOWN ON A ROAD OR IN A PUBLIC BUILDING AND TAKING PEOPLES DEMOCRACY BEGAN A CAMPAIGN AGAIN AGAINST THIS REPRESSIVE LAW: A PICKET OW MEETINGS IN FIVE TOWNS DEMANDING THAT THE GOVERNMENT END THE 'EMERGENCY' AT ONCE.
The most recent and most notorious injustice perpetrated as a result of the Criminal Justice Act. is the sentencing of Frank Gogarty, former CRA Chairman, to,six months imprisonment. Frank was spotted by the military during the New Lodge Road riots, and charged with disorderly behaviour. Frank Gogarty always considered it his duty to stand by the people in a conflict where there was a likelihood that people's rights would be infringed.
According to the law as it stands, the minimum penalty for the duration of the 'emergency' is six months imprisonment.
Even Gerry Lunn, the-magistrate, regreted imposing the mandatory sentence. 'T feel that the Criminal Justice Act", he said, “has tied my hands, and in a way that I very much resent." Magistrates are not generally thought of as disloyal to the Government, so that when even R.M. Lunn - himself the son of a former Unionist M.P. - complains that he resents his hands being tied by the Act, we realise just how unjust it must be.
The newly formed Social Democratic and Labour Party (or 'jobsfor-the-Boys' Party, as it-is better known) has suddenly decided the Criminal Justice Act is bad, and they want to reconvene Stormont to repeal it. We might just remind the gentlemen that it was with their help and support that the Act became law in the first place. The Act which, in two months has been used to imprison hundreds of people, passed through Stormont in a single day - surely a record even for that undemocratic institution. It could not have gone through so easily if the opposition M. P.'s had decided to resist it. It took the Government months to pass the Public Order Act when the opposition decided to hold it up.
Instead, Gerry Fitt, now. 'leader' of the S. D. L@P. made a speech welcoming the Bill.
It was pnly after P.D. begana campaign of public demonstrations against the Criminal Justice Act that Fitt has begun to condemn it. But let him realise that mandatory six month sentences will not be defeated at Stormont by the unaided efforts of a few opposition M,P.'s. The Government will only give way if it is clear that there is a vast amount of public opinion against such an unjust law.
And the place to show your opposition is on the streets.
FRANK GOGARTY LATEST VICTIM PUBLIC MEETINGS Meetings will be held this Saturday (5th September) at the following places:
Omegn: ....... 9.00pm.