Fathers 4 Justice protester Jolly Stanesby is down from the Tamar Bridge in Plymouth, England. We can only congratulate him on his outstanding achievement, including staying there for the coldest might in several years...
He avoided police and is in hiding. He may have been injured during his escape, but it is not clear how badly. He has 2 arrest warrants out for him and will probably have to give himself up soon.
POLICE APPEAL AS PROTESTER STILL ON BRIDGE
Detectives are appealing for witnesses to the Tamar Bridge protest staged by fathers' rights protesters on Friday, January 23. Officers want to speak to anyone on the bridge at 6.45am that day when the protest began. Police are investigating allegations of criminal damage and danger to road users.One protester, Jolly Stanesby, from Ivybridge, is still on a gantry 20 feet above the bridge - today entering his seventh day of protest for Fathers 4 Justice. The 35-year-old plans to stay there until next week.
Dc Jim Colwell, of Charles Cross CID, said last Friday two cars drove across the bridge from the Plymouth side and were abandoned blocking the carriageway. He said: "A padlock was removed from the site and diesel spilt on the carriageway causing danger to road users."
A lot of police are appealing for witnesses to crimes around the country, stabbings, muggings, road accidents and so forth. One police force in London is looking for witnesses for a drive by machine gun attack on two unarmed police officers which luckily only grazed one of them and missed the other. Drive-by shooting may force police to wear body armour. Meanwhile Plymouth police are looking for a missing padlock. The "danger of road users" law was brought in to tackle people who throw bricks at cars, not spilt diesel.
This protest has generated yet more interest in father's situations. Jayne Woodman, the only woman arrested in this protest in
FIGHTING ON RIGHTS PATH spoke of meeting a father recently divorced
What struck me most of all was that he wasn't interested in the loss of everything he had worked for materially; he just wanted to see his kids, even if only for a few hours a week. The well of sadness in his eyes spoke of the "living bereavement" that many parents and grandparents describe when talking about the loss of their children. Here was a broken man, carrying on as best he could amid the debris of his shattered life.Without question some dads, just like some mums, should not be allowed to look after their children - but they are a tiny, tiny minority. One of the questions I ask is: "Why does the dad only become unfit for his parenting role after separation?"
Fathers who keep going back to court are regarded with thinly-veiled hostility.
So we have the absurd situation where the courts in this country will send a mother to prison for failing to ensure her child attends school, but will not impose even a token non-custodial sentence on a mother who deprives her children of their whole paternal family.
As a separated mother myself I can understand the impulse to withhold contact, but I cannot condone. The fault is with the system which makes it so easy. It is not surprising that so many mothers succumb to the temptation to cut the dad out but still take his money through the CSA. Mums are given absolute power, and absolute power, as we all know, corrupts absolutely.
Every time I hand my daughter over to her dad I wish I didn't have to but I steel myself, smile at both of them and then say: "Have a wonderful time, darling" because I know that she benefits from her maternal and her paternal family in equal measure. Also I don't want to have to explain to her when she is older that the reason she has no relationship with her paternal family is because I was too bitter and twisted to allow it to flourish; and of course I don't want to be denied a meaningful relationship with my own grandchildren later on.
And R S Spelling is a legal advisor to Fathers 4 Justice and a black father. In The Voice, A British black newspaper it says in FATHERING THE CAUSE
Thousands of Dads are in battles for access to their kids and fighting to alter absent father stereotypes
RS Spelling is a ‘Sunday McDad’. The kind of father who buys his son an extra milkshake in McDonald’s on a Sunday, an awkward gesture to make up for the lost bath times, bedtime stories and birthday parties.
Black men have been eternally typecast as roguish, absent fathers who wilfully abandon their children and their partners, miss child support payments and forget to send birthday cards.
But Spelling has never missed a birthday by choice. He last saw his two youngest sons a week before Christmas when they opened their gifts early.
He has not seen them since because his ex-wife, who he divorced in 2000, refuses to abide by the shared residence order handed down by a Judge.
Along with hundreds of black men, he is fighting back against the stereotype of the absent black father and, with cruel irony, the system is making it virtually impossible.STUNTS
Spelling, 55, is a legal bigwig for Fathers For Justice, an increasingly militant campaign group. With a series of high profile stunts of civil disobedience, it has brought the plight of thousands of fathers denied access to their children into the public eye.
One stunt that caught the media’s attention involved a distraught father in a superhero suit and a towering crane. In October 2003, 36-year-old Dave Crick caused severe gridlock across central London for six days after he climbed up a 180ft crane at Tower Bridge dressed as Spider-Man, his six-year-old daughter’s favourite comic book hero.
He was granted access by the courts but his ex-partner refused contact.
Well, in spite of apparent police sympathy for Jolly Stanesby and fathers, it seems that they weren't keen to wait Jolly out. BRIDGE PROTESTER SNATCH BID FAILS
A Mayor was furious last night after he claimed he was used as "bait" in a bungled police attempt to grab a protester camped out on the Tamar Bridge.Comparisons with the Keystone Cops would be unfair, but amusing. It, of course, suggests that future protesters have to be wary of police promises, and that one man protesting and doing very little that you could truly call criminal is treated as more of a threat than some habitual criminals.Baz Gregory, Mayor of Saltash, says he will make a formal complaint to Chief Constable Maria Wallis after yesterday's incident.
Mr Gregory went to persuade 35-year-old Fathers 4 Justice protester Jolly Stanesby to come down from the gantry of the bridge where he has been camped out since last Friday. However, he said when he approached a fence at the foot of the gantry support and Mr Stanesby climbed down to speak to him, police officers attempted to snatch the protester.
"They were trying to trap him and use me as bait," said Mr Gregory. "I am appalled and disgusted by their total mismanagement, and am going to lodge a complaint with the highest authorities in the police."
Mr Gregory said he had been concerned for the Ivybridge protester's welfare, as temperatures dropped below freezing, and asked police if he could negotiate with him.
When the mayor went to see Mr Stanesby, he was told to wait for further instructions. One police officer then asked Mr Stanesby to come down, telling him: "Come down and talk to the press and the Lord Mayor. You're a top guy and I won't arrest you - I'm going to look after you."
Mr Stanesby then climbed down the ladder and on to the ground. An officer holding Mr Gregory at a distance told him: "We're going to arrest him for conspiracy to cause criminal damage."
Mr Gregory protested: "He'll think I have set him up!" and was told he would be arrested too if he stepped any closer.
The mayor then shouted to the protester that he was going to be arrested. A scramble followed, in which both officers leapt over the fence separating them from Mr Stanesby, who shot back up the ladder to the gantry.
Speaking to the West Morning News by mobile phone, Mr Stanesby, who is protesting at being refused access to his children, said: "I thought I could trust the police officers as they had been chatting to me all day telling me they supported what I did."
Police Sergeant Costa Nassaris, who arrived at the scene shortly after the skirmish, said neither of his officers had crossed the fence. However, after being shown photographs of the event, he said: "I don't know whether they were trying to trap him into coming down. All I know is that the situation has got worse."
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