On Tuesday 24 June 2025, one of our regular GGEC campaigners was wrongfully arrested and brutally treated by Police Scotland officers during a peaceful demonstration challenging the censorship of planned Palestinian arts events at the Centre of Contemporary Arts (CCA) on Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow.
The programme of events was organised by Art Workers for Palestine as part of its call for the CCA to endorse the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), which the CCA management have, thus far, rejected despite an open genocide being committed in Gaza.
GGEC campaigners were among the pro-Palestine community standing in solidarity with Art Workers in their request for support. In the course of peaceful leafleting outside the CCA, our campaigner was targeted by police officers.
After being violently handcuffed, dragged and pushed into a cell van by two large middle-aged male officers, our campaigner’s pleas for immediate medical attention were ignored. Due to her injuries, she was unable to sit or stand. It was only during processing at Govan police station that she was assessed by other officers as requiring immediate hospital treatment. No ambulance was called. Lindsey also had to endure inappropriate discussions and derogatory remarks by police officers.
After driving her on from the Royal Infirmary to Stobhill Hospital, the arresting officers charged her with police assault, resisting arrest and breach of the peace. She was also banned from Glasgow city centre as part of her bail conditions.
Following treatment and being bailed by police at Stobhill, it was left to fellow GGEC campaigners to take charge of her care, including transporting her back to the Royal where she was immediately admitted for further treatment and consideration for surgery.
Eleven days after the protest and her violent arrest, this 63 year-old woman remains in hospital as a result of the multiple injuries she sustained, which include a fractured knee bone, severed leg tendon and severe bruising and swelling to her wrists, arms and legs. She also now faces added emotional distress and innumerable health and social difficulties as a result of her restricted mobility.
One of the arresting police officers in particular (badge number G 3528) is gaining a reputation for his unrestrained hostility and violence towards Palestine solidarity protestors in Glasgow and beyond, having assaulted other protestors at the CCA and shown similar aggression during previous protests for Palestine in Glasgow. This officer is a danger to the public.
Shamefully, to date, not one national news outlet has reported this brutal police assault on an older Glasgow woman exercising her democratic rights to protest the Gaza genocide. Instead, media attention and concocted outrage has been reserved for artists at Glastonbury, such as Kneecap and Bob Vylan, who have dared to speak out against the genocide. Such complicit media silence, alongside political policing, is serving to hide the British state’s direct participation in the intensifying genocide.
We demand:
- The immediate suspension and removal of officer G 3528 from frontline policing, as part of a transparent investigation into this brutal assault on a peaceful protestor.
- The immediate dropping of all fabricated charges against our peaceful campaigner, together with unconditional removal of the city centre bail ban against her.
- An independent and comprehensive review of all Police Scotland activities around pro-Palestine demonstrations and events.
We wish to state publicly our full and ongoing support for our valued campaigner in her hospital recovery, defence against undue criminalisation and fight for justice.
