At 10am this morning a talented young musician who has represented Great Britain in the world loop championships will appear in court in Westminster answering criminal charges of illegal street trading and using a speaker in the street for a 10 minute busk in Leicester Square early this year with a couple of CDs of his own music with a sign saying suggested donation £5 If convicted this graduate of Leeds College of Music will have a criminal record which will affect his ability to travel aboard, an essential part of life as a touring musician. Despite Boris Johnsons desire to make London the most busker-friendly city in the world with his #backbusking campaign and the support of the Musicians Union and Keep Streets Live Campaign, Westminster Council have decided to spend thousands of pounds on a heavy handed criminal prosecution no doubt to make an example of Dawson lest any other musician decides to commit the crime of performing beautiful music on the streets of London. Dawson has had these charges hanging over him for several months now and today will be his third court appearance. Can you believe the extravagant waste of scarce public resources involved in using the police and courts to criminalise an activity which actually brings colour and enjoyment to the streets of our cities? If you share my view that this is a scandalous misuse of public resources and a campaign of harassment against a promising young musician please email the cabinet member at Westminster responsible for street management Ed Argar on [email protected] and also the Head of Legal and Democratic services at Westminster [email protected] who, bizarrely, maintains that it is in the public interest to spend thousands of pounds prosecuting street musicians. It may be of interest to note that police crackdowns on buskers in Leicester Square have been funded by Heart of London Business Improvement District, a troubling example of private interests hijacking civic and cultural freedoms.
Posted on: Wed, 20 Aug 2014 09:33:26 +0000
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