‘I was arrested for being portable’

THE JULY Branch meeting heard from David Hoffman, a candidate for Life Membership of the NUJ after 40 years taking iconic images, many of protests. He spoke of the “four or five” times that he has sued police. Here are some highlights.

Justice turned upside down: police let David Hoffman take his camera into a cell at Southwark police station on 27 May 1989 after his arrest at a Salman Rushdie protest.

Image © David Hoffman

I WAS photographing a protest in London in May 1989 against the novelist Salman Rushdie. It was quite heavy, quite violent. A policeman just came up to me. He shoved me out of the way.

A few minutes later, I said something rather snide. I think there had just been a survey in the Evening Standard saying how low the esteem that people held the police in was. I just said that it’s not surprising that the police are held in such low esteem and wandered off to take some more pictures.

A few minutes later, he ran up and smashed me in the face. He smacked my camera into my forehead, floored the guy next to me, too, and sauntered off. So, I followed him and took a picture. He turned around and grabbed me. “You’re nicked,” he said, which was the only truthful thing I think he ever did say.

As the case proceeded, he made up a story that I was pushing policemen out the way and shouting, “it’s a free country.” Actually, I want people in my pictures. I wouldn’t push them out of the way. I wouldn’t last long if I did. And I’ve never been known to say, “It’s a free country.”

Crucially, one of the pictures I had of him included his watch. I blew it up and it showed that he had lied about the time of my arrest. The stories he had made up about me couldn’t possibly be true.

Then there was the protest against Canada’s resumption of whaling. Greenpeace charged into the Canadian Tourist Office and chained themselves to the stairs and the desks and each other. A little tiny police inspector announced that there had been criminal damage and “unless one of you puts your hands up to it, I shall arrest you all”. Even his own cops laughed: nobody could put their hands up to anything. They were all chained. Anyway, he looks around, sees me, and I get arrested for being portable. I think that got me another £12,000 thanks to great lawyers at Bhatt Murphy.

© David Hoffman
as told to the Freelance