[Everyneurotic]

appearantly there's no more squats in mexico.

there used to in the 90's but you had to have a mohawk to get in, or so i was told.

[demonrail666]

I squatted a council property in Mile End with my girlfriend at the time. This would've been in the late 80s up till about 1995. The council seemed to have no record of it and we were just left to our own devices. Hot water, electricity, the lot. Actually, Melly spent many an evening there and I'm sure he'd tell you that it was a perfectly respectable home - when he wasn't spilling cans of lager over our carpet, that is!

[jon boy]

in england if you stay in a place for ten years then you legaly own it. 100 rats (a squat in leeds, england) was two months away from becoming the property of the squaters when it was suddenly decided by the owner that he wanted them all out. they had a good party on the last night though.

[demonrail666]

Yeah, that's true. We'd have gotten to keep ours but the flat was being knocked down. I split up with my GF at the time just before this happened, and she ended up with her own council flat out of it.

[tesla69]

most of you don't know, but the struggle is for land.

We do now, tesla69.

[cryptowonderdruginvogue]

dude, what the fuck?

[demonrail666]

Originally Posted by tesla69

most of you don't know, but the struggle is for land.

With respect, the squat movement of the 70s and 80s was one of the most politicised in Britain. Anyone squatting during that time was fully aware of what was at stake, and some of the richest debates about issues such as ownership, land-rights, etc., sprang directly out of it.

[MellySingsDoom]

Originally Posted by demonrail666

Actually, Melly spent many an evening there and I'm sure he'd tell you that it was a perfectly respectable home - when he wasn't spilling cans of lager over our carpet, that is!

Can't you just forget the past!!! (Actually, I bet Demon can't - I gather he got a serious amount of earache from his ex after I spilled a whole can of Special Brew on their sofa. Man, that stuff stinks, I tell thee). I still fondly remember the biker's pub round the corner, which has a Raleigh Chopper as a central attraction...oh god, I just remembered, do you remember I very nearly broke a double 12-inch techno record that belonged to your ex-GF, that was worth about £100?

[demonrail666]

Haha. Yeah, i do remember that. It was a Carl Craig record. I still wake up with cold sweats thinking about it!

[Cantankerous]

Originally Posted by !@#$%!

i dont think you can do that in amerikkka

every time i hear about those it's a british thing

here they'd send the swat teams to get you out-- there are no laws that protect squatters that i'm aware of

there are no laws but yeah you can. people do. i know people who live in one on avenue C.


anyway no i've never lived in one but i have lived in squat-like conditions, to which i say "no thanks"

[atari 2600]

I couch-surfed a few times in my twenties. I remember one day when I had to leave an apartment because my roommate had family coming into town and that I was so tired from a night job that I just went and slept in the woods all day...crazy times. And I ate at many a soup kitchen and utilized many a food bank service in those days.

A couple of Saturday nights ago I was approached by a guy and a girl and their dog. They were wearing camping backpacks and I gave them each a cigarette when they asked. I asked about the packs and they were just telling me about their two campsites with shantys and tents when a patrol car swooped in.

I was detained from leaving the scene for almost thirty harrowing minutes, longer than one might expect it would take, and this drew the attention of curious onlookers. The policeman knew the guy by name. At one point about halfway through, another police vehicle pulled up and two detectives, a male and a female, got out. Although I was free to go in the end, I think they may have went to jail because the guy was noticeably drunk in public and his breath reeked of alcohol. I just left when the officer told me to, so I don't know what happened to them.

[demonrail666]

Squatting is like any kind of living experience. It depends on how you do it, who you do it with and where you do it. I've paid rent to live in a shit hole, with arseholes, in areas I've hated. Equally, have squatted in perfectly fine residences, with good people, in OK areas. A lot of silly people do it for the 'coolness' factor and they tend to be the ones that never wash up, develop an unreasonable liking for dub reggae and an unfathomable taste for pot noodle. They also tend to be the ones that, the minute things become difficult, run straight back to their parents in the 'burbs.

I imagine it's just as difficult now to squat in the UK as Atari's anecdote above suggests it is in the US. Saying that, I'm strictly a rent paying pillar of society now, so I wouldn't know for sure. Good memories of when I did it though. Although It did leave me with a lifelong aversion to Lee Perry records, I have to say.

[EMMAh]

I have heard that somewhere in Europe (I forget where, because that's what I do) you can squat in a place as long as you have a chair, a bed and a table in there. Obviously the people who own the building you're living in can't care either, and the building had to be unoccupied for a year.
I've heard in Canada that a building must me unoccupied for five years, but I don't know if this is true.

I have never squatted, but I would do it, for sure. I wouldn't really care how dirty I was.

[demonrail666]

In Britain, at least when I was squatting, there were as many loopholes as there were rules. The main one was the property had to be unoccupied (why anyone would try squatting an occupied house always baffled me) and there had to be no signs of actually breaking in to enter the property.

[cryptowonderdruginvogue]

I could never live in a squat

[demonrail666]

I don't think a lot of people could. Unfortunately, the people who say they couldn't are usually those that'd be quite good at at. It's those that somehow aspire to it that are the problem. And, incase that sounds all to vague, i'm paying you a compliment there, Cryptowonderdruginvogue.

Originally Posted by cryptowonderdruginvogue

I could never live in a squat

Think about it, crypto, you and your bitches all smeared with poo having a squat bling party. Just kidding.

[cryptowonderdruginvogue]

Originally Posted by sarramkrop

Think about it, crypto, you and your bitches all smeared with poo having a squat bling party. Just kidding.

I thought those were called scat bling parties

[demonrail666]

 

The police raid on the St Agnes Squat in Kennington in around 2002 and it's resulting closure marked a real sea-change of attitude by the authorities.