Basejumper.com - archive

Progress, maybe:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/...ncashire/4595606.stm

Two released over parachute jump

Two men arrested after a pair of base jumpers parachuted from the top of Blackpool Tower have been released without charge.

The men were arrested on suspicion of criminal damage after security netting at the top of the tower was cut.

Base jumping, which stands for Building, Aerial, Span, Earth, is the practice of parachuting from fixed objects such as bridges or cliffs.

The tower saw a similar stunt 18 months ago but nobody was arrested.

So the netting was cut by someone else? They initially thought they did but let them go because they hadn't??

Coco

Net wasn't cut. Just untied. That's why there were no charges.

http://www.basejumper.org/...hp?t=114&start=0

 
Tenshi:
..."Net wasn't cut. Just untied. That's why there were no charges."
-
SWeeeeeeeeeat. No Cutting. and I read it paid-off in the end. No Vandalism. That is the CORRECT way to enter a BASE site. (Just my personal choice).
I am proud to say I have Never cut any Wire yet to enter and never plan to.
not to say I have never picked a lock or two but I have found it is much easier to JUST go Under or Over. Or just plainly un-bolt. Not Vandalize.
.

Ahhhh! Nice!

If you dont cause any damage then it doesnt constitute criminal damage and there is nothing that can be done. In the same way that squatters are able to enter a property by picking locks or removing boards and replacing them.

Oh if found in possesion of a lockpick set you will be arrested for 'Gounig equipped to commit burglary, cheat or theft'. This is a notorisously difficult offence to prove as you have to prove the detained persons intent. Again, your rigs would be enough evidence to the contrary to undermine this theory.

In a different premises, ie base of an antenna you may find yourself arrested on suspicion of burglary. Again as soon as you say all you were going to do wa jump and had no intention of damaging or stealing anything and provide your equipment as evidence, I suspect the CPS would throw the job out.

Another little tip for you is that as of 1st January 2006 the basic arrestable offences changed and now to be arrested you have to meet certain criteria. For example: fear will cause furthur offences (like in case of drunk assaulting people in the town). I dont know what your current practice is amongst BASE jumpers but you might find yourself able to avoid arrest by simply carrying a form of ID such as driving licence. They could fill out paperwork and report you for the offence on the spot with a requirement to attend court. I suspect the job would be thrown out by then. This would only really work for UK jumpers, foreign visitors would not have an address suibtable for summons so would therfore have to be arrested under S24 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984.

I raised the topic with my Sergeant as he knows I skydive and he ssaid if he caught anyone who had jumped off a fixed object or was about to he would arrest them for their own safety and have them evaluated at our local phsyco hospital. A power given under section 136 of the Mental Health Act. Again you would be promptly released when found your not mental, just having a giggle.

Ive showna n interest towards BASE and ive been waying up the pros and cons and the legalities. Seems that its easy to get away without any charges but I dont think its worth the risk given my position! Maybe ill just have to find another job in 200 or so more skydives

I believe you British have always rejected any kind of ID card, for freedom-related reasons, but those situations have always been considered as normal procedures in other countries. Small offences don't earn you a night in jail if you can show your ID, and that's pretty cool...

Rules all been turned on their heads! If we know who you are now, thats 1 less thing we can use to authorise your detention. Its all about human rights. Is it really neccesary to detain you?

Only stumbling block is if you get nicked for burglary they will almost certainly want to take fingerprints etc but I expect your detention would be minimal

Its all a bit new so we dont even know how its going to work out. Its gonna take a few months to settle down I should think and there is going to be quite a few test cases in court arguing if detention was legal so i suspect we can see the rulebook hastily being rewrtitten shortly

I suppose best advice is dont get caught! And you cant even listen to us on scanenrs anymore because we now all have secure comms

not really pogress...the same guy Dave Carter who now runs a "UK BASE School" teaching students has been busted on a lot of occasions...he doesnt call the locals,he jumps when its light/dusk he does downtown buildings at 8PM despite being told to wait till the early hours and basically uses the BASE freedom ideal as an excuse for bad ethics...

i dont think you achieve progress by rubbing peoples noses in it...that just makes them want to look for ways to ban/criminalize BASE...

the guy is a legend on your side of the pond too...well know in Florida as well as New York State...and possibly Atlantic City...

progress..one step forward and maybe two back.

Now then sean, put your toys back in the pram. just because you don't like the chap doesn't mean you need to slate him everywhere you go.

I feel that jump was successful - we didn't hurt anyone, we didn't damage the net (it took an hour and a half to unpick the line holding the nets together) - we were unlucky with the bust... Contrary to media reports, we were not seen on CCTV but by a volunteer police officer on a push bike. He alerted his colleauges via radio, and we were busted pulling out of the car park.


We were released without charge as we did nothing wrong.

As for burning the site - it's a high profile tourist attraction - the last time it was jumped, the same thing happened - all over the media (it's even linked in the BBC article), and they got away, so the bust wasn't a factor.

I'm not sure how you would have done it any better Sean - your post just smacks of sour grapes IMHO.

Love from the second jumper...

Is that because it was seriously difficult to do or because you had to keep coming back to it to avoid detection? Either way, some poor sod had to go back and wire it back up.


He probably would have done it when it was dark, not at 1pm. That would have seriously reduced your chances of being seen by the passing Special.

I believe he's known as "Dangerous Dave" over there and "Dirty Dave" over here. The Atlantic City crowbar business upset a lot of people, but there was eventually some confusion on whether he actually did or did not use a crowbar to pry open the roof door. Dave's story was that the police framed him for that and were just trying to bust him for something because they thought they might have trouble getting a BASE charge to stick.

it took so long because we had to keep coming back to it, and didn't want to cause any damage. It will take about 10 mins to do back up...