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<\/p>\nA self-confessed football hooligan who was banged up after getting involved in \u201clarge scale disorder\u201d says the biggest police operation he saw was nothing to do with violence.<\/p>\n
John Nation grew up in Bristol\u2019s tough Barton Hill area, and a huge ruck between Bristol and West Ham supporters saw him arrested while still a schoolboy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was mixing with an older group, who were maybe 10 years older than me,\u201d John told the Hurts So Good podcast. \u201cThey were quite seasoned, they were quite handy they were a tight unit.\u201d John was one of the younger members of the group, who were \u201clooking to make their mark\u201d.<\/p>\n
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\u201cYou had to prove yourself, and so certain games you\u2019d have to stand if you're outnumbered maybe get a bit of a slap, get a shoeing, but it held you in good stead for when you were going to be part of the firm.\u201d<\/p>\n
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In the late 70s and early 80s, West Ham\u2019s Inter City Firm (ICF) mob had a reputation as one of the most fearsome in the country, as John found out. \u201cThey were a proper unit, and they had some big old rough lots with them,\u201d John explained. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe were coming unstuck, to be honest, and luckily for us just where the incident all transpired there was a road skip so it had all the debris from the road works and we just grabbed whatever we could.\u201d<\/p>\n
As a giant ICF enforcer came lumbering towards skinny, 17-year old John, he swung a road lamp at the man\u2019s head. \u201cI fractured his skull, and got charged with malicious wounding with intent.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI was still a juvenile back then, so I got six months. If I'd have been older I'd have been looking at a lot longer for for wounding and affray. I got sent to Eastwood Park detention centre for what [then Conservative Home Office Minister] Willy Whitelaw called a \u2018short sharp shock\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Conditions inside were brutal, John said. \u201cWhen I was in there I was met with a far greater degree of violence than what got me sent these in the first place," he recalled. "So when I came out on my license I was determined that I didn\u2019t want to ever go back to anywhere like that in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n
On his release, he \u201cstarted training to become a youth worker. I was the youngest youth worker ever employed in Bristol in that era.\u201d<\/p>\n
But alongside his youth work, John became increasingly involved in Bristol\u2019s burgeoning graffiti scene. By the middle of the 1980s he was travelling all over the country to paint giant pieces on walls, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Robert \u201c3D\u201d del Naja, one of the prime movers in the Wild Bunch collective that later spawned Massive Attack.<\/p>\n
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The Bristol graffiti artists were one of the main targets of Operation Anderson \u2013 the biggest anti-graffiti operation in the history of British policing. One of the targets of the synchronised police raids was John\u2019s home in Barton Hill.<\/p>\n
Police in riot gear burst into his house at 6am and arrested him on suspicion of conspiracy to organise criminal damage. His mum, who had a cleaning job at the youth centre at the time, was taken away to help officers gain access to the building.<\/p>\n
There were three van loads of police on hand just to search Barton Hill youth centre. The\u2019d also left a team searching my house, going through everything, even my mom\u2019s knicker drawer.<\/p>\n
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The search warrant stated they were looking for anything related to graffiti \u2013 so even pens and pencils were fair game. He continued: \u201cWhat they also found there was a dissertation that I'd written from my University degree and the title was Drawing the line; Art or crime. It was a 20,000 word dissertation that I'd spent a year writing as my final thesis for my degree.\u201d<\/p>\n
John was taken in handcuffs to a police station and questioned for 48 hours. \u201ceventually I was released,\u201d he say, \u201ccharged with conspiracy to incite individuals to commit criminal damage.<\/p>\n
\u201cA week later it emerged that he number of people arrested as a result of Operation Anderson was 72.\u201d John ended up being acquitted. The operation was not considered a success, John says, and as a result a dedicated anti-graffiti training unit was established.<\/p>\n
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