Earlier this afternoon, I saw you fly through the air and land against a tree. Could you explain to me how this happened?

This was the first question my friend asked me on Saturday afternoon as he interviewed me for an independent radio station.

The flying through the air was the result of a hefty push from a friendly Forward Intelligence Officer who was trying to prevent me seeing why my friend was being arrested.

I was in London at the weekend for a DISARM DSEi public meeting. Defence Systems Equipment International is the world's largest arms fair and will be held at the ExCeL exhibition centre in East London from 11th-14th September 2007. As was explained by a sarcastic friend at the meeting, I'm the "person who's failed stopping DSEi for longer than any of us," which is sadly true having spent the last eight years of my life opposing this beast.

As is customary outside such meetings, there was a contingent from the Metropolitan Police's Forward Intelligence team outside the meeting. They claim they come to these meetings to gather intelligence, take photos and make notes of those attending. However their presence is purely intimidatory. They are trying to deter people from attending such meetings or protests.

Whilst we warn people attending meetings there might be a police presence, we have been ignoring them for years with nothing more than the occasional "fuck off" or giving the finger to the camera as we enter buildings. However my friend had decided she was fed up with it and wanted to do more.

She arrived with two signs saying "no to cameras" and "respect our privacy" on black card and she held these up to the camera, trying to prevent them from taking photos. She was not confrontational - simply held up the piece of paper and moved as the cameraman moved. She was joined by someone else who also helped. The cops didn't like this and were eventually forced into a situation where they had formed a line to protect their cameraman.

I asked my friend whether she was alright and went in to ULU as the meeting was starting. As I was waiting for the lift, I saw the cops move in to arrest the two of them. I ran over and tried to see what was going on and this was when I was pushed and flew through the air and landed in the tree.

Then everything went a bit surreal. There was a conflict resolution workshop going on at the same time as our meeting and suddenly all these conflict resolution people started shouting at the cops, telling them this was the sort of thing they were trying to sort out. One woman kept trying to pull me back, kept telling me I was getting hurt, and I kept trying to get her to back off.

However, unlike the last time a friend got nicked, I managed not to. A very small voice kept telling me I had to go the meeting. By this time at least half the meeting had made it down to the street after having witnessed the start of the incident from the third floor window.

We went back inside and started our meeting. However it was interesting because the act of confrontation, of having had a joint experience as a group made the meeting much stronger. People were much more vocal than they normally are at public meetings and it seemed a much stronger, cohesive meeting.

My friend was released at about half twelve and has been bailed to return on charges of Section 4 (public order act) and assault.

I was left thinking it was a really worthwhile action, something which we should definitely repeat. A lot of people remarked that they managed to get into the meeting without having their photos taken and it was good to challenge their right to be outside our meetings.