Criminal behaviour by the police - attack on Fitwatch activists

[winjer]

Why are the officers blurred? What happened to "nothing to hide, nothing to fear"? The world should know who these thugs are.

It's likely to be because of potential civil proceedings against them, rather than out of concern for their privacy.

Liberty write:
"There has been a lot of speculation about why the Guardian chose to pixallate the images of the police officers in this case, in another thread Emily Apple one of the women involved in the case speculated that it may be due to Section 76 of the Counter-Terrorism Act 2008.

We asked the Guardian about this. The pictures were pixellated on the basis of legal advice - we can't go into more detail on this specific case as it risks defeating the aim of the pixellation - but it was not related to section 76 Counter-Terrorism Act 2008. The Guardian say they have not pixellated any pictures at all as a result of s76."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentis...ommentid=c1699e4f-14fb-4741-af6b-b9d8d7dd1e4d

 

[detective-boy]

can we co-opt them to the IPCC?

Sadly the IPCC have neither resources nor remit to proactively police the police. As anyone who has followed my posts since I first came here will know, I consistently say that the best protection against police excess is the public policing them - if you see something wrong note it, report it, complain about it, whatever ... and that I get the right arse when people whinging about how bad the police are come back with the (entirely predictable) "Yeah, but it ain;t worth doing cos it'll just get covered up" ... if you don't fucking complain they don;t even need to go to the bother of fucking covering it up.

Personally I think tbe police should proactively police themselves (it's called "supervison" and "management". When I was a sergeant and an inspector I used to do it. It wasn't difficult ... but I didn't make myself popular ... but, then again, I wasn't paid to be fucking popular - I was paid to do my job! And if I had a £1 for every time since that one of my former officers has said "You were a pain in the fucking arse ... but you kept us out of the shit!" ... I'd be worth about £8 ... )

 

[detective-boy]

The actual charge was ‘conspiracy to commit criminal damage’.

This vague charge was enough for the police to launch into a full-blown fishing expedition.“The only evidence they [Sussex police] have is that someone phoned me, asking if I wanted to film the police response,” Paul told SchNEWS, “I said I couldn’t because I had my son and his friend sleeping over that night. That was the end of it as far as I was concerned. As a film maker I frequently get phone calls about possible incidents to film – this was one shoot I couldn’t and didn’t make.”

I doubt very much that this is the case ... not least because the implication in that the only grounds for arrest that the police had was an intercepted phone call ... and it is unlawful to reveal the existence of intercept material, let alone use it as the sole basis for arrest. There simply must be something else.

And it doesn't inspire confidence to see the phrase "charge" being confused with grounds for arrest ... no "charge" is needed for arrest - all that is needed is reasonable grounds to suspect an arrest with a power of arrest. "Charge" comes at the end of an investigation and is the means of the police / CPS putting someone before the courts, not of arresting them ...

 

[lighterthief]

That's a horrible video. Genuinely makes me angry.

 

[moon23]

Sadly the IPCC have neither resources nor remit to proactively police the police. As anyone who has followed my posts since I first came here will know, I consistently say that the best protection against police excess is the public policing them - if you see something wrong note it, report it, complain about it, whatever ... and that I get the right arse when people whinging about how bad the police are come back with the (entirely predictable) "Yeah, but it ain;t worth doing cos it'll just get covered up" ... if you don't fucking complain they don;t even need to go to the bother of fucking covering it up.

Personally I think tbe police should proactively police themselves (it's called "supervison" and "management". When I was a sergeant and an inspector I used to do it. It wasn't difficult ... but I didn't make myself popular ... but, then again, I wasn't paid to be fucking popular - I was paid to do my job! And if I had a £1 for every time since that one of my former officers has said "You were a pain in the fucking arse ... but you kept us out of the shit!" ... I'd be worth about £8 ... )

I wonder what the police think about people who complain lots? This is what these people were doing noing things, recording them. They tried to get an officers number and they got violently nicked. I agree people should complain but when they start to become scared to do so that's no good.

 

[detective-boy]

I wonder what the police think about people who complain lots? This is what these people were doing noing things, recording them. They tried to get an officers number and they got violently nicked. I agree people should complain but when they start to become scared to do so that's no good.

Undoubtedly the police do not like it when people complain lots, and there have been instances of individual officers vctimising people who complain about them. But, using exactly the same argument I use to argue that people shouldn't walk on by when they see bullys and thugs picking on people in the street, if everyone complained whenever it was justified (and in a proportionate manner - complaints demanding that the Commissioner personally investigate and sack a copper who looked a bit scruffy tend to be counter-productive!) the bad guys would not last long.

(There is an important aspect to this with complaints - when they are made by people with a long criminal record, or being arrested for what is clearly a serious crime, it is inevitable that the "well, you would say that" argument is used (and very often with good cause!). For that reason complaints made by those not arrested or reported or with any long history of contact with the police are really important).

 

[tangentlama]

More proof that citizens are justified in filming the police. Big thanks to FITWATCH for all their work and for the risks you have taken and continue to take on our behalf. Citizens monitoring the police makes everyone safer. The FITWATCH team deserve honour for their services to society.

2 grubbylocal - thanks for posting the info on the raid on Paul Light. What action can Paul take?
Will he be able to get his equipment and life's work (footage) back?
Is his son ok?