DO WE NOW LIVE IN A POLICE STATE?

DO WE NOW LIVE IN A POLICE STATE?

I ask this question after reading 2 reports in the past week, of the police apparently making arbitrary rulings.


Case One

In a County Durham village a street has been given a new name after the Durham Police claimed the Wright family who built houses there and originally named the street were a criminal family, involved in anti social behaviour including illegal fly-tipping.

Alan Wright said he only has one conviction – threatening to commit criminal damage and that conviction was 15 years ago and is now “spent”


Case Two

A village shop in St Breward Cornwall was vandalised by a 20-year-old man, who was jailed for his offences, the case was in open court and there were no reporting restrictions.

The shop owners decided to “name and shame” the miscreant, (in my opinion a waste of time in a small village the size of St Breward pop 880 in 2001). They put a sign on the boarded-up window, which read, “DAMAGE DONE BY BEN HILL” .

The Devon and Cornwall Police, in the person of the Neighbourhood Beat Officer told the shop owners to remove the sign. A Police spokesperson said. "Publicly naming him in this way could inflame the situation and possibly tempt one of his friends to carry out further acts of vandalism on the shop."

Sorry am I missing something? When someone is convicted in a court of law this becomes public knowledge – it may be reported in the press. Ben had been convicted of the vandalism, not only to the village shop but also to a number of other properties and vehicles. So can someone tell me, why does he deserve Police protection?
– Answers on a postcard to – The Chief Constable, Devon and Cornwall Police, Police Headquarters, Sowton, Exeter, Devon.


Damian Green MP and National Security

Then of course there was the now infamous and well documented raid, arrest and search without a warrant, conducted by anti-terrorist police on a member of Parliament within the Palace of Westminster.

As you will know from my biography I do not like Tories. I do not like their policies and regard them as the enemy, but I do respect the right of our elected representatives to do their jobs.

The raid on Damian Green MP has no parallels in modern British history. The police acted no differently to their counterparts in the KGB, the Gestapo or the Stasi. I am sure they would offer the same defence for their actions, “I was only obeying orders …”

To the best of my knowledge the last time such high-handed action had been taken against an M.P. was in the seventeenth century and was one of the trigger events that culminated in the English Civil War.

January 6th 1642 King Charles the First, entered Parliament to arrest 5 members of Parliament, the Speaker of the House refused to collude and the King was thwarted. There were riots on the streets of London which spread across the kingdom. Eight months later, in August 1642, Parliament and the Crown were at war.

In the 21st century there has been barely more than a whispered whimper of protest, despite the fact, that the Rights and the Liberties, which are associated with a modern democracy, are being trampled on, by the Crown. The Crown excuses its actions by saying they are in the interests of National Security. Stalin and Hitler also arrested people because they were a threat to National Security!

What has happened to us? Where has the passion gone? Do we no longer hold beliefs? Do we no longer have convictions?