Sneaky, sneaky very sneaky!

 activism, anonymity, bloggers, Civil Liberties, Free Speach, laws, police  5 Responses »
Jan 122012
 

Once again a significant “consultation” that no body new about. It would seem that to they’d like to give the police yet more power:
“This three-part consultation seeks your views on the areas of police powers which the government is committed to reviewing:
– the relevance of the word ‘insulting‘ in section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986
– new powers to request removal of face coverings
– new powers to impose curfews”

And as they’ve had a consultation, which ends tomorrow they’ll claim public support. ArchbishopCranmber and Old Holborn have more details, but if you’d like to once more be able to call me a smegging idiot without risking arrest. The powers that be, seem to currently take the stand that as long as you only get arrested, charged and suffer loss of time, money and distress with the whole process as long as you don’t actually go to court and get found guilty it’s all ok. Their test is are people actually getting found guilty unreasonably, not are people suffering from the impact of the law and likewise they have no concern over it’s chilling effects. See Olly Cromwell’s blog for a prime example of abuse of this sort of power.

I would point out that the police can already ask you to remove face coverings if they genuinely believe you intend to commit an offence, so that those rioting last summer wore face coverings is already covered by existing powers – and lets face it it’s not as if you’re going to comply with a request to uncover your face if you already rioting. The new power would let them remove face coverings at any time if they felt there was “reasonable suspicion of criminal activity” – of course remember that this is the same police force that despite being told numerous times still think it’s illegal to take photographs.

Finally curfews, the police can already force people to disperse, as people who remember the rave scene at all are well aware, and they can since 2003 request a dispersal zone be designated where people won’t be allowed to gather – this apparently takes too long and has too much paper work so they’d like a new law. Of course they’re once more citing the summer looting, ignoring the option of the riot act and that there was clear criminal behaviour taking place so would the looters really have gone home because they were in a dispersal zone? What they’d like instead is:
“The aim of a general police curfew power would be to give the police an operational tool to keep members of the public off the streets in a given location, for a given period, in order to prevent or address serious disorder.”
Now that looks like it’s just begging for feature creep to me, and is if it could be used in very lazy and Stalinist ways. Though I do tend to take the view that if a law can be abused it probably will be. They say that being outside during a curfew wouldn’t be a criminal offence, so just how would they enforce it? A fine, or a going out door tax as it might be known?

So go have your say whilst you can!

 Posted by Giolla at 14:43  Tagged with: , , , , , , ,

Climate sceptics the new Wikileakers?

 bloggers, Civil Liberties, climate change, Must read post, police  1 Response »
Dec 152011
 

Via the ever well informed Katabasis my attention has been drawn to the rather worrying seizure of computers owned by UK climate sceptic bloggers. Apparently at the behest of the U.S. Department of Justice as other climate bloggers have received nasty grams (cache) from our friends across the pond. Last I checked the climategate e-mails where mainly (allegedly) pilfered from UK sources, and even ignoring that the emails are widely available so the US Department of Justice could just download their own copy. All in all a quite worrying development, state funded “scientific” research into climate change wasn’t a matter of national security last I checked. Rather generally the scientific method in the past has been to share research far and wide for verification and the like, so why are the powers that be on both sides of the pond going for climate bloggers?

I can’t help but suspect there may be more to this than meets the eye.

Do spread the word, and don’t forget to keep off site backups.

Updates: JoNova observes:
Now, more than ever, all the people that value their freedom need to stick together. Whistleblowers and radio personalities need blogger back up, big bloggers need small bloggers, every blogger needs commenter and emailer support, with letters to editors and friends. Every link in the chain helps. The establishment need to know that we will not be intimidated, there are many of us, and the more they push, the more we will tell the world.
and in the comments there:
They took away a DSL router? That would only be done by “experts” to frustrate access to the Internet.

And Watts Up With That? have been in contact with Roger (Tallbloke) and he tells me that he is not a suspect, and that they’ll clone his hard drives and return the computers to him.

Which is good news, and hopefully they’ll return everything quickly and undamaged (which doesn’t always happen) – this still seems really rather odd.

 Posted by Giolla at 13:27  Tagged with: , , , ,

Best walk so far

 activism, anonymity, bloggers, Civil Liberties, conformity, Cuts, Drinking, economics, Free Speach, London, photography, police, Video  3 Responses »
Nov 072011
 

All activities monitored by video camera Another November the 5th gone and another “quiet” walk around London with the indomitable Old Holborn, Olly Cromwell, Katabasis and others whose presence has been erased by alcohol (remind me if you want) – which was an utter blast. As has become our want we met in the pleasing environs of Chandos to exchange niceties, don costumes and imbibe a bracing drink before braving the autumnal air. Our dapper and well presented crew headed off down Whitehall, pausing to admire the security in place at that bastion of democracy that is Downing street. Setting the theme for the day they didn’t seem pleased to see us, undeterred we continued unto the very doors of the palace of Westminster where some terribly nice people told us that as the politicans don’t work on a Saturday it’d cost us 15 quid a head to get in:
Continue reading »

 Posted by Giolla at 20:25  Tagged with: , , , , , , ,

State of protest in the US

 activism, Civil Liberties, Free Speach, police  No Responses »
Sep 302011
 

Whilst this is only a single person account of the events and police behaviour, and so I have a pinch of salt handy, even if the report is exaggerated the use of mace on a reportedly peaceful crowd and arresting everyone on a street even if they’ve only just arrived. Does seem horribly excessive and really not the sort of thing that the “land of the free” should be doing, least not if they want to keep telling less pleasant regimes to sort out their act.

My name is Kelly Schomburg, I’m the girl with the red hair in these pictures. I was protesting at the Occupy Wall Street march yesterday when I and several other women were sprayed with mace and subsequently arrested. Many have already seen the video, which has been spreading like wildfire over twitter, Facebook, tumblr, and other video feeds, along with hundreds of other photos and videos. This is my recount of what happened.
…

 Posted by Giolla at 13:24  Tagged with: , ,

A nice little earner

 Civil Liberties, police  No Responses »
Sep 272011
 

Accredited workers powers Way back in 2002 Labour introduced the idea of accredited workers, people who can demand our details, or our money for a variety of things not all of which were offences. It’s not been exactly a tidal wave of people getting these powers but as The Telegraph observes the number is increasing an increasing rate both in numbers of people who are accredited and in the number of organisations allowed to enrol people. It would seem to be snow balling, and why not all those fines they can charge help to keep paying for councillors and politicians expenses and jollies abroad.

For instance from the Telegraph article:
“In March this year, Scotland Yard gave 15 private security guards the limited policing powers to operate around Victoria coach and railway stations in central London”

Those aren’t even PCSOs, just random security guards with no well known requirements for ID or uniform, if there’s even any criteria for acceptable ID or uniform in the first place. As other people have observed the potential for fraudulently collecting fines is quite impressive, not to mention the ease with which addresses could be gathered in this age of “identity theft”. Would you have any idea if you were talking to a genuinely accredited person who a con man?

Looking at the little list of powers they have I’d observe that it’s not actually illegal for under 18′s to have alcohol nor under 16′s to have tobacco, and “force” them to surrender alcohol?

 Posted by Giolla at 21:36  Tagged with: ,

A fish rots from the head

 London, police, riots  No Responses »
Aug 122011
 

Following on from The Snowolf‘s excellent article, the telegraph today also has an excellent piece comparing the self serving (though often strictly legal) behaviour at the top of society with the behaviour of the looters in the recent kerfuffle. Whilst those at the top may be found not guilty (often on technicalities and one suspects due to better lawyers) they are people expected to set a better example – and yet often get away with “having made a mistake” or “technical breach of the rules” and then just pay back the relevant sum – with no interest paid and no other penalty. So if we apply the same logic applied to MPs expenses to the looters as long as they didn’t cause damage but just stole stuff it’ll be fine as long as they return it right?

If our great and good set such poor examples, all across the political spectrum and beyond, why should we expect any better from any other part of society? Though one thing which may be a glimmer of light is the way communities have remembered themselves and gone out to protect and clean up their neighbourhoods not to mention numerous reports I’ve seen on facebook and in the Metro of people standing up to antisocial and thuggish behaviour in public and getting support either from the Police or those around then. This I suspect would have been unthinkable before the looting, but perhaps now we’ve been reminded that we are all responsible for maintaining the sort of society we want to live in. I’d hazard the suggestion that if our courts could remember this and apply serious sentences to those that committed wrong doing and didn’t penalise those trying to defend themselves or assist others then maybe things could well improve without the imposition of yet more laws to be randomly enforced.

update I must agree though with Samizdata that whilst the parallels with the politicians make sense, and some of the other celebrity “role models” also don’t help. Business people trying to keep what they’ve earned doesn’t really fit, and as a friend observed US style tax breaks for the rich to support charities really might not be a bad plan.

 Posted by Giolla at 10:15  Tagged with: , , ,

Is it getting quieter?

 activism, London, police, riots  1 Response »
Aug 092011
 

So far in London tonight at least things seem quieter, though equally that may be that it’s just being reported less. Whilst I’m very glad it’s quietened down it’s worrying as it hasn’t got quieter because the looters have been stopped, more they’ve simply stopped for now. This may be due to the vast numbers of police in the capital, if so that could be a problem as they’ll have to go home at soem point and really do we want our cities that heavily policed? Or it may be due to the London firms and other groups defending their streets? Or it could be the looters have got bored, got enough trainers and mobile phones or are just having a lie in?

Earlier Inspector Gadget observed that the police need to deliver fast to maintain any credibility. From the reporting in the mainstream media and on bloggs and twitter where trouble is happening it does seem to be being dealt with more energetically. But there simply isn’t the level of trouble yet that there was the past few days (for which I’m terribly thankful) however this also means that the police haven’t yet been able to show they can deal with the situation. So if the looters and thugs are just having a quiet night to regroup count their stolen ipods and so forth, what happens when they come back? Do the people who’ve seen neighbourhoods destroyed whilst the police were unable to do anything (for what ever reason) wait and see how the police respond next time round? Or do they decide that it might be better to not wait around? With sales of batons, baseball bats and sjamboks being reported as was up, I don’t think people are planning to stay out of the way next time round, despite the popularity of #OperationCupOfTea tonight.

 Posted by Giolla at 21:30  Tagged with: , , ,

More than a bit miffed

 London, police, riots  No Responses »
Aug 082011
 

I’m rather fond of London, even the bits I don’t like I’m quite fond of – apart from a sojourn out in the depths of Essex for a long decade I’ve lived somewhere within it’s environs for my entire life. This means that I get more than a bit miffed when some miserable hooligans decide to smash the place up, because they want to play the hard man and get a load of shitty consumer products for free. I actually get quite annoyed by such behaviour, and am more than unimpressed by bits of the media describing them as protesters.

An awful lot of people have spoken an awful lot of sense over the last few days and tomorrow I’m going to re-read it and maybe do a round up as much has been said better than I’m going to. Tonight though I shall have a beer, hope that no one I know gets caught up in it and wonder what sort of brain dead thugs are currently running lose in London. If you care for your community and your city if you know people invovled in the rioting turn them in, don’t complain about the politicians impoverishing our communities and cutting services if you’re prepared to tolerate and shelter the thugs currently burning down our neighbourhoods.

Hopefully this will calm down soon and we can take a long hard think about how on earth we’ve got to this state, and I will laugh at the first person who tries to blame it on poverty. I will also point and laugh at anyone making lazy comparisons between the current bunch of wets we have in charge and Thatcher and saying it was due to the cuts (we’re spending more than ever) and that it’s just like the 80′s.

Meanwhile I hope everyone stays safe and good luck to everyone in the Police and Fire brigade currently trying to keep the place safe, and hope you get back to your families soon.

BTW there’s a facebook group for those that want an easy way to express support for the Met against the rioters

P.S. I wonder how many of the rioters fires will turn out to be insurance jobs as buildings “went on fire”

P.P.S Is this the summer of rage just running late due to the wrong kind of summer?

 Posted by Giolla at 23:51  Tagged with: , , ,

Anarchy in the UK

 anarchy, conformity, Free Speach, police, Sparticus  No Responses »
Aug 012011
 

Due to having recently acquired a social life, previously lost behind the sofa, I’m rather light on blogging and even further behind the news. Sadly I will catch up and probably go back to a load of things that no one’s interested in any more – however in the mean time it seems the police would like us all to snitch on any anarchist sympathisers we might know though they apparently have already backed down

Captain Ranty as ever has is covered as does The nameless libertarian so there’s really nothing left to say it’s all done and dusted in less than a day – till the next time round.

However if you think I’m going to pass by an opportunity to link to the Sex pistols Anarchy in the UK? You’ve got to be out of your ever loving gourd.

Enjoy….

 Posted by Giolla at 22:30  Tagged with: , , ,

A different manner of walk

 activism, London, police  3 Responses »
May 172011
 

SlutWalk As regular visitors know I’m quite a fan of walking, going as I do do for a regular walk once a year on November the 5th with other like minded individuals. Well my attention has been brought to another walk which I rather feel I should join. It would seem that a police officer in Toronto told a group of law students that in order to avoid being raped ‘women should avoid dressing like sluts’. This rather understandably caused a bit of upset, after all whilst one should be sensible in ones behaviour (you know don’t let a politician see your wallet that sort of thing) one really should have the freedom to dress how one likes. In fact it turns out that by law one does, and yet here’s a police man (what do they teach them in the colonies) suggesting that if a woman is dressing as she pleases if it could be seen in some way as “slutty” then well they’ve just got to expect to be raped. Of course that means they’re expected to guess what some violent thug they happen to run across, or some bone headed police officer, would consider slutty – perhaps a burqa would be safe? Now if this was just a single police officer in some colonial back water one might ignore it, but sadly this attitude of “dressed like that, she was asking for it” is far too common amongst the legal establishment – you know those people we pay to enforce laws against committing acts of violence against other people and to punish those that break those laws.

As the SlutWalk London page rightly points out manner of dress really isn’t a magic shield that stops people getting raped. So as someone who gets the odd bit of hassle for how I dress, sometimes even from the police I feel this is really rather something I should support. Besides the logical conclusion of such an attitude towards how women should dress is pretty much what some of those on the Muslim fringe would support. So I shall be taking additional exercise this year and going for a little stroll on June 11th and almost certainly not in my usual garb.

FaceBook event is here.

Just on a slightly ancillary note it would seem that Nadine Doris is in hot water again this time for suggesting that it might be a good thing if children where taught how to say no to sexual advances as it might be useful later in life to be taught early on that they can say no. Some people are interpreting her comments as saying that the victim is responsible, but I’m rather with Ms Raccoon in taking it as being told from an early age that you can say no to sexual advances even when you’re in your teens or later is a really rather handy life skill.

Update On another related note over at Harry’s place there is a report that:
“The Commons Home Affairs Select Committee has suggested that forced marriage should be made a criminal offence.”
Which seems likely a terribly good idea, though one suspects it might fall foul of cultural diversity laws and the like (Ok one doesn’t but it will be interesting to see how various groups react to the proposal).

 Posted by Giolla at 13:06  Tagged with: , , , ,
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