Martyrs...
On this page we list some of those men and women who have suffered unjustly at the hands of the bureaucrats.
If you have a suitable nomination, do contact us. We will consider every suggestion carefully for inclusion.
Andrew Carter
A Bristol plumber, Mr Carter, 44,was handcuffed, arrested and held in police cells for 5 hours because he took a photograph of a policeman who reversed up a one-way street, ignoring a “No Entry” sign, to visit a fish and chip shop-apparently to look at CCTV footage of an earlier incident.
Mr Carter alleges that when he pointed out the sign to the police officer, PC Aqil Farook, the officer swore at him and told him that he was on “Police business”, which indeed it seems that he was.
Mr Carter then alleges that when he photographed the police van through the Chippie window, PC Farook knocked the camera from his hand and he was arrested.
The constable alleged that Mr Carter had assaulted him with his camera, resisted arrest and was drunk and disorderly.
Strange then that Mr Carter has never been charged with any offence.
He was however, having been bailed, called back with his solicitor to answer bail the following week. He was then kept at the station for another 5 hours.
Mr Carter, unsurprisingly, made a formal complaint of wrongful arrest.
The police managed to speed this quickly through the system. He was arrested in January. The tribunal was held in July. My! That must be a record for efficient processing of complaints.
To their great credit, the disciplinary tribunal found in favour of Mr Carter and PC Farooq apologised to Mr Carter at that tribunal.
The Chairman of the tribunal also sent a letter to Mr Carter, stating amongst other matters that: “I will meet him (PC Farooq) over the next few weeks and will reinforce our expectations of his behaviour”
Mmmmmm!
Avon and Somerset Police declined to make any further comment but we understand that Mr Carter is pursuing a claim for compensation for wrongful arrest.
Quite right too! This case is disgraceful.
When will the police realise that they have already lost or are loosing the backing of ordinary people when they behave like this. They are not above the law. They are upholders of the law.
Avon and Somerset Police are very hot on training. Here are some extracts from their website:
Training
Diversity training is the “golden thread” which is woven into all Force training courses. New police officer recruits are trained in diversity awareness. New police staff recruits receive training on equalities legislation and the minimum standards required by the Force on diversity related matters, as part of their induction.
- All forces have adopted the definition of a racist incident being "any incident which is perceived to be racist by the victim or any other person." If such incidents are found to be a crime they are called Hate Crimes which are treated with seriousness and sensitivity. For further information go to Hate Incidents and Crime.
- Police are forbidden from being or becoming members of the British National Party, Combat 18 or the National Front.
- Police now make a record of the ethnicity of those who are stopped and searched. Figures for stop and searches are closely monitored to try to reduce any unjustifiably disproportionate stopping and searching of BME populations.
Engaging with our gay and lesbian communities
Our IAGs and EAGs each provide a forum in which gay, lesbian and bisexual communities can engage with the Force to influence policing.
In addition to the actions described above, all staff who have contact with members of the public are trained to work effectively with gay and lesbian service users. In particular "Neighbourhood Policing Teams, Hate Crime Officers and a Community Liaison Officer work to build links with all gay and lesbian communities across the Force to identify and tackle issues affecting these communities.
All staff who have contact with members of the public are trained to work effectively with service users of different religions. In particular Neighbourhood Policing Teams, Hate Crime Officers and a Community Liaison Officer work to build links with all religious communities across the Force to identify and tackle issues affecting these communities.
All very worthy and commendable but would it not be rather nice if Avon and Somerset police were also given training in not treating decent members of the public like Mr Carter with such contempt? He cannot help being white. He cannot help being straight. So why should he not be treated with the same sensitivity that right and properly is applied to other subjects of the Queen so rigorously by the police?
Could we suggest to the Chief Constable that this might be rather a good idea?
In fact, poor Mr Carter has highlighted a situation, which probably needs addressing throughout the country; careful training in how to treat law abiding members of the community.
Why not a new mission statement to add to all the others which says:
All forces have adopted the definition of aggressive police behaviour against generally innocent and law-abiding members of the community over petty matters being "any behaviour which is perceived to be aggressive by the victim or any other person." If such incidents are found to be a crime they are called Aggressive Behaviour Crimes which are treated with seriousness and sensitivity.
Politicians, kindly note!
Denise Ranson:
A 76 year old lady from Crawley, who is undergoing regular treatment for a bad back, was recently told, it is reported, “to remove traces of soil and mud from her garden waste bin”. The poor lady already pays £40 extra per month to have this “service”. The Council left the bin unemptied.
Crawley Council say that “Their contractors were unable to take away mud because it was not biodegradable”. So Mrs Ranson had to wait another two weeks before her bin, already full, was collected.
Mrs Ranson is quoted as saying: “I can’t believe what they’ve done to me. I pay £40 a year for this and they won’t empty it because it’s a bit dirty.
Of course it’s a bit dirty-it’s garden waste. I’m a pensioner for goodness sake. I can hardly move with a bad back………..I just hope they never get old”.
What are Crawley Council thinking about?
This is yet another example of supposed Bin Sin where decent members of the community who pay their Council Tax at a horrendous rate already and, in this case, pay extra specifically to have garden waste removed, are penalised by jobsworth rules that seem to be made up to antagonise the very people who are paying their wages and final salary pensions.
This sort of petty persecution is typical of the sort of behaviour that the Laughing Cavaliers want stopped and now.
Councils are there to provide a service, not to make up ludicrous rules to punish honest citizens. Yet again we are presented with a case that seems to show the waste collection being run for the convenience of the Council and their contractors rather than for the Council Tax payers.
Mrs Ranson should receive an immediate apology from the Council and a waiving of her extra £40 charge for a year in recompense.
Elected Councillors in Crawley should also be challenged over this action, asked if they support it and their replies duly noted for when they present themselves for re-election next time.
GARETH CORKHILL:
A decent subject of the Queen, Mr Corkhill, a bus driver, from Whitehaven in Cumbria, was given a criminal conviction by a local court for the frightful offence of leaving the lid of his wheelie bin open by 4 inches.
He was initially given an on-the-spot fine by "Council Inspectors" (did you know you were paying for these Soviet style officials out of your Council Tax, good people of Copeland Borough Council?).
That fine was £110.00.
No wonder he demurred.
The poor chap was then fined £210.00 for daring to defy the Council's secret police. That's a week's wages for him.
As he rightly pointed out, he would have been better off fly tipping. It's only an £80.00 fine for that.
Not only that. He now has a Criminal conviction. That means he has a criminal record, cannot obtain a shotgun certificate, cannot apply for certain jobs, has a stigma attached to him-quite unjustly.
The people who should be dragged before a court, some people say, are those faceless bureaucrats who decided on this penal and very un-British policy and proceeded to enact it so forcefully. This is not East Berlin. It is Cumbria.
They should lose their jobs and their pensions too, some say. They don't rule us. We pay them to run the routine affairs of the Borough Council for us. How dare they behave with this arrogance!
Our forefathers must be rotating in their graves like chickens on a particularly active spit.
They fought a number of wars in the last century to stop state sponsored terrorism and Fascism. They won the Cold War and defeated Communism, with its wicked suppression of real Human Rights. (see Alexander Solzenhitzen on the subject).
And now these petty bureaucrats, just the sort of people that prospered under the sort of state that our predecessors fought against in the past, dare to fine our people for this fanciful offence and give the poor fellow a criminal record.
It just won't do!
We hope the good people of Whitehaven will be telling their representatives so in very direct terms. They can find out who they are (and their MPs) by using the "letter" link on our Website.