Extra! Drawing pins cause criminal damage
JVL Introduction
It is nothing short of outrageous that the Devon and Cornwall constabulary should send four policemen along to arrest a pensioner, accused of causing criminal damage to a door by affixing a poster to it with drawing pins.
It is an example of how absurd harassment of those with pro-Palestinian views has become.
In this case, the door in question was that of the local MP’s office to which a poster was pinned after emails to the MP – asking why she supported supplying arms to Israel – had failed to elicit any response.
As the video show, the police are ever so ridiculously polite as they go about a literally absurd assignment.
The only explanation for it is that they believe they have the insanely overreaching powers to do so – in this case to arrest and search an accused’s home on suspicion of causing the most trivial of offences.
No doubt they found some drawing pins. An open-and-shut case, Watson…
RK
This article was originally published by the Canary on Fri 19 Jan 2024. Read the original here.
Cops RAID the home of a pro-Palestinian pensioner – for putting up posters with… DRAWING PINS
The alleged ‘offence’ was committed on a Tory MP’s office
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Hot water for a change for Truro MP who cried ouch you scrathed my door while thousands of children burn Gaza. Try answering enquiries?
One/one hundredth tub of filler = £0.01p. One 1/8th sheet of sandpaper = £0.02p. 4 dabs of primer/undercoat = £.0.02. 4 dabs of top coat = £.0.02. TOTAL = £0.07p + labour charge. FFS
This is pure intimidation Presumably the police were called either by the MP or her staff I hope it was reported through local media and people think about this when they come to vote
Is this one of the police forces that arent visiting victims of burglaries because they dont have enough staff ? How could anyone think that four officers were required for such a minor “offence” and what on earth were they searching for. Very definitely a police state
This would be funny if it wasn’t so sinister and symptomatic of the way our police forces are becoming thought police . For a long time many women (and some men) who are active in women’s rights have had the same treatment – one elderly woman merely took a photo of a sticker and got a visitation and was intimidated by the police officer. Another was accused of “saying something untoward about a paedophile” and told she would be arrested if she didn’t attend a police station a long distance away. The police have become politicised and are making arrests for so-called hate crimes after flimsy and malicious accusations from anonymous accusers. They started with women’s rights activists and now are moving in on Palestinian activists in the same way. It’s very very frightening.
The police were obviously looking for any excuse to pin something on her.
As if there are not more important things to deal with than minute pinholes caused by drawing pins. Maybe the coppers and especially that there mp should attend awareness raising education about the historical background of Palestine Zionist interaction defined by oppression, ethnic cleansing and genocide. They should also realise that there is growing global support for Palestine. Freedom of speech does not seem to exist any more.
Surely when so many real crimes are left uninvestigated and Police are used to stop the public holding elected public servants to account then the UK has become a police state!
I see this slightly the other way round in this instance. The police force has obviously been under tremendous pressure from the very top – first Braverman, then Jenrick and of course the Mail/Express/Sun etc – to find evidence of hate crime in the pro-Palestinian movement. Senior police officers held out against this for a surprisingly long time. In the end, just to show some kind of symmetry , they’ve had to find a couple of placards on our marches to count against the outright aggression of the far-right march on November 11th. They’ve continued to find very little. But of course as someone has posted above, the police are getting tip-offs. Not only from malicious individuals mentioned above, but also (mainly?) from funded organisations which have moved beyond combing through social media and university sites for evidence of anti-Israel statements. These obsessive defenders of Israel are now homing in on individuals: April, Tony, Paul. The worse it gets in Gaza and the harder to defend mass murder, the more vicious these defenders are getting.
No, but in all seriousness, this has to be the pinnacle of absurdity.
Saw this on X and Novara had posted. I was enraged and my husband was enraged. Wanted to reach out to April and to express condemnation at Police behaviours. At least three burly policeman in the tiny cottage in a drawing pin dawn raid under terrorism powers, with no warrant. Mad Tory MP. Mad Police out of control, mad country that watches genocide and allows terrorising of protest. The least i can do is complain to my Tory MP about the complaint from her colleague that precipitated this terrifying and horrific action on the part of these dumb men in uniform.
There is a de minimis exception in criminal damage. Four tiny holes in a door!!! Ludicrous. Might be damage on a french polished oak desktop.
I’m sure that part of the reason for having a dawn raid is to frighten off people supporting future protests, it is likely to intimidate those people that are keen to go on Marches etc but to be arrested by the police could have consequences at work for instance, so they find ways not to take part.
The police officers swear allegiance to the Monarch and not to the Government.
They are constantly being put under pressure by the anti public laws that the Government is introducing. They should consult their Union Leaders and find a solution, before we become a full blown Police State.
Lets hope Sir Keir doesn’t get in, or else more of this, and worse, will continue, and he’ll use the unions to assert Labours powers against workers.
The whole thing is ridiculous. It shows to what extent the powers that be in this country are ready to hassle constituents that oppose the genocidal war in Gaza.