The BBC has reported that a man threw an egg at Conservative peer Baroness Warsi on a visit to Luton in November 2009 has been jailed for six weeks. The man, Gavin Reid, was convicted of under the Public Order Act of intentionally causing harassment, alarm or distress.
The video evidence suggests that the “harassment” occurred in a public place and was witnessed by both the general public and police officers. Hmm….this is very similar to the attack by PC Simon Harwood on Ian Tomlinson at the G8 summit in which Mr. Tomlinson eventually died? Both incidents were witnessed by the general public and police. Both incidents were recorded on video camera.
Amazing that the Crown Prosecution Service managed to convict Gavin Reid for throwing a few eggs yet decided not to even charge PC Harwood for a blatant and violent attack! Is throwing eggs more serious than a violent attack and potential manslaughter?
This obvious corruption allowing the police to escape justice forces all of us to consider every policeman a potential attacker who is immune from the law.


Art Photography









CPS prosecute man for warning drivers of speed gun
Tags: authoritarian, civil liberties, civil liberty, CPS, Crown Prosecution Service, flashed, Grimsby Magistrates Court at, harassment, Jean Ellerton, Keir Starmer, Michael Thompson, motorists, oppressive, photography, police, Radio 4, speed gun, student demonstrations, terrorism, unaccountable
Prosecuted for flashing his lights
Open Email to Keir Starmer via CPS web site
Sir,
I just heard on Radio 4 that the CPS have prosecuted a driver ( Michael Thompson ) who flashed his lights to warn motorists of a mobile police speed gun. They charged him with wilfully obstructing a police officer in the course of her duties.
This is an outrageous infringement of civil liberties. The speed gun is to catch people who are actually speeding NOT people who may be INTENDING to speed. By flashing his lights Mr Thompson could not have affected anyone who was actually speeding.
More and more the police are taking authoritarian stances and feeling that they are entitled to harass individuals. Often this takes the form of stopping ordinary people taking photographs in public by pretending that there is some terrorism threat.
From the point of view of the general public this clashes dreadfully with the police inability to prosecute their own officers even when they have been photographed in the act of assaulting a member of the public.
I have been critical of police tactics at various demonstrations but had been sympathetic during the recent student demonstrations because of the obvious violent intent of some demonstrators (fire extinguishers etc).
However, incidence such as the prosecution of Mr. Thompson, merely reinforce the negative image of the police as an oppressive organisation who take advantage of their position and are unaccountable to anybody.
I suggest that you remember that you are British officers in a country with a long tradition of civil liberty and not mindless officials from some soviet satellite state.
Stop harassing ordinary people and start effectively disciplining your own officers.
Regards
______________________________________________________________________________
I understand from this What’s On Xiamen that the presiding magistrate was Jean Ellerton of Grimsby Magistrates Court.
Why not email them and register your disgust? You could use the text above as a template.
Rate this: