28 May - This is what you pay your taxes for
Mick Barnbrook (former Inspector at Bexleyheath police station) was not a bundle of laughs over
lunch on Thursday, he said there are few limits to what
corrupt police can do with a charge of harassment and judged by the high standards of “would they shop
a colleague they knew to be bent” very few police officers are not corrupt.
Lunch today was a bit more encouraging. It was a picnic in Hyde Park and one of
those sitting on the blanket is both a BiB reader and employed in News and
Current Affairs at the BBC preparing material for both broadcast and the web.
She said that the BBC Guidelines
set higher standards than required by the law or other
media outlets and that my recent blogs would not have broken those guidelines.
She thought it unlikely that the BBC would have published
the blurred image
taken - along with a dozen or more similar photos from Victoria Massey’s
freely accessible Facebook page - but only because Bexley Council is not of
sufficient national interest to meet their public interest criteria. If the
police had taken an interest in a noisy party at an MP’s home she thought a photo
freely available on the web would very likely be published without any pixelation.
“Certainly the tabloids would have published it. There simply is no offence.”
I expect you have guessed that since the police made
their late night call a
week ago and said I must go for interview with a solicitor under threat of
arrest, absolutely nothing has happened except that my excellent MP Teresa
Pearce offered her support including coming with me to the police station.
My present inclination is to sit and await developments for a week or two more
and then whatever happens send yet another letter to Sir Bernard
Hogan-Howe complaining about the two officers who knocked on my door. The female was
aggressive and the male was threatening. There is no justification for either
their actions or their attitude.
Right now I do not see any reason to make a similar complaint about the Borough
Commander, there is no evidence that he knew that his junior officers were
succumbing to political pressure again. I reserve the right to change my mind tomorrow.
Incidentally, examination of the whole of my CCTV recording of the incident shows
that three police officers visited on a busy Friday night when
they had nothing better to do. The third spent his time playing around with
something in the boot of his car.