1 April (Part 2) - All Fools Day
The day started with
a blog about someone intent on making a fool of himself and it will continue that way.
The first fool is me. I have become very slack about filing emails. When there
are more than I can cope with some get forgotten. Yesterday I came across one which really should have been answered, if not featured here.
It was from someone who like me has has been harassed and unjustifiably pursued
by overbearing police officers.
I was reading an old issue of Private Eye and came across the item in
“Rotten Boroughs” regarding your experiences with the police.
I have had a similar experience and it got very nasty.
My Council is Merton, where I have uncovered some very unsavoury antics but
this got bigger and actually has involved the Met. themselves.
I don’t blog but I have been placing my reports on twitter (@mertonscam1 if you are interested). I don’t think Councillors/Council
officials/Police like it.
Two detectives are under investigation following complaints by me to
ACTION FRAUD but it is taking one hell of a long time - hence the Twitter
feed. Perhaps not the best way of doing this kind of thing but it was quick to set up.
My house was raided by the police just before Christmas - on the pretext of a fence
dispute with a neighbour which was settled nearly a month earlier by OTHER police officers.
I was taken to Sutton Police Station, finger-printed, photographed and DNA’d.
I do have lawyers on this but the police have hardly been away from my
front door since. On two occasions to deliver letters from the occupant next
door. I am not making that up. So much for thin police resources!!!
I am an experienced journalist and in my late seventies and trying very hard to retire properly, but these events
won’t let me. Well, I suppose it is better than watching box set after box set of Morse, Frost and Vera etc.
However seeing your story made me wonder if there is some kind of pattern
emerging here. Bash the messenger as hard as possible and try to extinguish the message.
I am trying to get my own findings further into the public domain, the story centres on large scale fraud
and other criminal activities and my evidence is harder-than-rock solid. It has to be, as I was fully
aware from the start what I might have to face by way of opposition.
I think both of our experiences are very worrying and I sincerely hope are not the shape of things to come.
As the man says, the police claim that their resources are stretched but in this case they act as postmen.
Only a month ago I heard a local police officer tell a local audience that
they
couldn’t always attend to burglaries and acts of violence because the internet
provides them with too much work.
It’s a policy that can only have come from just out of university wet behind the
ears over promoted senior officers.
If you have seven minutes spare take a look at this video. It shows two officers
at a Twitter user’s door to warn someone that he has not done anything wrong or committed any
offence but their Inspector told them to go and scare him for no legal reason.
Another disturbing video will take up a great deal more of your time, 37 minutes
and maybe a summary is in order. It shows a photographer engaged in what I do daily. Taking pictures in a
public place, in this case opposite a police station.
A police officer rolls up and asks questions that he has no right to ask. I
doubt I would have handled the situation in the same way but this
photographer knew his rights under the law and what current guidance to officers is.
The first officer called in reinforcements and in a town where the police turn a blind eye to
child rape eventually arrested the photographer under The Terrorism Act. They
had no legal right to do so and eventually they had to climb down and let the
man go without any charge. If you do spend 37 minutes of your life with the
video you will see how donning a police uniform turns too many people into out of control lawless liars.
Unfortunately the commentary - which is not by the photographer - contains quite
a lot of unnecessary bad language. You have been warned.
I only know two police officers personally, one retired and one resigned and both tell me stories which suggest
that such behaviour is pretty much the norm. Mick Barnbrook is particularly
good at telling me tales of corruption. Last time I met him he provided details
of how valuable lost property can end up as the personal possessions of police officers.
It’s not a particularly sophisticated fraud but it worked.
I don’t think the police are keen on taking in lost property any more. Probably just as well.