Maya Evans’ case
Feb 25th, 2009 | By Web Team | Category: Real life storiesMaya Evans was the first person to be arrested under the provisions of the Serious and Organised Crime and Police Act in 2006. She was arrested for refusing to cease reading aloud the names of British soldiers who had been killed in Iraq following the 2003 Iraq war. She was arrested for taking part in an unauthorised demonstration within 1km of Parliament Square. She received a conditional discharge and a fine.
Ridiculous!
This is one of the stupidest use of police and court time that I have ever heard – oh no, I forgot the one in which a little girl was arrested for playing Hopscotch on the pavement outside her house, and the one where the boys were arrested for throwing a stick into a tree to knock down conkers.
So reading is now a criminal offence is it? Better tell that to all our teachers, best not educate any more children lest they use their dangerous reading skills for any more serious and organised criminal reading sessions!
Roll on the demise of NuNazi – I won’t shed a tear when they are finally booted out, and I doubt wether many other UK residents will do either!
In the above examples some householder complained about the children and the police ‘had to’ react because of PC, no longer are they allowed to use common sense. In the case of the lady who was part of a public demonstratyion within 1km of Parliament Square, the order to ban such demonstrations must be removed in periods of low terrorist threat. There may be good reason to ban such demonstrations occasionally.
The problem is pragmatism and common sense are no longer allowed to be used as they were when I used to be given a clip round the ear for misbehaving by a policemen followed immediately by an even harder clip round the ear from my parents.
The other area where we could make life so much more sensible is to do with with litigious lawyers (ambulance chasers) who are willing and unfortunately able to make a fast buck to take people to court in order to claim compensation (of which most goes into their fee). The ‘offender’ is often unable to contest the case because of cost or they come up against the PC-ness of the judge or magistrate and total stupidity follows which undermines the credibility of the rule of law, encourages everyone to sue whatever the circumstance and therefore to make the lawyers obscenely rich.
Freedom of speech is a fundamental right in a (so called) democratic society. Parents (and teachers, with parental consent) should be allowed to chastise their own children (so long as they don’t injure them). The idea that this causes children to be more violent is clearly untrue. Witness the recent stabbings, attacks on teachers by pupils etc. We do not need a government which is quite happy to have “ghost ships” dismantled here and to sanction more nuclear power stations telling us what we can and can’t do for our health. Public health education is welcome – public prohibitation is not.
This case is absolutely terrifying in its implications. This type of authoritarian behaviour has no place at all in a democracy. Unless politicians are forced to call a halt to it NOW we will all soon be living in a Police State – under the very same sort of regime that this Government claims to be protecting us all from!!
Once all our freedoms are eroded, we will never get them back.
Unlike John Hemmings MP(lib-dem) the leadership pay only lip service to freedom in general terms but run a mile from action rather than words in particular cases ! How can they stand by with callous indifference when mothers have babies snatched at birth for “risk of emotional abuse” and who are routinely jailed in their HUNDREDS for daring to reveal details of the outrageous procedures in the family courts?Grand statements about freedom are all very well but are useless if they cannot be applied practically to relieve the injustices perpetrated daily by the so called “family courts” and the perjury routinely committed by anonymous witnesses who are protected by the imprisonment of any person daring to complain about or even to reveal their crimes;
Ian: you’re welcome to take part in the debate on this site, but please don’t post the same comment multiple times. Thanks.
Clearly the instances raised of people reading out names of killed soldiers in a square mile & then arrested, or of kids throwing sticks at trees for conkers or in fact any such stupid & as I call them non common sense occurences are not the issue, having an ID card to prove who you are in the event of a query is a good idea, the cost is however ridiculous, the detention of people is surely an issue for the courts & police they really know better than anyone else, I would rather a criminal or suspected one be locked up than released early to continue a crime wave, obviously they will get it wrong every once in a while & that is when we need an investigation, I think some people have hidden agendas and a very vivid imagination on exactly how clever the system or big brother is, conspiracies on what the state can do, will do, would do are confirmation in my mind of this.
Context is everything….and don’t the politicians know it. After all, who passed the laws being enforced by the police. I don’t think you can blame them. …..We would be quick to complain if we thought they were only enforcing the laws they wanted to. Impartiality means enforcing all of the laws all of the time and its for the courts and prosecutors to determine whether a case should proceed to court. If we live in today’s big bad world, in a country where you are free (within reasonable limitations) to do and say what you want, thats a damn sight better than is afforded in many other countries. No one was arrested for reading names, they were arrested for participating in a demonstration which they knew was in a location which is restricted for safety reasons and that would be the safety of those who pass the laws…..Make no mistake…… There are people out there who remain intent on causing innocent people serious injury or worse, in the name of some extremist cause or other. Just because the majority don’t think like that doesn’t mean there is no threat. Proportionality is the key in how we respond, with adequate planning. You can just see the headlines after the next major terrorist atrocity. “Police failed to protect us – CCTV system wasn’t completed due to withdrawal of public funds”…………hmmmm who would we blame then?……..oh yes that would be the LibDems wasn’t it!! For them, this stance is a political gamble….just one of many in the game of politics…..its all about voter appeal.
the fast that an allegedley left wing party imposed restrictions on demonstrating is a worrying thing for all sicere democrats in this State
The Government impose the laws but it is not true to say that the Police are simply enforcing them. It is my experience that the Police often pick and choose which laws they will enforce, which areas they will focus on to the exclusion of others and it is significant in my view that there are now policing targets which are supposed to be met. I believe this encourages the Police to focus on those crimes that will help them meet statistics.
I would love to say that I have an impartial view towards the Police but I cannot due to my personal extensive experience of the way the force often operates both collectively and on an individual basis. I have seen corruption, officers making up stories to get a conviction, Coercion and even Police officers beating people up. Until political meddling is removed from policing we will be no nearer to a fair and just society.
Any ordinary citizen declaring a house as a secondary residence improving it out of “expenses” and then switching it to his/her primary residence when selling it to avoid capital gains would be prosecuted .
The Chancellor of the Exchequer has perpetrated this blatant fraud no less than 4 times in 4 years so surely an impartial police force backed by HM Inland revenue would by now have “put the cuffs” on this hypocritical fraudster.Alas one law for politicians and other “public servants” and another law for the rest of the unfortunate British citizens !