Alarmed
Have you ever or will you ever carry a rape alarm? The Met Police wants to know.
Previously: Contempt
There is a whole class of columnists who serve readers lukewarm piss labeled up as champagne (sham pain? — subs to check)
CORRECTION: This post initially said Lee Anderson was Tory Party chair. He’s only deputy but he’s a massive prick too.
Free speech? It’s a thing that Tory MPs and gibbering right-wing columnists love to holler and hoot about all the time. The more mundane truth is that they support the freedom of right-wing speech (and, in a growing number of cases, far-right speech). Over the weekend, Lee ‘30p Lee’ Anderson, the deputy chairman of the Tory Party, declared that republicans should leave the country if they don’t like it. The government that set a precedent for breaking international law and stripping individuals of their citizenship to make them stateless is now arguing that being in possession of a belief that it does not like should mean that you have to leave the country (perhaps for some kind of island or camp?)
Over the weekend, I ‘celebrated’ the elevation of an old man by placing a much, much older (stolen) gold hat on his head, by spending 18 hours standing outside Walworth police station in the outer reaches of Elephant & Castle. I met some of the most committed, kind, and indefatigable activists I have ever encountered, broke a story about the Met arresting (and, in one case, assaulting) women’s safety volunteers that it partners with, dealt with some of the most ignorant police officers I’ve ever met (a competitive field), and had my reporting — since picked up by every broadcaster and practically every national newspaper — attacked directly by the cowards in the Met’s comms team (which is led by an ex-Daily Mail hack).
My clip with a Night Star volunteer, Riz, who was assaulted and illegally detained for being ‘in possession’ of rape alarms is here.
Republic members who were arrested — including chief executive Graham Smith — have now had their bail canceled and their phones returned. They should never have been in that situation to begin with. Police overreach — a crackdown — was demanded by the Home Office and delivered by a Commissioner who should face questions in parliament and on live TV. People from Just Stop Oil, Animal Rising, XR, and other groups are still waiting for charges to be dropped and their property returned.
The Met’s ‘apology’ statements aren’t worth the pixels that they occupy. I will write more about this imminently but the best summaries of what I saw this weekend are included below; an interview with Sky News, a conversation with Channel 4 News, and my appearance on Novara Live.
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It may not make the Met police happy but I will continue to be a nuisance.
Read more: The Origami Castle
Lots of columns can't survive a light rainstorm, let alone a hurricane of piss...
We're seeing police across several countries using arrest as a way to move people on, with the added bonus of removing them from the public eye.
They are then released with a "whoops, sorry! Shouldn't have done that!"; no consequences for the police, no compensation, but there may be a few unexplained bruises...
Unless there are consequences, it will only get worse.
Excellent work, Mic.