Next week, parliament will be asked to extend the amount of time a person can be held without trial from an already excessive 28 days. Under this law, they don’t have to tell you why they’ve arrested you. They don’t have to tell your family where you are. They don’t have to show your lawyer the evidence they have against you. You are not entitled to face your accusers and answer their accusations. This is not law, this is rule of force and fear, and might does not make right.
It’s time to write to your MP again!
The government want 90 days, and they’re not going to stop until they get it. When they got slapped down the first time they were trying to end centuries of law where you had the right to a fair, speedy trial, they settled for 14 days. The very next opportunity they got, they tried to push it out to 60 days and compromised on doubling it to 28. Stalking horse anyone?
Remember, this is a law being pushed for by the police without a single example of where it would have made any difference. It is often the role of the government to hold the police and other martial forces in check; to keep the balance of power in the hands of the people. Giving in to all police fear and manipulation is never a good idea, but this government are adding paving stones on the road to a police state every time they do this, especially with no proof showing the necessity.
This is the same police who have already abused this law by arresting a woman for walking on a cycle path, arresting a man for keeping his stuff too close on the tube, and in a spectacular gun.shoot(foot) moment, arrested an 82 year old Jewish man who escaped from the Nazis, for heckling at a Labour conference.
Most recently, they’ve used this law to censor what we can and cannot research, placing a massive chilling effect on any future attempts to objectively look at what is far too emotional a subject right now. In this case, a man was arrested and jailed for 6 days for trying to print a document that is (or at least was) freely available from a US government website.
I’m not interested in hearing how justice was served as these people were released. Most people reading this have never seen a jail, let alone spent a night in one, and you should be very grateful for that. One night in jail is one night too many for any innocent person to have to suffer, especially for the heinous crimes described above!
The most widely publicized conviction under this act was of an angst filled teenager for writing bad poetry! To be honest, she was a bit stupid, but if we’re criminalizing stupidity now, well, let’s just say that my trip to work is going to get a lot quieter!
This administration have shown that they cannot be trusted with the keys to the sandpit, let alone a law that lets them ‘disappear’ you down a hole for 3 months. That is the end of your career, you’ll lose your house, friends, the works. For what? Walking on a cycle path?
Please act now to stop this. Write to your MP highlighting some of the abuses I’ve shown here, and ask them to stand up for Freedom by voting NO on this extension!
People in power in our country think that it’s ok to threaten people with arrest over their choice in wardrobe. Do you really want to live in a world where someone can threaten you with missing your flight and having your DNA on record forever, just because you chose to wear a t-shirt with a cartoon character on the front ?
Freedom carries risk. So does getting up in the morning. Without wanting to offend the brave an honest American’s I know, this is England, not America. We’re a mature country – we’ve been through worse than this, and we’ll go through worse again. We are not a young country who’ve never been attacked before, and we have no excuse to act like a frightened child.
Man-up and write to your MP now!