Heavy handed police action at Quaker Meeting House.

(the article also covers a Trevor Phillips report and reactions from Yvette Cooper, a former Downing Street director of communications, and the Met police.)

Thanks for the clarification Wyllow but some people are never satisfied and can keep going on their mission to justify the police actions ad nauseum.

One thing this discussion has done is to motivate me to write to my MP who generally toes her Labour party line. So thanks for that!

Some may think differently if their husband had been killed on a drugs raid, leaving a grief stricken 33 year old wife and two little girls . He had the cheek to raid not announce his visit

I think I will too Grammaretto the final straw was realising there was a doorkeeper and building supervisor on site who would have opened the doors, but they broke the doors down as if it were a drugs raid when it was an arrest for suspicion of conspiracy to cause public nuisance.

Lathyrus3

“took their possessions, hand cuffed them and in some cases searched their homes”

You see this is the thing about how people read something and then rephrase it in their own minds.

When anybody is arrested the police will take and log their possessions-in front of them to agree what there is- hold the possessions securely and return them on release - again in front of them. It’s a standard protective measure for both police and the arrested.
But rephrase it ‘They took their possessions” and it becomes something quite different.

The police have said homes were searched. We don’t know whose homes exactly only that the police acted on information that they were the homes of those connected to the organisation.
But here we have a post that says it was the homes of those arrested.

And before you know it the rephrasing becomes a belief.

Not rephrasing but an almost direct quote from The Sunday Times.

Here is the quote in full
"The police, some armed with tasers, handcuffed the women, confiscated their belongings, took them to the police station and later raided some of their student accommodation"

Grammaretto

Thanks for the clarification Wyllow but some people are never satisfied and can keep going on their mission to justify the police actions ad nauseum.

One thing this discussion has done is to motivate me to write to my MP who generally toes her Labour party line. So thanks for that!

I was thinking "I'm getting more than a little fed-up with the poster that is determined to attack, attack, attack ad infinitum" and thinking "Why are they doing that?"

The big debate around what legally constitutes "conspiracy to cause public nuisance" is what is at stake here.

There is a real danger restricting the freedoms to protest and speak up peacefully. Certain offences are outlined under the 2023 Public Order Act.

Sorry, half a post: whether the police were over reacting in this part of their duty to prevent "serious disruption".

How often do we hear “where were the police “ ?

Wyllow3

Sorry, half a post: whether the police were over reacting in this part of their duty to prevent "serious disruption".

Well - since it seems the people were sitting there eating hummus with breadsticks = that's not most peoples definition of "serious disruption".

Shades of George Orwell - guess they reckoned it was "thought crime" (if I'm remembering his book okay).

Last I knew = we've got a few years left to freely think whatever thoughts we please/feel whatever emotions we have before AI can read them...and then we have serious problems on our hands...

Out of all proportion really when we read about the need to keep people safe against serious violent crime from individuals who need more oversight.

The police will have had intelligence that reported a risk. Maybe the intelligence was wrong in this case, who knows? I'd like to see photos of the 'broken down' doors, I'm amazed that nobody has linked to one yet. The police are damned if they do and damned if they don't.

The list of those who pose a risk is quite long isn't it, environmental protesters, feminists, anti abortion protesters, people who complain about their children's school, those posting errors on social media. Soon the only.people not on the list will be Gloria Hunniford and Felicity Kendal.

I am a Quaker and we are anti war so this group was holding a private meeting that represent our values. In our meetings we don’t have someone preaching to us, we pray silently to ourselves and often people will speak out about something. So. If someone in our group had spoken about the need for a protest against Gaza would the police have acted in the same way

Also where where the police when they kept disrupting life wither huge tractor protests

Rosie51

The police will have had intelligence that reported a risk. Maybe the intelligence was wrong in this case, who knows? I'd like to see photos of the 'broken down' doors, I'm amazed that nobody has linked to one yet. The police are damned if they do and damned if they don't.

Are you saying they are lying?

Why can they not lie ?

I meant does Rosie think all the press and people on here on this thread are lying about the doors being broken in and damage occurred.

Have the press, and people on this thread seen the doors ?

Anniebach Just reading parts of the thread I missed earlier and was so very sorry to hear about the policeman and his family. That is truly awful. If this is a family you know then my condolences to you and to them.

Churchview it was my husband , thank you. I didn’t want to speak of him but , there are corrupt police and brave police and many have families , I have met many police widows over the years , no doubt policing is different now but the fear and stress is still there

It is Anniebach it is. Knowing your family member runs towards danger not away is as frightening as ever it was.
It's hard hearing nothing but criticism when most are just trying to do their job. Mostly operational decisions aren't made by those that have to carry them out. Your husband paid the ultimate price for wanting to serve others, and you and your daughters have had to live with that.

for you Annie. I'm not anti police, far from it, I had a lot of help around a very abusive husband from very busy community officers.

Its a matter of who makes decisions in this case and whether they were justified, proportionate, and the larger questions around controversial laws.

Thank you, no matter who makes the decisions it’s those on the ground who get the abuse, the reaction here to the police at
the meeting house is unfair, dismiss the fact that there are female police officers, I read “they arrested women “ suddenly
we have poor little defenceless women being bullied by men !
and to read police should only act when a crime is actually being committed not when it’s being planned ! Re the farmers protesting in London, where are the Police ? Ask the mayor, no different to the protests for Palestine. Tommy Robinson performs we want the police out fast , he mustn’t have free speech.
The judgement in this thread is brutal, as it was when Stop The
Oil protesters caused distress to ambulances , yet again we heard where are the police . The cry of it’s a matter of who makes the decisions is pathetic, we either want police protection or we don’t. Should there be endless talks to decide
what action to take ? how to approach little defenceless women ?

Yes of course there should be talk about the law the police, how we want society to operate.