>> Holding a press card does not put you above the law.
>>
>> If the police are instructed through the command chain, or officers on the ground so
>> assess, they are entirely right to arrest whoever they believe it is appropriate,
>>
Actually that's not how it is supposed to work. The senior officer cannot say go and arrest anyone you find here. They cannot for example say go and arrest "Bob, he's a known burglar and we had a burglary on the patch last night." They must pass on enough information to give their lower officers their own reasonable suspicion. The subtle difference would be "Go and arrest Bob, someone matching his description was seen committing this burglary last night". To order everyone's arrest at a particular location is therefore not appropriate as the officers did not have reasonable suspicion.
>> On validating a journalists credentials and confirming their presence was to report and not participate,
>> they should be released immediately.
>>
But they were not were they. They were held for hours and over night and their houses were raided in the middle of the night and searched.
Even the Chief Constable of Cambridgeshire Police has said that the arresting force (Herts) was wrong. They acted illegally. Is that not enough - the police did something that is illegal and there will be absolutely no repercussions on the officers responsible.
Which in effect means that they got away with kidnap, assault, trespass, probably criminal damage and when the journalists get damages then it is we who will pay, not the officers who broke the law.
In context, if I did something similar at work, I could get up to 10 years and an unlimited fine and I don't deal with peoples freedoms.
Last edited by: zippy on Thu 24 Nov 22 at 16:05
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