The Slippery Slope

[Dick]

I don’t need to tell any of you that we are heading towards a police state, not just here but everywhere. These are just a few thoughts about stuff I already knew but are a chilling reminder about far down the road to totalitarianism we are. Forgive me if it is a bit long by normal Gunsite standards.

The late Philip Luty wrote firearm related books the best known of which was entitled “Expedient Home Made Firearms.” He has been described as an earlier version of Cody Wilson, the only difference being a few thousand kilometers and a couple of decades in time. Unfortunately he lived in the UK and attracted the attention of the British Gestapo. He was jailed for four years for making firearms, not sure when exactly but probably in the eighties or nineties. His 75 year old father in poor health was arrested and taken to the police station until someone with a tad of sense realized he had nothing to do with it. His brother who also had nothing to do with it was arrested by armed police in broad daylight while driving home from work. For those who don’t know, in the UK armed police are only sent after dangerous criminals. The enactment of the anti-terrorism act by the Thatcher government gave police a chance to further victimize him by charging him with assisting terrorists by providing the info from which to make weapons. He avoided a second jail term only because he died of cancer at the early age of 46.

In the meantime more than fifty guys who had bought his book on line were visited by police. That is of course nothing short of intimidation. I recommend y’all read the report (Libertarian Enterprise) by one of those guys, Clifford Rutley, whose apartment police smashed their way into, ransacked and confiscated magazines and his computer which he got back only after they had analysed it hoping to find something incriminating. They arrested Rutley and threw him in a cell despite the fact that he was due for heart surgery the following day, and released him only when a police doctor realised that he was telling the truth about his heart.

A second hand bookshop in Harrogate, Yorkshire that had a few firearm books was visited by police who put it to the owner this way “you don’t really want to keep those do you sir?” and confiscated the books.

All this in a country that claims freedom of speech and no censorship, but in the UK no publication may have a picture of a handgun on its cover, and anyone who participates in a chat site like Gunsite can expect the attention of police.

Harry Miller recently became famous for securing a landmark victory against police in High Court. He had posted tweets about gender recognition and found himself investigated for hate speech. British police put a lot of effort into hate speech. It is not precisely defined in the UK, but the key point is that it doesn’t have to be proved – if just one person complains that he or she has been subjected to hate speech it is recorded by police, and once recorded it can’t be expunged. What’s worse is that the info can be and is provided to third parties, for example job applications to government departments. South Yorkshire police encourage citizens to report hate speech. As hate speech is not defined and mostly non criminal, that amounts to asking the public to report everyday conversation. As “Reason” magazine says, it is Stasi style invitation to eavesdrop and squeal. In 2016 3300 citizens were detained and questioned about things they said online. In 2018 Labour MP Lucy Powell put forward a bill in parliament to ban private online discussion forums because, she said, hate speech can fester in those “echo chambers.” “We Brits” Reason says “are sleepwalking into a police state.”

In the Harry Miller case the judge said that national rules set by the College of Policing put too much emphasis on the perception of transphobic hostility despite no evidence recorded by the police. The court ruled the police action unlawful and disproportionate interference with Miller’s right of freedom of expression. But note until this court decision, police in the UK could decide what a citizen could or could not say outside of any law and without any apparent concern by government or parliament.

A “cohesion” officer of Humberside police told Miller that his tweets had not broken any law but that he should not engage in political debate on Twitter because “some people don’t like it.”

Harry Miller summarises it thus :

“PC Gul described it as a limerick. It wasn’t but that’s beside the point. My retweeting of a gender critical verse had apparently so enraged someone that they felt it their civic duty to act as the offended-in-chief on behalf of my employees. Not that anyone from my company of about 90 staff had complained of course, but again that’s beside the point. PC Gul phoned my work, spoke to my MD, then spent 32 minutes lecturing me on hurt feelings and invitro body parts accidentally growing from a lady’s brain (I don’t get that – Dick) as I sat with my shopping at Tesco. Sarcasm, satire and talk of synthetic breasts was sufficient to prompt the most urgent of police intervention. That PC Gul didn’t appear in Tesco’s car park with his blues and twos blaring, I suppose is a small mercy.”

Miller records the conversation thus :

“Were any of the tweets criminal?” I ask.

“No” says PC Gul.

“Then why are you phoning me?”

“I need to check your thinking” says PC Gul.

I point out that 1984 is a dystopian novel not a how-to manual but the reference is lost on PC Gul. He’s been on a course. Just not a very literary one.

The following week the assistant chief constable threw the full weight of his bulging ACPO (Association of Chief Police Officers) lapel behind his constable, sternly warning about escalation and proportionate action whilst publicly labeling me a transphobe. Just in case I hadn’t got the message (I had – I ignored it) Inspector Wilson called, urging me to disengage from public political debate. I reminded him of my Article 10 rights. His response was “if you don’t like it, sue.”

“Watch this space.”

[oafpatroll]

Worse than the Poms in this regard are the Scots. The SNP there has gone full 'Stasi in pink'. To flog my festering horse, the people (or is that poephol?) want this as it 'makes them safer'. I'm pretty sure we're doomed to live 1984 in real life and with none of its subtlety.

[GAZZAMCK]

At least they have electricity I suppose

[wrm]

Sometimes it's good to have problems. Then you can work on solving them. Otherwise you have to sit around thinking up new ways of keeping yourself relevant (looking at YOU, National Institute for Communicable Diseases).