Police ‘scare tactics' (From The Argus)
Get involved: Send your news, views, pictures and video by texting SUPIC to 80360 or email us.
Police ‘scare tactics'
10:00am Thursday 12th February 2009 in
An MP has accused Sussex Police of deliberately intimidating patrons of a social club.
In a surprise intervention David Lepper, Labour MP for Brighton Pavilion, said the police’s decision to photograph people entering and exiting the Cowley Club in London Road for a meeting about the environment last week appeared designed to scare activists rather than prevent crime.
Mr Lepper has written to Chief Supt Graham Bartlett, the force’s divisional commander for Brighton and Hove, demanding why officers were posted opposite the venue on Friday.
Members of the Cowley Club, which was hosting a meeting of environmental protest group Earth First, were confronted with four uniformed officers outside the Somerfield store, opposite the venue, snapping visitors using a paparazzi-style lens.
Sussex Police has said the photography was part of ongoing police work to gather information to support future operations. But Mr Lepper yesterday dismissed the police’s response and said he wanted an explanation.
He said: “It looks more like an attempt to intimidate people going in and out of the Cowley Club rather than genuine surveillance. To have such a large number of uniformed officers with a camera with a telephoto lens seems like it’s meant to deter people from going in there.
“I accept that police need to gather information but this is a ham-fisted way of doing it.”
Cowley Club member David Biset, who described the club as a cafe and a meeting place for radicals, said the officers outside the building were acting in a “deliberately intimidating manner”.
Their actions were a worrying sign of a wider problem of authoritarian policing, he said. “Avenues of dissent are being closed down and police feel able to treat politics as a police matter.
“There was no suggestion of anything going on outside the building.
“The police have no reason to be there beyond intimidating people. You shouldn’t be put on a database simply for attending a meeting.”
A spokeswoman for Sussex Police said the force had nothing to add to its earlier comment.
Comments(39)
The Garden Slug
says...
10:15am Thu 12 Feb 09
I am sure the fans of a Police state who use this site (NO way seriously and Davyboy) will disagree, but hey! why dont they go live in Zimbzbwe.
Finally, sad to see David Lepper has only just discovered his backbone after 11 years of being a silent MP, never seen or heard of, I am sure the good people of Brighton Pavilion WILL remember this come 2010 election
bibble
says...
10:19am Thu 12 Feb 09
The police have turned themselves into political police, something like the Stasi or the KGB. Don't think because you are law-abiding you will not be targetted.
tilburyre
says...
10:35am Thu 12 Feb 09
The police don't care what we think.
They see themselves as being the law so it doesn't matter what the public think of them. When my father worked at Scotland Yard 50 years ago the police saw themselves as being there to uphold the law. Now they think they are the law. There is a very big difference.
Your local bobby (if you are lucky enough to have one) may not be like this but it is the attitude of the senior officers that matters - not individual constables.
We need to elect our top police officers as is done in a number of other countries.
Dickens Cider
says...
11:12am Thu 12 Feb 09
NoWaySeriously
says...
11:14am Thu 12 Feb 09
bibble wrote:But if you're law-abiding, you've got nothing to hide anyway...
Why do the police need to "gather information" on a legitimate meeting?
The police have turned themselves into political police, something like the Stasi or the KGB. Don't think because you are law-abiding you will not be targetted.
Mary Hinge
says...
11:35am Thu 12 Feb 09
NoWaySeriously wrote:This sort of comment sounds good as a soundbite until suddenly you find yourself at the end of a "misunderstanding" - e.g. if someone with a vendetta against you rang up the police and deliberately accused you of something you didn't do (which seems to be becoming more and more the case in this Stasi-like society).
bibble wrote: Why do the police need to "gather information" on a legitimate meeting? The police have turned themselves into political police, something like the Stasi or the KGB. Don't think because you are law-abiding you will not be targetted.But if you're law-abiding, you've got nothing to hide anyway...
Then you'll be sorry, mark my words.
Osama bin there
says...
11:36am Thu 12 Feb 09
I'm all for the police photographing and videoing illegal demos like the Smash EDO lot, but this was not an illegal gathering.
Who decided it was was neccessary and why - that's what I would like to know Mr Lepper.
bibble
says...
12:05pm Thu 12 Feb 09
NoWaySeriously wrote:I guess you've never heard of wrongful convictions...
bibble wrote:But if you're law-abiding, you've got nothing to hide anyway...
Why do the police need to "gather information" on a legitimate meeting?
The police have turned themselves into political police, something like the Stasi or the KGB. Don't think because you are law-abiding you will not be targetted.
bibble
says...
12:07pm Thu 12 Feb 09
The police do more or less as they please. They have long forgotten that they are part of the society which they police, instead they want to be the lords and us the serfs.
Ronald
says...
12:13pm Thu 12 Feb 09
Scoomer
says...
12:22pm Thu 12 Feb 09
NoWaySeriously wrote:In that case, I assume you'd have no objection to having a video camera installed in every single room in your house?
bibble wrote: Why do the police need to "gather information" on a legitimate meeting? The police have turned themselves into political police, something like the Stasi or the KGB. Don't think because you are law-abiding you will not be targetted.But if you're law-abiding, you've got nothing to hide anyway...
Osama bin there
says...
12:37pm Thu 12 Feb 09
bibble wrote:We won't get any useful answers from you Babble, that's for sure.
Don't think you will get any useful answers from the police about this. Nor from their friends in the police authority. The police do more or less as they please. They have long forgotten that they are part of the society which they police, instead they want to be the lords and us the serfs.
g1mp
says...
1:16pm Thu 12 Feb 09
wellsyuk
says...
1:28pm Thu 12 Feb 09
Scoomer
says...
1:50pm Thu 12 Feb 09
g1mp wrote:If it's the usual Smash EDO lot, the police probably already have more footage and photos than they know what to do with. This smacks of intimidating possible newcomers away from a perfectly legitimate meeting.
Most of the people at the Cowley Club will be involved in the next SmashEDO protest, so I think its beneficial for the police to know the faces.
bibble
says...
2:19pm Thu 12 Feb 09
g1mp wrote:Any evidence to support that claim? Besides, even if that is the case, there is nothing illegal about attending a meeting. At least not yet.
Most of the people at the Cowley Club will be involved in the next SmashEDO protest, so I think its beneficial for the police to know the faces.
feline1
says...
2:48pm Thu 12 Feb 09
Maybe if they stopped behaving like the Stasi they'd have a bit more time for actually stopping stabbing, burglaries, bike thefts and suchlike...
Charlie C
says...
2:48pm Thu 12 Feb 09
Dickens Cider
says...
3:12pm Thu 12 Feb 09
It's still a free country and people can go for meetings in a club if they want. They should be able to do so without intimidation from our lovely boys in blue, too.
Unless they were involved in anything illegal at the time, why should they be photographed?
Albert Chisholm
says...
3:56pm Thu 12 Feb 09
I could do with a paparazzi style camera & lens for when i`m keeping an eye on dodgy lock ups
JONES!
Voice of the silent Majority
says...
5:16pm Thu 12 Feb 09
Voice of the silent Majority
says...
5:17pm Thu 12 Feb 09
Voice of the silent Majority wrote:There sould have been a "NEVER" in there
They are lucky they went unarmed and naked, Sussex Police would have shot them....
Acheron
says...
6:35pm Thu 12 Feb 09
Kickboxer
says...
6:42pm Thu 12 Feb 09
cheezburger
says...
7:27pm Thu 12 Feb 09
TheInsider
says...
8:11pm Thu 12 Feb 09
The Chief Constable should be held to account for this .
The public are absolutely sick of funding a force which is not dealing with crime, shoots people dead in their own beds when they could have waited for the chap to pop out to buy fags before arresting him and in addition to this, we have read of officers having se* on duty and fiddling old ladies out of their money.
This is the final straw. I have always supported the police as having a difficult job to do, but in the past ten years Sussex Police have failed to execute their duty and failed to uphold professional standards.
This is a breach of privacy and human rights and instead of photographing a load of hippies, get back onto the streets and do some basic policing instead of pretending you are in an episode of Prime Suspect.
Idiots.
B G Gruff
says...
10:48pm Thu 12 Feb 09
getreal
says...
11:24pm Thu 12 Feb 09
g1mp wrote:Gathering evidence and intelligence in regard to the criminal damage caused by the scum who visited the business park the other week possibly. Time for the hippy lefties who go to the Cowley to get in the real world and get real jobs.
Most of the people at the Cowley Club will be involved in the next SmashEDO protest, so I think its beneficial for the police to know the faces.
chris elmes
says...
1:40am Fri 13 Feb 09
tarian political pressure group who act in collusion with that pernicious band of rootless intellectuals malcontents and vile traitors that are NuLabour. Since the BBC was so effecively silenced almost all of the media will not dare to engage in active opposition to either the government or the police.the Murdock media are not an issue since(again in my opinion)there seems to be an understanding between Rupert Murdock and the Labour government.ACPO is in essence acting as a guild of mercenaries on Labours behalf.the police are now nothing more than a band of sell-swords and the moral integrity and pride in service to this nation and its people are greatly diminished.The halcyon days of Dixon of dock green are long since gone and we are the poorer for it. This intrusion into our privacy and freedom will only esculate,the great charter of Runnymede has been torn to shreds and lies trampled in the dirt along with the bill of rights. The mother of parliaments and a thousand years of hard won freedoms are now falling to tyrrany and there seems little we can do. Welcome to NuLabours orwellian nightmare.
QUIS CUSTODIET IPSO CUSTODES
Carl Bugenhagen
says...
9:50am Fri 13 Feb 09
What in the name of god do they think they are doing? Under Section 76 of the Counter Terrorism Act 2008 they can arrest you for photographing them in return.
Please keep on this story Argus..
chris elmes
says...
12:05pm Fri 13 Feb 09
Carl Bugenhagen wrote:OK! I confess you've caught me out with a generalization. Its not a thousand years,it is in fact seven hundred and ninety six years since Magna Carta .
A thousand years of freedoms? Hmm. But what little we have is certainly going down the pan. This is very serious, if you complain to the police, they will just hole-punch your complaint and put it in your file now. The Police are now fingerprinting drivers too. We are not very far away from hooking up face recognition software to CCTV, the Nit Nurse will be putting GPS implants in our kids next. This is becoming an Orwellian nightmare.
What in the name of god do they think they are doing? Under Section 76 of the Counter Terrorism Act 2008 they can arrest you for photographing them in return.
Please keep on this story Argus..
SORRY !!!!!!
"choose THE LESSER EVIL"
de officis: Marcus Tullius Cicero
QUIS CUSTODIET IPSO CUSTODES
chris elmes
says...
12:18pm Fri 13 Feb 09
SORRY!!!!!!!!!!!!
puddingandpi
says...
12:55pm Fri 13 Feb 09
Did anyone else notice that it was the fat, middle-aged coppers who got landed with job of hanging around in the cold?
Carl Bugenhagen
says...
2:08pm Fri 13 Feb 09
TheInsider
says...
8:09pm Fri 13 Feb 09
You have to begin to question the calibre of the people being employed at the higher levels of the service who think this is acceptable.
Do you recall the suicide of the chief constable of Manchester police last year who had spent his career philandering and cheating with so many women I am surprised he did a day's work.
Then read the inquiry/inquest into the shooting of Jean Charles De Menezes and you will begin to wonder what the hell is going on with the police.
The crime here is the criminal behaviour of the police.
karabuni
says...
12:50pm Sat 14 Feb 09
People who are intimidated by the possibility of being photographed may not even actually go into the meeting, or attend later demonstrations.
People who attend a meeting and are then subsequently arrested at a demonstration can then be charged with "conspiracy" which can be alleged to have taken place at the earlier meeting.
Police in London regularly use this tactic and maintain a "database" of people who regularly attend demonstrations (this has been admitted in court).
On one occasion, police who were presumably trying to achieve both objects, photographed people going into a building where a meeting about a demonstration at the London Arms "Fair" was being held. However, as this meeting was held in a room at the University of London Students' Union, there was no way that they could have known whether people entering the building were going in to attend the meeting or buy cheap beer.
The website "mylondondiary.co.uk
" frequently has pictures showing how many police can be assembled for mostly peaceful demonstrations.
TheInsider
says...
9:45pm Sat 14 Feb 09
I was not political or an anarchist, just interested in freedom of speech and what the documentary was about.
I have since had the benefit of reaching a reasonably influential position in my career and with more life experience, now understand that this type of action by the police does nothing more than mobilise action against Britain, the police and any Government, whatever its politics. It does not encourage support.
We are not a Nazi state or communist regime and this behaviour does nothing except erode public confidence in the police and Government's ability.
While these armchair coppers are photographing people, Lithuanian Murderers are walking into the UK and killing harmless people- see today's news.
However, they just walk on in, un-photographed, unchallenged, free to kill when their previous records are known.
The police really are out of touch with what is going on in the world and the UK and I am not sure the Government can help them.
If the EDO protesters are on the march, get EDO to spend their profits making their site secure, not waste public money policing a profit making organisation.
To give you an example of public opinion against the police for this kind of behaviour, my parents are elderly and non-political. Their parents fought in the First and Second World Wars and they are appalled by the police and this intrusion into what they say would have been legitimate opposition 50 years ago.
geewhizz
says...
12:26pm Mon 16 Feb 09
GW
greeg
says...
11:12pm Tue 17 Feb 09
geewhizz wrote:Yep,try taking a few snaps of our boys in blue,see how far you get.Before you get your lens cap off you'll be shouting,what you arresting me for!
As of today, 16th February 09 - it is now Illegal for us the public to photograph the police. Interests me how this legisilation was so easily brought it. And I wonder how many of us know about it, let alone agree with it. GW
More News stories
- Updated: Gatwick Station death man "was tasered"
- Video: Motorcyclist dies after Brighton bus crash
- Squatters could stay in Brighton and Hove's empty buildings
- Hove girl's bid for Miss Sussex
- Price hike for Brighton and Hove football fields
- Call to save Sussex high streets
- East Sussex approves £19m budget cuts
- Sussex hospital battles infectious bug
- Threat to Hove Park badgers
- Mum launches allergy charity in son's memory
Most popular
Local Information
Enter your postcode, town or place name
Comment now! Register or sign in below.
Log in with us
Fields marked with * are mandatory.
Or
Log in with