This is a follow-on post from yesterday’s topic about Blogger arrest. (sweary alert) .

I was just about to say that I wasn’t about to bother looking closely at the Lionheart Detail at this stage are there are plenty of others more perceptive than me to dig. Then, up in my Feedreader RSS alert box popped a excellent blogpoint  from Devil’s Kitchen linking to another post, called, amusingly enough, First they came for the despicable bastards.  (It probably isn’t necessary to click through from DK as the paragraph quoted is sweary enough).

Anyway, the ‘Merkin blogosphere are very bemused  about the whole notion of a British arrest. No screaming tyres, handcuffs and aimed weapons here, instead a very British Dad’s Army Sergeant Wilson asking if Lionheart would mind terribly if he could pop in to Walmington-on-sea constabulary at a convenient time after the officer gets back from holiday. There he would be arrested and questioned to see if there was anything in the allegations. Terrible business old chap, but it is only suspicion…

Lionheart is abroad at the moment so has been advised by email. I wonder if he sends the email back telling the Officer to go forth and multiply, he could then be charged with resisting arrest?

Anyway, there is a presumption that it is an Islamic pressure group doing this, I’ve no idea. But, look at the Home Office definition again, with added emphasis.

Any incident, which constitutes a criminal offence, which is perceived by the victim or any other person as being motivated by prejudice or hate.

So, it could be anyone complaining about a perceived slight. The little old lady from the chip shop surfing in the library, the card carrying right on politically correct diversity & sensitivity officer in a Local Council,  a political activist keen to stir up trouble even though he is in the same party in a different faction.

Is being arrested such a big thing? It seems not these days, according to Coppersblog. Much time is taken up on trivial “domestics”, a sort of merry-go-round that passes for entertainment amongst the scratter classes when there is nothing on Sky+ or the Plasma TV is in demand; A accuses B, B counter accuses A, both arrange to visit the station to be arrested, long wait for duty solicitors, statements taken, both released,  PC fills in all the paperwork, Monitoring Officers offer random unhelpful comments, PC fills in more paperwork, Crown Prosecution Service decide not to prosecute, two detections achieved, stats look good, same time next Giro day?

Now it seems that the regular customers (i.e. offenders and victims) of the Police all know their rights but ordinary folk like me who rarely come in contact with the Police find the thought of arrest absolutely terrifying. Apparently we are much easier to prosecute because we don’t insist on solicitors because we assume that if we are in the right the police will see this quickly enough and move on to find the real criminals. This is naivety in the extreme, regrettably, as every now and then a journalist gets wrongly arrested for something and the police only reluctantly let go when some incontrovertible evidence turns up. (I can think of several examples including a girl accused of stealing a purse at a Gym but am too busy to track them down). They are trained to be suspicious but getting an increasingly unlikely suspect to accept a caution in lieu of further investigation is a result.

What are the consequences of being arrested for a normal person in work, even after being absolved of blame? Holidays in America, for a start, no more visa waiver, with unpleasant but otherwise straight-forward travel giving only a fingerprint to get in, now it is a trip to that horrible Embassy in London. The arrest is recorded onto the Police National Computer and could well show up on certain criminal records checks (even though you aren’t a criminal). However, the most criminal part of it is this; All (well, nearly all*) arrestees are now obliged to give a DNA sample  to go on the national register, sitting there waiting for any false positive to give you hassle for the rest of your life. This even happens to Children and it is apparently an absolute bastard of a job to persuade your Chief Constable to get it removed. (Here is an ACPO policy document PDF to give you the feel for how possessive they are.)

Now could Lionheart possibly have a case for political asylum? These are the sorts of things that Liberty campaigns against. OK, it isn’t torture, but is a great way of ruining someone’s career.

This is one reason why don’t Urbex and am very circumspect about what I write - I don’t ever want to be arrested and see a custody suite in anger. Now I provide DNA to the State quite regularly in the form of blood samples to my Doctor but I am (fairly) confident that it is used mostly for the purposes it was provided (although I hear of blind randomised testing for research purposes).

I don’t want to give it to the Police or the National ID register though. Why? because it is personal data. Very personal indeed, it belongs to me, not you or anyone else. Especially not the Government, they can fuck right off.

*except labour politicians it seems