Here we go again Woman arrested for sitting on a bench.

[MercyBooth]

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9130133/Police-told-fine-Covid-rule-breakers-just-ONE-verbal-warning.html

It doesn’t say that you don’t have to give details at all either! The issue is when the police can arrest for refusing to give details which they can in many different circumstances

*A year ago, the reaction for sitting on a park and being arrested would be outrageous- it still IS for the UN brainwashedg

She wasn’t arrested for that, tho, was she? She was arrested for refusing to provide her details and refusing to comply with the direction to go. Swap her for drunk asshole who’s refusing to go home from a night out, they’d get a directive to leave and possibly be done for Breach of public order.

@Nishky

It doesn’t say that you don’t have to give details at all either! The issue is when the police can arrest for refusing to give details which they can in many different circumstances

It literally says you do not have to stop and answer any questions. Not answering alone Is not a reason to arrest you. If they have evidence you commuted a crime they can arrest you, but they cannot arrest you just for not giving your details. It literally says that.

Did they give her the option of going home with no fine.

Or did they try and get her details to issue a fine and she refused to give them so was arrested?

Because if it was the latter I kind of see her point if she had been out for exercise and needed a 5 min sit down before continuing. If I’d been doing that and someone tried to issue me a £200 fine I’d argue the toss.

If the police came along and said I shouldn’t be sitting there please go home in my head I’d be a tad pissed off but I would get up and go.

I hope she sticks it out in the police station refusing to give her details. Someone a few years ago was arrested at a demo and refused to ever give their details. They went to a magistrates court as an unknown defendant and the magistrate granted bail to the unknown person. Who I’m fairly sure never turned up at their next court date!

There is more to a story than altered reporting in the Daily Mail.....

I think we all need To listen to the video of her saying to the police “I don’t believe in the virus”. This isn’t someone who is out for a walk and has been the victim of police brutality. This I imagine is why she is so calm when she gets handcuffed apart from doing the over dramatic “ow ow” as her mate goes towards her filming. She’s got what she wanted.

This isn’t about a virus , it’s about control of the population.
Why, I’ve no idea

Your conspiracy theory is a bit shit, isn’t?

You don't have to give your details unless you're breaking a law.

That is totally incorrect. People who don’t know the law should not try to quote it.

No, it isn't. You're not obliged to give your name to the police unless they suspect you of an offence and advise you of this. If they're just being nosey, you can decline to give your name and simply doing so does not give the police the power to arrest you.

@peanutbutterbiscuits

I guess a woman sitting alone on a bench is an easy target. It is a shame they are not so zealous when it comes to turning up to deal with a burglary or assault.

It shows just how readily people accept living in what is effectively a police state. I'm more frightened by the way government and the police are slowly taking away all our freedoms than I am of the virus.

Or you could read the article or the other sources available online and discover this woman wasn't innocently sitting in a bench.

She was sort of an anti COVID protest and refused to give details or move until the police proved it was in fact real.

A bit like this, but without the alcohol element.
Section 27 of the Violent Crime Reduction Act, also currently in force, allows police to disperse where they perceive a likelihood of alcohol related disorder

I’m not saying the woman was creating disorder, but blow me, if the cops told me to go home at this time, I would! It”s not some fascist regime, it’s a bloody pandemic. If she needed time out of the house, she could have walked, not refused to give up her details.

I think we all need To listen to the video of her saying to the police “I don’t believe in the virus”

And not believing in COVID-19 is an arrestable offence now? Ultimately, the question, regardless of whether you think she wanted to be arrested or not, is, 'Did she break the law?'

If the answer is no, no matter how obnoxious she was being, she shouldn't have been arrested.

It's incredibly disturbing how many posters seem to think "Women Not Being Nice Enough To Men" is a crime, and are perfectly happy with that.

Has anyone said that?

The woman appears to have been part of a protest group the whole point of which is to convince people that the pandemic is a hoax and an excuse for a draconian reduction in civil liberties as part of a sinister plot involving the New World Order (also lizards, aliens, satanists, the Jooz, yadda yadda).

Here is some video of an earlier protest, courtesy of the youtube channel Ruptly (Russian state televsion - they are always at these large protests) where the protesters are also shouting "choose your side!"

"Choose your side!" is a bit like WWG1WGA, "Q sent me" and various other battle cries and signs favoured by this network

I have no idea who this woman is. She may be a vulnerable adult who has been manipulated into putting herself in the firing line of the cops? She may be someone like Belinda McKenzie who has greater culpability for her actions? I cannot comment on that element. She could be an innocent woman on a bench cought up in a protest I suppose, but I think this is unlikely as most people would want to place as much distance between these protesters and themselves as possible.

Do you think that the police should just allow these conspiracy themed protests to just go ahead given the risks they create to public health and safety?

@ilovesushi

I'm going for a walk today. I may sit on a bench. I bloody hope I don't have to justify it to the police!

Unless your walk is with about another 35 people in a protest March against COVID and up to 40 miles from your home - like the lady in the article - I think you'll be fine

[quote Dowser]@thefallthroughtheair
Exactly.
Sitting on a bench on your own , on a freezing cold January day
Is not and never should be a crime.
Good lord!
Can we sink any lower than the depths we’ve already sunk to[/quote]
She wasn't sitting on a bench. She was taking part in an anti covid protest

Nurserys, garden centres, professional sport still open for business. Seems pointless telling people off for jogging if the above are still running.

[quote Dowser]@hoodathunkit
You may be right I don’t know
But 13 police officers in a recreational area sounds very much like overkill to me
The video was posted by Martin Costello btw

[/quote] They were there due to an anti COVID protest.

Don't read a headline - find and read facts

For the first time ever since this began I am now feeling apprehensive about going shopping tomorrow.

I live rurally and the nearest supermarket where I can get everything I need is 20 miles away. I have tried to do an online order but cannot get a slot for at least a week.

If I am stopped by the police will they fine me for being outside my local area? I am afraid that I have lost a lot of faith in the ability of the police to engage in critical thinking. I used to be pretty supportive of the police but this pandemic and other situations which have arisen recently have really knocked my confidence in them.

I am usually pretty laid back and realise that the media likes to whip things up which is why I find the way I am feeling quite disturbing.

@TrustTheGeneGenie you are just repeating what I say. I think we agree that the statement that you only have to give your name if you have broken the law is incorrect.

Oh do stop peddling alarmist rubbish
She was arrested for declining to give her details to police. I expect her aroused mood was also a contributing factor too

[quote Nishky]@TrustTheGeneGenie you are just repeating what I say. I think we agree that the statement that you only have to give your name if you have broken the law is incorrect.[/quote]
Yes I quite clearly said you don't need to give your details at all. Which you still said was wrong.

@LaurieFairyCake

She wasn't arrested for 'sitting on a bench'

She was sitting on the bench

Told/advised to go home

She refused/argued with the officers

THEN she was arrested

Your second from last line is the clue here.

Not sure what it is about STAY AT HOME some people don’t get.

@rosetylersbiggun I've had a similar experience. I was arrested in a situation where the violent perpetrator was behaving more threateningly, because I was the quietest (easiest) to arrest.

The level of victim-blaming on this thread is appalling. And people saying "the police were already stressed from a protest" I'm sorry, if an officer (or officers) is too emotionally unstable to do the job, they shouldn't be doing it. As a teacher, if I've had a stressful p1 lesson, it doesn't give me the right to walk into my p2 lesson shouting and screaming and handing out detentions to people for not lining up properly or forgetting their planners. If a nurse has just been shouted at by a patient, does that give them the right to be shitty to the next patient? No. So why do some people think it's ok for police? WTF society do we live in?

Not sure what it is about STAY AT HOME some people don’t get

I don't get what people don't get about the fact exercise is allowed.

And not believing in COVID-19 is an arrestable offence now? Ultimately, the question, regardless of whether you think she wanted to be arrested or not, is, 'Did she break the law?'

It is not just her belief though is it? She is entitled to believe that a cabal of paedophile satanic reptiles rule the world or whatever other thing she wants to believe as long as she doesn't hurt anyone or put their health at risk.

By protesting (if that is what she was doing) she is putting people's health and lives at risk. It is not difficult to understand surely?

If the police do nothing and let these conspiracy theorists protest it can get out of hand, as you may have noticed happened in America very recently, and it puts the health and lives of the public at risk.

The police are supposed to protect the public and that it what they were doing.

Your conspiracy theory is a bit shit, isn’t?

agree 100%

@NiceLegsShameAboutTheFace it is incorrect and you have just proved that by quoting the correct position, you don’t have to give details, the police in certain circumstances can arrest you if you don’t. It is to do with their subjective reasonable suspicion and nothing to do with the objective position of whether you have in fact broken the law.

Therefore to say ‘you don’t have to give details unless you are breaking the law’ is incorrect