Armed Robbery, Kidnap, Harassment and Extortion in the UK – what we can do about it.- Part 1

This article is a social experiment about a social experiment.

May I begin with words of appreciation. I sometimes forget how fortunate I am. I live in the UK and am privileged in so many ways. I am healthy, am married to a wonderful woman, have 3 intelligent funky children and a loving wider family as well as amazing friends. I have a roof over my head and don’t want for anything. The system, however corrupt it is, is still a lot less corrupt here, than it is in so many other countries. Or at least it appears that way to me! And the agents of the system (police, judges, lawyers) are also better than in many other countries.
This being the case doesn’t excuse the criminality of the system and it’s agents, even though most of them are not aware of what they are doing.

Experiment – I invite you to imagine yourself in the scenario below. Get into the role and just BE that person. If you can get at least one more person to role play with you, you can really get into it!

Imagine you were walking down the street in London and you are stopped by two women of the Buddhist, Mormon or Muslim faith.* They demand to search you and your bags. They are very polite but firm and when you ask them what would happen if you didn't let them search you, they make it clear that they would use ‘reasonable force’ which could include taking you away. So you decide to let them search you and they find a rather expensive bottle of Champagne that you are going to share with your partner on your 20th wedding anniversary. They say they are confiscating the wine as it is alcohol, which is a known narcotic and they tell you it is forbidden to possess it . As well as taking your wine, they then handcuff you and put you into the back of their van. They then take you to a big building, take your fingerprints and DNA and lock you in a cell overnight. The next morning, having slept very little, you are entitled to get some help with an ‘independent’ person – but he/she is a fellow Muslim/Buddhist/Mormon who is playing by their rules. You are then released back onto the street wherever their building happens to be to make your way home (at your expense) and are told that you had better come back to another one of their buildings where you will have to face one of their friends who will judge you and ‘deal with you’ by way of a fine or maybe locking you up for a few years.
If you admit to what you have done, they will fine you. They tell you that if you don’t pay them the fine, some of their friends will come round to your house, and help themselves to your stuff to the value of your fine plus their further extortions.
They may imprison you too. And they will put your name on their computer database of bad people, You will also have to pay more for things like car insurance, house insurance etc. Furthermore, if they catch you with a bottle of bubbly again, the punishment will be worse.

All along, you knew that this was crazy but you were too scared to report it to the police, but eventually, at the end of it, you plucked up the courage and reported it to the UK police. The women who stopped you (and of course all the others involved) would be charged with AGGRAVATED THEFT (of your bubbly), AGGRAVATED THEFT of your DNA(!!), KIDNAP, SEVERE HARASSMENT, (locking you up, going through their ‘court system’) FALSE IMPRISONMENT, and EXTORTION (fine backed by the threat of violence) These offences are serious crimes that would receive long sentences here in the UK.

Well you clearly know where I am going with this. I have been subject to this crime personally. And I got off lightly.
A couple of years ago, I was doing my megaphoning in Tesco, and the security guard took it personally. He called the police, and the store lied to them and without checking on my side of the story, I got arrested. They then forced themselves into my pockets and found a scruffy plastic bag with a few crumbs of what I call hemp. Not enough for even a joint.

It was 10pm on a Saturday night and I was on my way to a party. Two men, in police costume, stole the hemp from me and then put handcuffs on me and put me in their van. They kept me in a cell overnight and once I was sleep deprived, they interviewed me in the morning. I would now NEVER talk to them in interview, but at that time I was so tired and stressed, I foolishly talked. When they asked me what the cannabis was for, I said I was going to share it with a friend at the party. The rascal of an officer then said that I could get up to 14 years for ‘supply.’ (By the way, the intent to supply is nothing short of a thought crime!) Which did the intended job of scaring the hell out of me. They eventually released me at 2pm after this ordeal, leaving me to make my own way home. When my daughter found out - she was 16 at the time – she didn’t speak to me for several months. They charged me with possession of Cannabis. I opted to go for Crown Court because I wanted this to go in front of a Jury to make a mockery of this cruel and criminal behavior. Every brown envelope I got from the courts made me shudder, even though deep down I knew it was very likely to be dropped. Despite the fact that I can stand in front of crowds of hundreds or even thousands on the street, the courtroom is such a unleveled playing field, that even I feel extremely intimidated. They force you into the dock even before you have pleaded. They sit up there with their robes on as if they are superior. Eventually, the case was dropped but more about that in part 2.

Recently, I was at Notting Hill Carnival with my megaphone having fun warning people that there are men/women stealing peoples stuff and kidnapping them. They’re called the police. I got almost universal support (not so much from the police but some were playing along) from the party goers, young and old, and of all shades of colour skin, different colour eyes and a whole range of different shapes of nose.

For the sake of brevity, I won’t focus on the well known fact that Cannabis is far less dangerous than alcohol or that it is a well known medicine that can be used to help cancer patients, those with MS or Parkinsons as well as working as an anti depressant.

What the police do with us with regard to Cannabis (and any other substances) is very similar to the imaginary case above.

In both cases, the perpetrators thought they were fully justified in what they were doing. They believed it was for the best for you and society. In both cases, the ‘victim’ was planning to increase his/her happiness with the substance.
And in both cases, serious crimes were committed against the victims.

As of yet, nobody has given me coherent moral justification for ANYONE having the right to interfere using force, with a man/woman who is in ‘possession’ of ANYTHING at all for their own personal use? I don’t have the right as a fellow human to force you to give me your doughnuts, even if you have diabetes. So what right does ANYONE have to interfere with the choice of an adults making a choice?

It’s kind of obvious to me, and to a growing number of others.

If all of this is obvious to you too, the next thing that may pop into your mind is ‘but what can we do about it?
Moaning about it won’t stop them because most of them won’t understand what we are talking about and crucially because their living depends on it – enough to bend the finest minds into justifying criminal behavior. But there may be things that can be done. And my next article I will be sharing more about that.. I am quite excited to share it with you. It’s going be good fun. Obviously.

Footnotes

*I am assuming that these women believe that their belief system – the only true belief system - forbids alcohol.