Ministers can’t have been surprised by reports that Wayne Couzens may have abused Covid rules when he kidnapped Sarah Everard – they were urged in the same month to “roll back the extensive powers unwisely handed to the state” and to the police. The Telegraph has the story.
Mark Harper, the Chairman of the Covid Recovery Group, said the Coronavirus Act, contained “some of the most draconian detention powers in modern British legal history, giving the police and other officials the power to detain us, potentially indefinitely”.
The concerns were not just that the laws gave officers powers to intervene in everyday activities like leaving home, going shopping or visiting friends but also that there was confusion among the public and even police about what people could and could not do.
It was this that Couzens, 48, apparently exploited when he used his Metropolitan Police-issue warrant card and handcuffs to snatch Ms. Everard as she walked home from a friend’s house in Clapham, south London, on the evening of March 3rd.
He had worked with other officers on Covid patrols to enforce the regulations and, according to the prosecution, he was “therefore aware of the regulations and what language to use to those who may have breached them”.
“The fact she [Sarah Everard] had been to a friend’s house for dinner at the height of the 2021 lockdown made her more vulnerable to and/or more likely to submit to an accusation that she had acted in breach of the Covid regulations in some way, by going to a friend’s home that evening.”
When Ms. Everard set off for home, the U.K. was still in its third national lockdown, which required people to remain at home and only leave for a narrow set of reasons such as exercising once a day.
Throughout the lockdown, police chiefs had been sensitive to the potential of their new powers to breach the central tenet of British policing that it is based on the common consent of the public, as opposed to the power of the state.
“We don’t want to have a society when you step out the door there is a cop saying: ‘Where are you going?’” said Stephen White, then Police and Crime Commissioner for Durham.
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It doesn’t matter that this happened only once (as far as we know). What matters is that the government created a set of regulations which allows the police to arbitrarily restrain you on the street and carry you off to your death. No one in their right mind thinks that this is ok because “surely, the police won’t abuse it”.
I don’t like it when rare, freakish occurrences are used to stir up the public to get something done. It may be that on this occasion it suits me that it’s used to push back on a piece of legislation I loathe. But this sort of ‘look at this horrible thing that has happened’ approach more often than not is used to put more rules, more regulations, more restrictions rather than less.
I agree, the Coronavirus Act was already an abomination before that incident happened.
The problem is that this is not something that came out of the blue. People have said before that this is a possibility. Giving the police and the state power over human rights is never a good idea. We should not permit the government to give itself powers which allow them to trample all over human rights because “oh, surely, they would never do such a thing, why would they?” If they would never do such a thing, then they don’t need so much power.
Why do you think that these ‘rare freakish occurrences’ happen rather too often with Met involvement? I am surprised that this incident has resulted in headlines suggesting that the public trust in the Met has been severely damaged – have these headline writers been living in a parallel utopian universe where incidents like this and Jean Charles de Menenez don’t occur and police officers don’t regularly close ranks when one of them is caught doing something illegal? Frankly I won’t go anywhere or do anything that might bring me into contact with the police, and haven’t since being stop and searched as a child in the 60s.
I think that Peelian principle has long been thrown on the ash-heap of history, as has that of upholding the law as written “without regard to policy”, i.e. apolitically.
I work with the police, I know some socially who are decent blokes out of uniform, but they would be my call of absolute last resort. I now consider them, institutionally, as a hostile occupying force doing the bidding of Davos and Beijing, not of the British public.
“When Ms. Everard set off for home, the U.K. was still in its third national lockdown, which required people to remain at home and only leave for a narrow set of reasons such as exercising once a day.”
They still can’t get the “rules” right now! Media are equally to blame as the government and the police and the local authorities for trying to tell people that there were bizarro “rules” such as this.
And they conflate law and guidance into a thing called “The Rules” – police can only legally enforce the law, they cannot enforce guidance.
Any sense of nuance around what is “law” and what is “guidelines” is long gone. As a society we didn’t attend to those differences pre-scamdemic, and here are the consequences. RIP Sarah.
Yes Baroness Hale famously said so and went one step further she implied this confusion of law and guidance was a deliberate outcome
They didn’t then either. The regulations never set a limit on the number of times which you could leave the house for exercise each day.
most of the media reporting especially the BBC seem unable or unwilling to mention the context of the lockdown and the stay at home instruction.
The point is that the powers are totally wrong in any democratic society. The Sarah Everard case is not a powerful argument, and using MSM-type sensationalism is the sort of diversion that can misfire. Imagine lockdown fanatics arguing that such measures make women safer on balance.
I seem to remember deranged people arguing that these new found powers could be used to curfew men…
That suggestion came from Wales, didn’t it?
A one night a month curfew for men would be an interesting experiment. Would more women go out?
… and one night a month curfew for women? Why are you suggesting more restrictions? You should go and live in Communist China if you like people being told what they can and cant do.
Plenty of post-event hand-wringing and so forth, but the answer is that the wholly-disproportionate powers given to the police should never have been granted in the first place, should be removed immediately, and never again permitted.
And no more FPNs ever, for anything. And that includes for exceeding a statutory speed limit. It might be presented as trivial but it is a convenient subversion of normal process that has laid the foundation for further abuse.
If an offence is too trivial for a magistrates’ court then it is too trivial to be pursued at all.
72k healthcare workers in New York are about to be fired for refusing the vaccine.
Trying to influence UK policy is pointless. The government know all the arguments. They are not interested. This is a global campaign.
Yes, and now we have to step up, refuse to comply, and take any unjust consequence. It is clear now what the game is. No collaboration.
Good luck with running a health service there then. I hope the workers stand firm and that people support them through crowd funding etc.
I would ask, does the committee acknowledge that what they describe as a solution was already normal practice before this fraud began?
Couzens’ defence also argue that he shouldn’t die in prison. He absolutely MUST be left to die in prison – and he should be kept in complete isolation until that day comes to pass.
I think isolation is too good for him. He needs to be looking over his shoulder and sleeping with one eye open forever, waiting for the next inmate attack.
After a set number of years say 20 he should be allowed to legally end his life
At what point, if you believe you are being unlawfully detained, are you within your rights to fight back?
When the rubber bullet hits you, when you are choked, when they hit you with their rifle stock, when you are punched in the face whilst handcuffed lying face down with multiple knees on your back, when you are knocked over and pepper sprayed in the face, when you are a pensioner spread eagled into the back of a van or when you are a drunk, vulnerable woman walking along at night and and being driven to your death?
Any, ANY, no matter how small, insignificant or seemingly accidental misstep by the police when dealing with the public should be regarded as serious. When the say so of someone in uniform can not only ruin your life but literally take it from you, any abuse of those powers should be completely condemned and the punishment harsh!
Yet we see ‘officers’ headbutting (on camera!) the public and it taking civil prosecutions, massive crowd funding efforts and strong legal action, to get them fired, not prosecuted, only fired! It’s disgusting, they are lying, cowardly, dishonest bullies and I wouldn’t piss on them if they were on fire.
In this instance, about 18 months ago when it was clear that the new emergency laws AND the use (or avoidance of) existing laws were very shady. As pointed out by Lord Sumption. And hasn’t it since been discovered that every single of of the CPS prosecutions was illegal?
It would’ve taken another police officer, solicitor or LD skeptic to have had enough confidence in the law to tell WC to f off for his blatantly illegal arrest. It’s our politicians (inc. local authorities) and media to blame for making a citizen think that she was actually under arrest and not in danger.
In that blurry shot of Sarah with WC it’s possible to see from her body position that she was perhaps challenging him. Perhaps she refused the handcuffs and he overwhelmed her. Even a solicitor could not have stopped that happening
Well said. We should never cut them any slack. (They don’t cut us any.) And if they don’t like it they can always resign.
As has been seen in numerous videos and reports a significant number of police have apparently taken to the myriad rules/guidelines with relish. Baton charging peaceful demonstrators, dragging 80 year old women into police vans, charging two walkers drinking coffee with a non existent crime, the list goes on. Even when clearly proven wrong there has been no meaningful apology or censure of those involved. On top of that the CPS has thrown out the overwhelming majority of ‘cases’. The simple fact is that Wayne Couzens would have shown pyschopathic tendencies before committing this horrific crime. The fact that they weren’t noticed (or acted upon), says a lot about the general climate within the nation’s police forces.
The major weakness of modern democracies is that they are old enough for most citizens not to realize what it means to be living in a non-democractic country and how brittle the current order of law can be. This is now being mercilessly exploited by those who wish to undermine and destroy democracy.
Murdered one woman and killed 60 million souls (all those except us sceptics’). A very efficacious piece of legislation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zc5hAFqSw08
A disaster waiting to happen – partly the law of unintended consequences, but I strongly suspect many in positions of authority – rather like with the lies about vaccine passports – knew full well that these laws could easily be ‘interpreted’ for a much wider scope both now and in the future, and probably didn’t bother looking (or more like didn’t care) about the possibility of consequences such as the Sarah Everard case.
I mean, just look at the even wider scope of the lockdown laws in force in New Zealand, Canada and especially Australia as regards Police being able to arrest, detain (often without specific charges [or that are flimsy or for very low level ‘law breaking’ at best]) for long and indefinite periods and essentially ruin individuals for minor ‘offences’, many of which have been made up just to stop any kind of inspection of the general COVID restrictions/response – including via social media/online generally.
It’s barely better than current day China, which isn’t saying much.
This is a shocking case in its particular circumstances. But I cannot help also thinking that it is a microcosm of the entire state of the nation. A metaphor, if you will, for what has been happening this last 18 months.
The authorities, acting out of powers they ought not to have, arrested the whole country, put us in handcuffs and took us on a long drive, with nefarious intent, and it didn’t end well. Those we were brought up to trust turned out to be psychopaths. We allowed ourselves to be detained, thinking it was part of a bigger plan for a greater good, but it was all a shocking betrayal of trust with a catastrophic outcome.
There is nothing more pernicious on this earth than evil masquerading as good.
The idea that he was essentially acting in the manner of the state was my exact first thought when I saw this story.
So if a police officer ever approaches you in connection with an alleged Covid rule breach you can now legitimately say “how do I know you are not another Wayne Couzens?”
Excellent comment.
A perfect analogy.
Let me be clear, this poor woman’s death falls first on the police first. They ignored warning signs and the flashing that very day! They have time to follow up on “mean words” but skip a sexual crime. Maybe we should actually listen to the complaints of women, beyond just trans women.
But this also falls on Boris. The lockdown rules always created space for abuse, and it was only a matter of time before one evil soul on the force took advantage of the license to monitor free people. It’s sickening.
The whole thing breaks my heart. And now I have to talk to my two daughters about when to trust the police. Can’t imagine what that poor mother is enduring. Grace to her.
Please call the Prime Minister by his proper name: Kim Jong Johnson.
Very glad that the judge felt able to hand down a whole life tariff for this offence. Undermining trust in the police force is one of the most serious offences there is short of treason.
Let’s have a moment’s thought for that poor woman and her family left to pick up the pieces. That’s a true life sentence.
Well said
There’s another angle to this tragic case. I caught a snippet of Emma Barnett on Radio 4 Woman’s Hour this morning. She was demonising the whole male population as a result of the actions of one nut case. I’m sick to the back teeth of this misandrist cult in the MSM.
Typical BBC. And that Emma Barnett is a first class nutjob.
Why listen to the lying, traitorous BBC?
Dame Cressida Dick said she is “so sorry” to the family of Sarah Everard as she admitted the “precious bond of trust” with police had been damaged.
Well, Met chief I am afraid saying sorry doesn’t cut it, there should be a full and public apology on behalf of your police service. which should go something like this…
It is with great regret that one of my officers carried out this crime and I apologise to the family and everyone else for the hurt and distress it has caused, I would also offer my sincere condolences to the family. Further, I will make sure this never happens again on my watch.
No point saying it if you don’t mean it, someone might hold you to your word one day.
It wouldn’t happen again on her watch if she did the right thing and resigned. But she didn’t resign after cops murdered an innocent Brazilian on her watch. She has no integrity.
This case is incredibly disturbing, but remember at first it was treated as a missing person case and there was no mention of a police officer being involved. It likely got into the papers at that time because the disappearance happened outside the home and during lock up, and Sarah Everard’s boyfriend and family were active in reporting her missing. While I don’t mean to take away from this tragedy, I question how many others have passed (or suffered) either alone and afraid or at the hands of others since March 2020, which have been hidden / swept under the rug ‘because Covid’. It almost feels like this case has been highly publicised so people can feel there’s always someone worse off. This makes me so angry.
at first the details were sketchy but once they mentioned that she walked 2.5 miles from Clapham Junction to Brixton I asked myself why. That is a journey that would be unsafe for a man to undertake if they went the quickest way. Then I realised given lockdown taking a bus or a taxi would have been out of the question. As it was the involvement of the police officer came about from examining door bell cameras along the route
Poor Sarah Everard is another tragic example of Lockdown “collateral damage.”
The Lockdown Extremists who created (and supported) giving the Police these draconian powers have Sarah’s blood on their hands. That includes every MP who voted for them.
On the plus side, as a petite, late-middle-age woman, I reckon I’ll be at less risk from being attacked by the police thugs at the next London Demo
It is all “on their watch”; added to which are the Care Home Midazolam stoked deaths, the untreated patients directly sidelined by the drive to “Protect the NHS” and the decades long collateral damage to the nation’s mental health, and the decimation of children’s education for the last 20 months or so; not exhaustive.
In trying to make sense of such a senseless act contemplating whether the extension of police powers were leveraged for evil is valid. However, the coverage is in bad taste and reeks of the gutter press.
We have this appalling case, we have undercover cops deceiving women and shagging them, we have wife bashing cops keeping their jobs, and these are the cases that come to light. How much more is going on that they successfully keep under wraps? Much of it is petty compared with these headline grabbing cases but it is endemic in police culture.
Despite this, our political parties are competing to show their virtue by promising us even more bloody coppers. They have encouraged us to think every perceived problem can be solved by more cops and more punishment. Hence the ridiculous notion that a public health problem should be addressed by giving cops more power to push us around and to punish us with FPNs, bypassing the safeguards of the courts.
It is inevitable that when you give people such power some of them will abuse it. It is a shock that it should go so far as this appalling murder, but it is no surprise at all that it should result in bullying at a good many levels.
Kirstie Allsop sparks fury
Kirstie Allsopp sparks fury with tweet suggesting Sarah Everard’s death ‘could not have happened’ without coronavirus lockdown (yahoo.com)