Two Met police officers have tracked down to a pub a man who had criticised a local Green councillor over an outdoor drinking ban, sparking concerns that Britain is becoming a police state. The Mail has more.
This is the extraordinary moment two Met police officers tracked down a photographer to a pub over his critical tweets about a local Green councillor – despite admitting he had committed no crime.
Alastair Hilton was having a drink with a friend in Chiswick, west London, on Thursday night when uniformed officers grilled him about his social media posts.
Hilton feared being arrested when he was asked to step outside by two policemen as he celebrated a victory for his community over the Labour-run council and saved outdoor seating outside three much-loved pubs on the Thames.
As the debate over ‘two-tier policing’ in the UK continues to rage, an irate Hilton told the officers that his terrified daughter had suffered an attempted burglary while she slept just weeks earlier – and claimed that police had refused to attend.
Yet last night the Met had dispatched officers to a pub to track him down and question him about some of his tweets, despite acknowledging that there had been no crime.
At one point an officer even read out the legislation under which Scotland Yard would arrest him if he crossed the line.
Hilton has said: “They admit on video that I did not break the law at all. They came to threaten me. To warn me off tweeting about councillors and the council. This is modern Britain. This is the police state. Police coming out to threaten someone who hasn’t committed a crime. I’m fuming.”
The incident is yet another case where police have appeared to meddle in free speech.
James May, the Top Gear and The Grand Tour star who lives in west London, tweeted Hilton last night: “I’m genuinely interested to know if you’ve woken up in the gulag. Bang on the pipes if you need us to batter the door down with a pub bench.”
The row began after a council threatened three pubs with a ban on eating and drinking outside.
The Bull’s Head, The City Barge and The Bell & Crown in Strand-on-the-Green in Chiswick had been told to remove tables, chairs and sun loungers from the riverside path by Monday.
But Labour-run Hounslow Council has backed down following a campaign by local residents.
Hilton had claimed on social media that the original complaint about the outdoor seating had been made by Green Party councillor Rick Rowe, something he has denied.
And on Thursday night, police tracked him down to The Bell & Crown, where two officers took him outside and warned him he was close to committing a crime.
Hilton filmed the 12-minute exchange, accusing the officers of threatening him and alleging they had been sent at the behest of Rowe.
The footage has since gone viral.
Worth reading in full.
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It’s not two-tier policing, it’s not even policing.
So the attempt to intimidate ended with that copper looking like a right old plonker.
Are the MET going to start sending a goon around to everyone who hasn’t committed a crime, just to reassure them that they haven’t broken the law?
They don’t have the manpower as they’re too busy solving crime and catching serial thieves.
Get the names of the two police officers and sue them personally, they acknowledged there was no crime, so what they were doing was using their position to threaten and intimidate an innocent individual, one that they knew was innocent. Therefore they have committed a crime, if I were the man who was threatened in this way I would do everything I could to ensure these two were held accountable and to set as a warning to other “Officers” who abuse their position.
Otherwise the Police will continue to act like the personal mafia to Politicians against the people.
I thank God I’m not still a copper, because I would have got myself into serious trouble with supervisors after refusing to deal with this sort of crap.
I had plenty of supervisors from the early 90s who bent whichever way the wind blew them. No spine or backbone to stand up straight on principle. Had they been told that it was policy to beat up random black people in the street, a significant proportion of them would have told their own subordinates to comply, and told them that it was “the way forward” – a phrase I heard form many a tosser wearing stripes, pips or crowns on their shoulders.
I tended not to get on well with shiny-arsed supervisors during my career. They stood out a mile.
Increasingly I am encountering good people from all walks of life who have resigned in exasperation at not being allowed to be honest or to do their job.
My stepson and stepdaughter!
The fuzz have gone totally off reservation, far be it from me to call for violence, but until there is some serious sustained rioting they will continue to take the piss.
It won’t be pretty but it is essential.
We still have the numbers, and we will win, but first we have to decide to fight.
I wonder what other work came in during this time, while they where harrasing this man.
That copper has very intolerant look about him.
He just looks terminally thick to me.
A reminder of what the Police are about. No one asked for the Police to be ‘re-imagine’d and I want those that have done the ‘re-imagining’ to be put away for cultural vandalism on a treasonous scale.
Peel’s Principles for the police:
1. To prevent crime and disorder, as an alternative to their repression by military force and severity of legal punishment.
2. To recognise always that the power of the police to fulfil their functions and duties is dependent on public approval of their existence, actions and behaviour and on their ability to secure and maintain public respect.
3. To recognise always that to secure and maintain the respect and approval of the public means also the securing of the willing co-operation of the public in the task of securing observance of laws.
4. To recognise always that the extent to which the co-operation of the public can be secured diminishes proportionately the necessity of the use of physical force and compulsion for achieving police objectives.
5. To seek and preserve public favour, not by pandering to public opinion; but by constantly demonstrating absolutely impartial service to law, in complete independence of policy, and without regard to the justice or injustice of the… Read more »
And so in this instance these police officers have disgraced themselves in every respect and deserve to be disciplined and dismissed for the benefit of the public of which they themselves are members.
I doubt many pupils these days have any idea who Robert Peel was or what he did.
I have fond memories of Saturday evenings watching Dixon of Dock Green – those days have truly gone.
Thanks for the reminder of the Principles.
Another proud day for the “police”…
Police time and resource to pursue a vendetta, and the attending individuals and whomever sent them felt vindicated in this.
These are dark times
I’m wondering how the officers found this man. Did they use facial recognition images perhaps.?
no the green party man gave his details to plod, ‘kin tur d
It made me wonder…
When our police forces descend to Gestapo tactics – threatening people who criticise local politicians – we know that they are now utterly degraded. They have either to be thoroughly reformed, or dissolved and rebuilt from the ground up.
Yup, I agree with this. I would sweep away the current system of policing because it’s too far gone. I’d interview every copper individually to ascertain their thoughts on many a woke issue. Those who failed the interview would not get into the new policing system.
Very few people above the rank of Inspector would pass.
They cannot be saved – they have to be disbanded and replaced with a new force – emphasis on ‘force’ not a service.
Unfortunately few who read DS will be surprised but we should all be shocked at the continuous ratchet of oppressive behaviour by the police on behalf of our authoritarian political class.
I suggest another conference or rally should be organised with as many supporting organisations there as possible. Not Uniparty, obviously.
On behalf and in behalf. Evil bastards.