Interesting to see the term “detained” being distinguished from “arrested”. It’s a very hazy area but I can’t help recalling the extensive use of “detention” in apartheid South Africa. Detention could be, and frequently was, extended for 28 days at a time iirc. I knew/of people who went through several cycles of detention, who were never tried, and who were eventually “banned”. This meant, in brief, that the person was restricted to defined geographical area/s, subject to curfew, confiscation of possessions in case needed as evidence, surrender of any passport, and forbidden to meet with more than one person at a time (and probably more that I’ve forgotten). So, for example, our Student Union president was allowed to keep attending lectures but had to report to police station multiple times per week, and if you wanted to talk to him you had to queue up behind the others. The front of the queue would be three metres away (or something like that) to make it clear that the other people in the queue were not part of a ‘meeting’.
This same pettiness and bureaucratic eye for humiliating details is pretty much exactly how Craig Murray is being treated, albeit some specifics differ.
Banned people could not be quoted and could not quote themselves i.e. publish their opinions. UK is quite emphatically heading in that direction and rapidly. Israel sets the standard, of course, by targeting journalists with missiles…
We’re still on the nursery slopes here in the High Peak, called on and interviewed by a PCSO to find out if we were contemplating breaking the law in any way. They’d had a complaint about the flag hanging from our front bedroom. . .
Nice boy, said he “agreed with us”, thought the possible consequences of what was happening were “terrifying”, told us his sergeant thought “its ridiculous”, what we were doing we had every right to do, he liked our ‘Visit Palestine’ poster which he’d clocked through the window when he visited earlier (nobody home), he knew we were alright because when he called round earlier our neighbours had told him so. Presumably our non-criminal thoughts are now logged by the Derbyshire Constabulary (to find out would entail providing them with 2 forms of photo identity).
Of course, we all know if you do nothing wrong you have nothing to be scared of . . . ha. (We’re too old to be fearful of owt anyway). (Maybe NewSi knows the saying I only ever heard in Bradford and have always held dear, “I’m too old a cat to be fucked wi’ kitten”)
You gave a very good account of yourself. Broken record technique like a good 'un