Vladimir Putin: if he ever did go on the run, he might look like this – especially if he didn’t have time to grab a shirt.
Here’s a redundant threat:
The international criminal court (ICC) in The Hague has issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin for overseeing the abduction of Ukrainian children, sending Russia another significant step on the path to becoming a pariah state.
In granting the request for warrants by the ICC prosecutor, a panel of judges agreed that there were “reasonable grounds” to believe Putin and his children’s rights commissioner, Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, bore responsibility for the “unlawful deportation” of Ukrainian children.
The warrants are the first to be issued by the ICC for crimes committed in the Ukraine war, and it is one of the rare occasions when the court has issued a warrant for a sitting head of state
How does the ICC expect to deliver that warrant and have the arrest made?
Vladimir Putin is the head of the Russian state and, despite its losses in Ukraine, that country’s armed forces remain formidable – not to mention its nuclear arsenal.
He has no reason to honour the warrant and there is no possibility of him facing justice for his alleged crimes.
Some think the ICC should concentrate on more achievable aims:
The International Criminal Court today issues an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin for his war crimes in Ukraine.
A good decision that should have been taken years ago. Can we think of any other international leaders who are deserving of arrest warrants for The Hague?
I look forward to the ICC issuing arrest warrants for Tony Blair and George Bush for proven war crimes in Iraq, and the release of Julian Assange, who exposed these atrocities.https://t.co/tFMuk6Nc0k
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That’s right – the UK is far more corrupt than the EU and the arrest of the vice-president of the European Parliament proves it.
It seems that Brexiteers are trying to claim that the raids and arrests are signs of corruption in the EU system – but this is nonsense; a corrupt system would have blocked investigations and hidden corruption.
In fact, corruption is far more likely to flourish in the UK’s political system, that doesn’t have the checks and balances that are found in the European Parliament. In fact, we see evidence of that corruption – and the refusal to face it – all the time.
The ultimate irony is that those responsible for the cover-ups – even if they abhore what has happened – tell themselves it is for the greater good.
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Arrested for expressing an opinion: how can the UK still be said to be a nation that supports free speech if the police do this?
Heavy-handed policing has triggered a debate on freedom of expression after police forces around the UK started arresting people who were expressing their free-speech right to call for the end of the monarchy after the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
I wrote about this previously, but more developments have taken place. Watch this:
Now watch this:
I think Phil is mistaken; the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act is what allows the rozzers to cart peaceful protesters away – or at least, that is what I understand they are using.
The Act allows them to remove protesters who cause a disturbance or who are “annoying” others.
But is it really annoying people when someone holds up a sign saying they don’t want a monarchy here any more?
The person who shouted, “Who elected you?” at an event calls the legislation into question because it was possible for proceedings to carry on regardless and no hate speech was involved.
The police reaction does not reflect the general feeling of society – and the surprising aspect of this is that it is a feeling that is held by both left- and right-wingers.
Phil reckons the police may be acting under ancient laws that haven’t fallen off the statute books – but these would be trumped by more recent legislation; the Public Order Act doesn’t cover what’s been done here as there has been no threatening behaviour.
And there are very clear and obvious questions to be answered:
How do people express views like opposition to the monarchy – and get a debate on it – if any such expression is prohibited by our law guardians? And how can the UK government still claim that this is a nation that honours free speech if this is happening?
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People across the UK are being arrested for exercising what should be their free-speech right to protest against the continuing existence of the monarchy.
Police are able to do this because Priti Patel’s Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act allows them to arrest people who are deemed to be causing a disturbance, or simply to be annoying.
This is the Tory boot stamping on your face, of course. Royalists may approve of republicans being silenced, but will they be as happy when they’re on the receiving end of this repression?
Here’s the evidence:
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Police have arrested yet another Conservative MP for sex crimes.
The Tory Parliamentarian, who has not been named, had his collar felt by the long arm of the law after an investigation lasting no fewer than two years.
As a result, he now stands accused of indecent assault, sexual assault, rape, abuse of position of trust and misconduct in public office – all between 2002 and 2009.
The latter two accusations suggest that this is someone who may have used his position as a member of Parliament in order to commit the crimes.
The arrest follows the resignation of another Tory MP, Neil Parish, after he admitted having watched pornography in the Commons chamber.
And that came after yet another Conservative MP, Imran Ahmad Khan, resigned after he was convicted of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy. His victim said that he had alerted the Conservative Party before Khan had been elected – but his warnings had fallen on deaf ears.
Prior to that, three cabinet ministers were among 56 MPs said to have been accused of sexual misconduct and referred to Parliamentary watchdog the Independent Complaints and Grievance Scheme.
On This Site, I questioned whether those 56 names included some of those on a list known to the Tory whips during Theresa May’s leadership – and asked why these people, if they were known to have committed offences, had been allowed to continue as MPs for years when they should have been arrested.
Leaving sexual offences behind, Conservative MPs have been at the centre of a string of corruption allegations. Remember Owen Paterson?
Guilty or not, this accusation leaves another grubby mark on the Conservative Party’s reputation.
This is an organisation that claims to be fit to run the United Kingdom, for the benefit of everybody, yet its members – possibly including people in the highest offices in the land – seem determined to act on their own basest instincts to harm others.
And the party’s leaders seem completely unconcerned.
Why do we let these creatures govern the country when experience shows they can’t even govern themselves?
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A protester standing outside Conservative Party conference in Manchester with a handmade sign reading "Priti Fascist", during the Home Secretary's speech to delegates, was arrested and bundled into a police van.
To summarise her conference speech, Priti Patel wants to:
– push back boats of refugees, risking lives – make our asylum system even harsher – further criminalise peaceful protesters – penalise people with drug addiction issues.
So the demonstrator who was arrested was right, wasn’t he?
Priti Patel is a fascist.
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Boris Johnson with his good friend, Russian ex-KGB agent Alexander Lebedev: Russia’s infiltration of UK politics is known to extend to the top, so it is no surprise that a UK embassy employee in Germany may have been spying for that country.
When I heard that a British embassy employee had been arrested on a charge of spying for Russia, my first thought was, “I wonder how he knows Boris Johnson?”
Doesn’t that say everything about the depth to which the UK has sunk internationally under Johnson’s excuse for leadership?
The so-called ‘Russia Report’, released in July 2020 after being delayed by Johnson for more than nine months so it would not harm his chances in the 2019 general election, defined Russian influence over UK politics as “the new normal” – at least while Tories like Johnson are in charge.
It said successive Conservative governments have welcomed Russian oligarchs “with open arms”, giving them access to political figures “at the highest levels” – and made absolutely no attempt to investigate Russian interference in referendums and elections; in fact, the Tories “actively avoided” doing so.
This has led, the report states, to the growth of an industry of “enablers” who are “de facto agents of the Russian state”. The report does not explicitly state that these enablers include Conservative government politicians, but its assertion that Russia had access to “the highest levels” of political figures certainly suggests that this is the case.
Johnson himself was considered a security risk by the UK’s national security services while he was Foreign Secretary – and with good reason.
Remember the time he went to a party to meet a former KGB agent, Alexander Lebedev, days after attending a Nato summit on Russia?
Who knows what secrets may have emerged from this tactless and indiscreet fool’s flapping gums?
That’s just one incident that is known to us. How many more have there been?
So it should come as no surprise that an employee of the UK’s embassy in Germany has been arrested on suspicion of passing to Russian agents documents he had received in the course of his work there.
Did he think that, if it was good enough for the prime minister, it was good enough for him?
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Sasha Johnson: she remains in critical condition after being shot in the head at a Peckham house party on Sunday.
It’s good that progress is being made on the shooting of Sasha Johnson – even if it seems to be accidental.
The first arrest – of a 17-year-old boy – came after a stop-and-search process which led to him being arrested on suspicion of possession of an offensive weapon and possession with intent to supply class A drugs.
This led police to a Peckham address where three men, aged 18,19 and 28, were arrested on suspicion of affray and possession with intent to supply class B drugs.
And a 25-year-old man was later arrested after a police chase, on suspicion of affray and failing to stop for police.
All five were later also arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and remain in custody, according to a Met spokesperson.
So these arrests follow what appears to have been a random stop-and-search – a routine that has been criticised for overly targeting black people.
I’m not aware of the skin colour of the people who were arrested but if they were black, I wonder whether the police will try to use this to justify a procedure that is allegedly racist.
And, if these people are connected to the shooting of Ms Johnson at a Peckham house party on Sunday, isn’t it shameful that police could not trace them through – you know – actual detective work?
Of course, if it was them, and if they are black, one major question on our minds should be why they targeted a prominent campaigner in the Black Lives Matter movement at all.
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If anybody was still in doubt that Priti Patel is an insensitive bully, then those doubts should be dispelled now.
She has just tried to detain – in order to deport – two Muslim immigrants who had settled in Scotland, during a Muslim Festival: Eid al Fitr.
Some on the social media consider it an attempt to bully the Scottish people after they returned another SNP government to the Scottish Parliament and leader Nicola Sturgeon immediately announced that there will be another referendum on Scottish independence from the UK:
Priti Patel sending forces into arrest immigrants in Nicola Sturgeon's constituency.
We're going to see a lot more of the UK government throwing its weight around trying to intimidate the Scottish government and First Minister in their own backyard.
If it was, then it has backfired badly because Patel’s immigration officials were forced to release the men after hundreds of residents of Pollokshields in Glasgow surrounded the Border Agency van in Kenmure Street and refused to let it leave.
Officers said they were freeing the men for the safety of everyone involved following a stand-off in Glasgow that lasted for nearly eight hours.
The pair, both Indians, [had been] detained on suspicion of immigration offences and were released on bail pending further investigation.
Video clips on the social media show how public feeling against Priti Patel’s heavy-handed bullying grew, from this…
"These are our neighbours. Let them go!" "These are our neighbours. Let them go!"
Priti Patel's hostile environment vs a community that stands up for friends and neighbours.
Sadly, we know Patel will not learn from her mistake. This message strikes as being all-too-accurate:
Waiting for Priti Patel to tweet “Disgraceful scenes in Glasgow. Thugs who prevent our brave police officers from removing undesirables from our streets will not be tolerated. Justice will follow.”
One other person will be regretting the incident, despite the fact that his heart was in the right place: Howard Beckett, candidate for leadership of the UK’s biggest trade union, Unite.
Mr Beckett tweeted in anger when the situation in Glasgow became clear, and his words were ill-chosen, for the reasons described in Owen Jones’s tweet:
This is a truly disgraceful tweet.
Yes, Priti Patel is a migrant and refugee bashing reactionary.
Anyone calling for a person of colour to be deported – regardless of their political record – doesn’t understand racism, at best, and needs a lot of education, to say the least. pic.twitter.com/DvCskBv6hg
But the Unite leadership candidate recognised this, acknowledged it, deleted his tweet and apologised:
My earlier tweet, deleted after half an hour, was never intended to be literal. My intention was to emphasise that racist policies should be rejected & have no place in society. The wording was wrong, offensive & I apologise unreservedly to Priti Patel. No one should be deported.
While his initial message was wrong in the language and concepts it used, it would have been equally wrong for him to back away from the issue after realising his mistake.
By the same token, it would also be wrong for anybody watching and commenting on what happened (Owen Jones take notice) to side with Patel against Beckett because of it:
Public service announcement: if you are now siding with Priti Patel against Howard Beckett, you are not the anti-racist you think you are.
— CrémantCommunarde#ActivistLawyer 🕊️⚖️ 🟠⬆️ (@0Calamity) May 13, 2021
If either of them is a racist, it could only be Priti Patel.
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Kettled: hundreds of people – mostly women – were kettled on Clapham Common by police – mostly men.
Could there be a more strident declaration that the UK is backsliding culturally?
After a police officer was arrested and charged for kidnapping and murdering a woman, a vigil was organised on Clapham Common in memory of the deceased and as a mark of defiance against those who would put women in fear for their lives while just walking down the street.
In response, Metropolitan police officers kettled participants – boxing them in so they could not move freely – and then arrested them. Here’s how they carried out the second part of this operation:
— Kerry-Anne Mendoza 🏳️🌈 (@TheMendozaWoman) March 13, 2021
The message is clear: in Tory Britain in the 21st century, women should feel afraid – all the time. The police will enforce it.
Possibly worst of all is the fact that the police acted this way not only after one of their number was arrested for the kidnap and murder of 33-year-old Sarah Everard, but also under the orders of a female commissioner, Cressida Dick.
Dick’s tenure has been controversial from the start – often due to racist behaviour by her officers. This incident has renewed calls for her resignation, with accusations of sexism against people of her own gender.
As I understand it, police say they acted as they did in order to enforce Covid-19-related laws on social distancing. It is unclear how they can say kettling people is consistent with that claim.
My understanding, again, is that people gathered on Clapham Common in spite of the fact that a planned vigil had been cancelled due to difficulty in securing police co-operation. Organisers of the cancelled event, Reclaim These Streets, have released this statement:
Women across the country are deeply saddened and angered by the scenes of police officers physically manhandling women at a vigil against male violence*.
From the start, Reclaim These Streets set out to work closely with the Met to ensure this vigil could go ahead safely, so women could stand together peacefully and safely to remember Sarah Everard and all the women lost to male violence.
The Metropolitan Police failed to work with us despite the High Court ruling yesterday that a vigil could potentially go ahead lawfully. In doing so, they created a risky and unsafe situation. It is their responsibility to protect public order, public health and the right to protest – they failed tonight on all accounts.
All the time they spent fighting us on a legal claim that the Judge agreed should not have been necessary and was caused by the Metropolitan Police’s stance, they could have been working with us to ensure the vigil went ahead in a safe way. The Judge was clear and the Metropolitan Police conceded minutes before the hearing that there was no blanket ban on protest under the current law. They then had an opportunity – and a responsibility – to work with us safely and within the law.
This week, of all weeks, the police should have understood that women would need a place to mourn, reflect and show solidarity. Now is the time for the police and the government to recognise that the criminal justice system is failing women. Tonight it has failed women again, in the most destructive way.
Possibly the most chilling comment on these terrible events came from Boris Johnson, who said he would do “everything I can to make sure the streets are safe”.
He’ll probably impose an armed curfew.
Whatever he does, it will probably backfire because people are angry.
One commentator – aptly – described the situation: “Peaceful protest against violence against women is broken up by state violence against women.”
If that’s how people are seeing it, then in a country that is a seething cauldron of frustration due to Covid-19 restrictions, I fear that feelings are going to boil over and we could see some real confrontations.
And people are seeing it that way:
Are the police fuckIng stupid?
One of their own has been charged with an evil, horrific murder and they’re they’re now battling, kettling and confronting women.
Note that she said the next thing that should happen is another protest – and bigger.
With the authorities reacting not only inappropriately but violently – against the victims, I can only see this situation getting worse.
I hope I’m wrong but I know how the current government mistreats ordinary people. Tories will not understand that they cannot expect us to comply with what they say when what they do is harming us.
*Some readers may object to the characterisation of “male violence”. If you are one such person, my advice is simple: get over yourself. These events happened after a woman was attacked and killed by a man. The scenes on Clapham Common involved many men attacking many more women. And the worst of it is that all the men involved have police uniforms. Women have been left in fear for their lives not only because they don’t know whether the next man they see is going to attack them but also because they now know they cannot trust the police to protect them. Many men are saying that they have nothing to do with attacks on women and wouldn’t dream of doing such a thing, and that may be true. But that doesn’t mean that no men are responsible for such attacks. Perhaps, until a way is found to ensure that women can once again walk the UK’s streets in safety, all men should take responsibility and try to help, rather than whining that it’s nothing to do with them.
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