Are the police at war on terror or with free speech? National anti-terror unit handed list of Charlie Hebdo stockists to local forces who then went round demanding to know who bought copies

Daily Mail:

 

  • Distributor John Menzies passed details of magazine stockists to police 
  • Police chiefs then told specific forces where magazine was being sold 
  • Details were intended to ‘provide community reassurance’  
  • But local officers went to shops and demanded details about customers 
  • Britain’s anti-terror police chief said it was ‘overzealous and unnecessary’
  • Controversial issue featured cartoon of Prophet Mohammed on front cover 

 

Anti-terror units handed local police officers the names of British newsagents who stocked the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in the wake of the Paris attacks.

But the decision by some forces to then visit the outlets and quiz shopkeepers about who bought the publication was ‘overzealous and unnecessary’, Britain’s anti-terror police chief has said.

Sir Peter Fahy, chief constable of Greater Manchester Police (GMP) and national police lead for preventing extremism, said he was now urgently clarifying guidance to all UK forces.

It comes after police were caught asking British newsagents which sold copies of the satirical magazine for details of the customers who bought it.

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About Eeyore

Canadian artist and counter-jihad and freedom of speech activist as well as devout Schrödinger's catholic

8 Replies to “Are the police at war on terror or with free speech? National anti-terror unit handed list of Charlie Hebdo stockists to local forces who then went round demanding to know who bought copies”

  1. This is “internationalist” extortion. And they surely are not just some “migrants.” But rather illegal infiltrators. And; if someone takes such a risk, he or she has to bear the consequences, too.

    Migrants drowned in Mediterranean ‘could have been saved’ (BBC, Feb 12, 2015)
    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-31437971

    “The drowning of more than 300 migrants in the Mediterranean Sea this week could have been prevented with better EU lifesaving provisions, experts say. The UN’s refugee agency, UNHCR, says more migrants are dying because search and rescue efforts have been reduced.

    Italy’s major patrol and rescue operation ended last year. A smaller scale EU operation, Triton, took over. The UNHCR says about 3,500 migrants died trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea to Europe in 2014.

    In the latest disaster, more than 300 people drowned after the four dinghies they were travelling in got into trouble setting off across the sea from Libya – a favoured but perilous route used by migrants trying to get to Europe.

    “We warned everybody in October that by lowering the tension and the operational capacity of the search and rescue operation, this might happen,” Carlotta Sami, the UNHCR’s representative for southern Europe, told the BBC.

    She said tragedies such as this would happen again if the EU did not take urgent action to scale up its search and rescue operation….”

  2. Law to make reporting of FGM mandatory (BBC, Feb 12, 2015)
    http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-31448049

    “Professionals who fail to report cases of female genital mutilation (FGM) in children could face the sack under a new law for England and Wales. The government wants to make the reporting of FGM – also known as female circumcision – mandatory in all cases involving under-18s. A law is expected to be brought in before May’s general election. All teachers and regulated health and social care professionals will have to report cases to police within a month. If they fail to do this, they will face internal disciplinary measures or be referred to their professional organisation, which has the power to bar them from practice….”

  3. Old school…

    Revenge of the Yazidis: Religious group who were targeted by ISIS ‘are now slaughtering Arabs who they say helped the Islamist group persecute them’ (dailymail, Feb 12, 2015)
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2950684/Revenge-Yazidis-Religious-group-targeted-ISIS-slaughtering-Arabs-say-helped-Islamist-group-persecute-them.html

    “Members of Iraq’s Yazidi minority have been accused of carrying out revenge attacks on Sunni Muslim villagers they believe helped Islamic State commit atrocities on their community last year. Arabs living in Sinjar in Iraq’s Nineveh province say groups of heavily armed Yazidis have made four raids on the villages over the past two weeks, leaving 21 people dead and a further 17 missing.

    Yazidis, whose ancient religion has elements of Zoroastrianism, Christianity and Islam, suffered grievously after ISIS’ rapid offensive last year. Hundreds were killed and thousands captured, enslaved and raped by the Sunni Muslim militants, who consider Yazidis devil worshippers….”

  4. Female suicide bomber kills 7 at crowded Nigeria market (CNN, Feb 12, 2015)
    http://edition.cnn.com/2015/02/12/world/nigeria-violence/index.html

    “A female suicide bomber attacked a crowded market in northeastern Nigeria’s Borno state on Thursday, killing seven people and seriously injuring 20 others, residents and a hospital source said. The bomber, wearing a hijab, detonated her suicide vest in the midst of shoppers at a weekly market in the town of Biu around 3 p.m. at the peak of business, witnesses said.

    “We have evacuated eight bodies, including that of the bomber, to the hospital along with 20 people injured in the attack,” Bukar Maina, a trader at the market, said. A nurse at the Biu General Hospital confirmed the number of dead.

    No claim of responsibility was immediately made, but the Islamist militant group Boko Haram has terrorized northern Nigeria regularly since 2009, attacking police, schools, churches and civilians, as well as bombing government buildings….”

  5. Well I don’t quite know about this one. They really could have been looking for possible durkies. If “Durky McDurk” was on such a list it would stand out and indicate they might have a sinister motivation.

  6. Since when did reading a magazine ,any magazine become an offence? I go into my local magazine/bookseller and they have stocks of the quran there,sat right alongside the Bible….now that offends me! Are the police going to act on that if I report to them that it offends me?Of course they aren’t! “It’s a multifaith country” they pronounce proudly,”it’s their right to buy a quran anywhere in England” Yes,and it’s my right also to be offended by it,and to read any magazine I like.Did you know that the famous “Gideon”Bibles have been stopped from being put into hotel/travel lodge rooms due to protests by muslims? This shit makes my blood boil.