Kippers support free speech don't they? Well now you can show it!!

Three months on, still arrested, still being investigated for a tweet...

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http://radiofreeuk.org/freespeech

OK a quick catch up (from memory, I have all the documents but this is just an overview).

It Starts (Mid/Late June)

1) A local Councillor tweeted about an event they had attended.
2) I tweeted a challenging question.
3) The Councillor didn't answer.
4) A third party chipped in.
5) I tweeted a witty reply regarding the third parties comment.
6) The local Labour party went bat-sh*t crazy and tweeted a complaint to the police.

The next day
7) Local press call ask me about police investigation.
8) I say the police haven't contacted me so I don't know that there is any investigation.
9) I phone the police and ask if there is an investigation, they say they can find no trace.

The next day
10) A different local press call and ask me about the investigation.
11) I say the police told me they have no record.

The next day
12) The local paper runs a story saying I am being investigated by the police for a hate crime.
13) I phone the police and ask if this is true and whether they identified me to the press
14) The police again say they have no record, but if it is true I will be called in the next few days.
15) I complain to the police (in case they did breach data protection with my identity).
16) I complain to the press complaints (in case the paper have run with out having facts).

The next day
17) I am arrested at home during dinner, my phone and a tablet are taken.
18) I am processed (DNA, fingerprints etc) and thrown in a cell.
19) I am interviewed under caution and questioned about various tweets, I confirm that I wrote them and explained each one.
20) I give a custody officer the passwords for my devices which he takes into evidence with them. (I had been told that I was legally required to do and sending devices to be cracked had a 17 week backlog)

The next day
20) I am 'released under investigation' and told I will get a letter in the post saying if I will be charged or not. I am told not to contact the Councillors.

Two months later(Mid/Late August)

21) I contact the police demanding my phone and tablet back as they have had them for long enough to examine/make copies, and they aren't even relevant as my tweets are all on the twitter servers in the public domain.

A couple of days later
22) A police officer contacts me asking for the passwords for the devices. I try to remember and describe the 'pattern' over the phone as best I can.

Even later
23) I contact them again asking for a reply to my demand for my items back

Later
24) The investigating officer contacts me asking for the passwords and confirms that they have lost the original note of the passwords from evidence.
25) The passwords I give don't seem to work (I may not remember the pattern after so long, or may not describe it well etc...)
26) I am told that if the items are not checked locally they will be sent off for processing. (I had been told there is a 17 week backlog on this).

Three months after my arrest (Late September)

27) I put in an official police complaint about my treatment, I am expecting the case to be dropped, my arrest to be purged, my DNA and fingerprints removed from the police national computer and financial compensation to be paid for the damage this episode has caused me.

A couple of days later
28) Twitter block my main account for a week and say four tweets must be deleted to start the count down - the tweets are two of those that the police questioned me about and two other random ones from about a month ago.

A couple of days later
29) The police contact me saying my complaint has been handed to the local station for local handling.

So now...

My twitter account is unlocked and I await the police response.

The last time I pursued a police complaint, (https://storify.com/pperrin/the-haters-call-themselves-the-anti-haters) after months of work, the officers own force engineered a derailing of the process which stopped the investigating officers completing the complaint - in a move that he himself described as Kafkaesque and unsatisfactory.

In light of my experience of police complaints I am under no illusion that it will change anything within the police force, however I am keen to get the episode expunged from my 'record' and to receive compensation for the damage this almighty police cock up has done to me, my family and business.

I also set up a free speech protection fund email list as I expected to need to get cash at short notice for legal fees - however no lawyer I have contacted will do anything until the investigation is complete so I have not needed to call on the subscribers (of whom there are now quite a few!) please join! http://radiofreeuk.org/freespeech

[First published at http://free-english-people.blogspot.co.uk/2017/10/three-months-on-still-arrested-still.html]