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Police Allegedly Arrest UK News Photographer For Standing In A Field (wordpress.com)

Long-time Slashdot reader Andy Smith, a Scotland-based news photographer, writes: I'm a press photographer. Slashdot has previously covered how the police used underhanded tactics to seize some of my work photos. But that was far from the end of the story. Several months of harassment culminated in me being arrested for standing in a field, something protected by law here in Scotland. I was given a police caution, which is a formal alternative to prosecution, but the police then cancelled the caution and prosecuted me anyway. Ironically, I was meant to be joining the police this month as a volunteer, but that has now been delayed by at least six months.
Earlier Andy had filmed the same police sergeant warning him not to photograph a minor traffic accident -- which had "seemed to anger him."

216 comments

  1. Short on details by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The police don't care that someone is standing in a field. Was he doing something that was illegal? Was he trespassing on private property and the owners didn't want him there, perhaps?

    1. Re: Short on details by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      He was masturbating, Slashdot left that part out.

    2. Re: Short on details by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Exactly. Clearly there must be more to the story. The fact that it's being obscured tells me the photographer was being a dick.

    3. Re:Short on details by sheramil · · Score: 0

      The police don't care that someone is standing in a field.

      Perhaps they do. There are a lot of weird laws in England that relate to ownership and rights relating to various tiny sections of land. The one that either forbids people to stand in a field, or vigorously protects their right to stand in a field should they wish, probably goes back to the Magna Carta.

    4. Re:Short on details by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      He was just standing there... ...holding a gas can... ...and portions of the field were on fire... ...which he freely admitted to setting... ...right before punching an officer squarely on the chin

    5. Re:Short on details by Luthair · · Score: 2

      In the UK there are some public access laws - https://www.gov.uk/right-of-wa...

    6. Re:Short on details by beelsebob · · Score: 2

      Tresspassing in a field is not a thing in Scotland. In fact, it's explicitly written into law that you have every right to cross someone else's field as long as you don't cause damage.

    7. Re:Short on details by beelsebob · · Score: 4, Informative

      This didn't happen in England - it happened in Scotland, where it's explicitly written into law that it's completely legal to walk on someone else's land as long as you don't cause damage.

    8. Re:Short on details by beelsebob · · Score: 1

      This is for England, not Scotland. Scotland's public access to land is much more far reaching than this - it amounts to "you can be on someone else's land as much as you like, as long as you don't damage anything".

    9. Re:Short on details by alvinrod · · Score: 1

      There are limitations to what you can do while accessing public land though as your own link points out. Personally, I don't think it should be illegal at all for private individuals to film public locations while in public and especially not when its public servants being filmed. But someone has to stand up for our freedoms, even though it may come at great personal expense to themselves, or we will quickly find that government encroachment has eroded them to nothing.

    10. Re:Short on details by arth1 · · Score: 3, Informative

      The police don't care that someone is standing in a field. Was he doing something that was illegal? Was he trespassing on private property and the owners didn't want him there, perhaps?

      Read the article, which explains what occurred. The cliff notes is that the plod didn't want him to photograph an accident scene, even from afar.

      And stop being such an American - in much of the world, including Scotland, the public has a right of way and right to roam and cannot be kept out of private property for a good reason (and ownership is not a good reason). Walking across a field, or stopping, as long as you don't cause damage is a right.

    11. Re:Short on details by arth1 · · Score: 4, Informative

      ... or cause danger, or intrude on privacy. I.e. you won't have access to someone's back yard where they might reasonably expect privacy, or to a pasture with dangerous animals, but a field is fair game. If planted, footpaths must be provided to cross or skirt them, so you don't impede on the public right of way.

      It's also a crime to prevent people from access without a good reason (and ownership is explicitly not a good reason). I.e. the policeman here is the one who should be prosecuted.

    12. Re:Short on details by Z00L00K · · Score: 1

      If there's an angry bull in the field then it would make sense to remove the person from the field even if they don't cause damage to the property - just for their own safety. But the cop could of course just "miss to see" such a person and instead let them take their chances with the bull.

      Replace bull with other risk at leisure.

      --
      If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
    13. Re:Short on details by Frank+Burly · · Score: 1

      To recap: the author took photos of what might have been the scene of a misdeamanor and told the police that he did not see anything. (I assume it is a misdemeanor because the suspect was convicted and sentenced to less than a year using the author's photographs).

      It was around this time that I started noticing police cars everywhere: Parked near my home, pulling up near me in car parks, driving behind me at all times of day. I wondered if they had information that someone connected to the court case was out to get me, and they were making sure I was safe.

      The paragraph above makes me think that the author regards his place in the universe with a bit more awe than is warranted.

      Not that policing doesn't attract power-hungry assholes, but even granting that the police in question are acting unprofessionally with malice towards the author, his account here and before both seem to omit the "why."

    14. Re:Short on details by demonlapin · · Score: 2

      Walking around a field is a right. Walking through one is not. The government's own guide to the law says you can't cross land where crops are growing. So, depending on the specifics, it very well can be illegal to stand in the middle of a field.

    15. Re:Short on details by whoever57 · · Score: 1

      Your cliff note leaves out one important fact. The accident* involved a police car.

      * [Hot Fuzz]:
      00:39:04 - What happened, Danny? - Traffic collision.
      00:39:07 Hey, why can't we say "accident" again?
      00:39:09 Because "accident" implies there's nobody to blame.

      --
      The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
    16. Re:Short on details by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Try accessing the lands around Balmoral.

    17. Re:Short on details by whoever57 · · Score: 2

      Walking around a field is a right. Walking through one is not.

      But it isn't an offence either.

      Even in England, individual trespass isn't illegal. In Scotland, what he did was explicitly legal.

      All that can happen is that the owner could sue him for damage to the crops.

      These cops were little better than the one who arrested that nurse the other day in Utah. The reason they withdrew the caution was that they knew that they had no leg to stand on.

      --
      The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
    18. Re:Short on details by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nah. If there is a bull there, warn him of that danger. If he's stupid, let the bull sort him out. Why force him out of harms way?

      'Oh, is this the way they say the future's meant to feel?
      Or just twenty thousand people standing in a field? ...'

    19. Re:Short on details by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      England, Scotland, what's the difference? They're all the same, just like Chinese and Japanese, or Mexicans and Guatemalans, etc. Our stupid borders are arbitrary and they are bullshit.

      Anyway, we must demand total transparency from the authoritarians. If we don't, then we are the fascists!

    20. Re:Short on details by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 2

      England, Scotland, what's the difference?

      The Scotsman will kill you if you call him an Englishman, the Englishman won't.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    21. Re:Short on details by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      That's not possible; there's steep cliffs around Balmora.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    22. Re:Short on details by Teun · · Score: 1

      And both would have their valid reasons to do so :)

      --
      "The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
    23. Re:Short on details by Pax681 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      England, Scotland, what's the difference?

      The Scotsman will kill you if you call him an Englishman, the Englishman won't.

      Aye right.. Scotsman here.. A Scotsman will simply tell you to fuck off is accused of being English.
      Same applies the other way round...
      Just as i am telling you to fuck off right now for that bollocks :-)

    24. Re:Short on details by Teun · · Score: 1

      He might not explicitly ask the why but the question is certainly implied in his writings.

      --
      "The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
    25. Re:Short on details by Pax681 · · Score: 3, Informative

      Try accessing the lands around Balmoral.

      Crown land, military land and otherwise selected special exceptions exist. Exceptions can also be applied for and HAVE to be for things like T in the Park and festivals like it. At one T in the park someone remembered this wee fact and demanded their "right to roam" under Scottish law and ,as the organisers had forgotton to apply for exemption they had to open the gates.. I shit you not.
      However, as said, there ARE most certaily exceptions and Royal residences are amongst them. You can usually pay for tours though when royalty are not in residence.

    26. Re:Short on details by Teun · · Score: 1

      The biggest hurdle is the river, the road is on the public side and if I remember well there are some restrictions on stopping at this section facing Balmoral.
      You get closer to the house the fences become more serious and I believe a lawn, however large, is not a field as intended by The Land Reform Act.

      --
      "The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
    27. Re:Short on details by Stan92057 · · Score: 1

      The article make no claims to what IS the law pertaining to photographing cops at work. Can they legally tell him to stop??im betting their are circumstances they can. Can they take his photos?? I'm betting their are circumstances they can, Those facts are missing. Sure seems he was in his right to be in a field doesn't give him the right to break any other laws while in the field.Too many facts missing to say the person is completely innocent and within his rights to tell the cops no you cant take my pics away or stop him from taking them IMO.

      --
      Jack of all trades,master of none
    28. Re:Short on details by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The only situation where photos can be seized by the police is if they believe the photographer is in the process of, or planning to carry out a terrorist attack. In all other circumstances it is 100% legal to take photos in a public place.

    29. Re:Short on details by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      Outrageous. I shall complain to the Hlaalu Council about that.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    30. Re:Short on details by myowntrueself · · Score: 1

      The police don't care that someone is standing in a field. Was he doing something that was illegal? Was he trespassing on private property and the owners didn't want him there, perhaps?

      This is the UK. The police don't like photographs at all. Its like they are afraid they'll steal their souls or something. I've seen all kinds of examples of cops interfering with photography for no reason whatsoever. People get harassed by the cops for taking photos while standing on their own property and cops just happen to walk by at the time.

      --
      In the free world the media isn't government run; the government is media run.
    31. Re: Short on details by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I can most certainly stop you from entering my property. Its called trespassing and its legal for me to shoot you if i feel threatened by your presence or your acts.

    32. Re: Short on details by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What's being obscured and how is it "clear" there's more to the story? The simplest and most obvious explanation is that the police are harassing this guy. Not sure why that seems so unbelievable to you.

    33. Re:Short on details by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      To recap: the author took photos of what might have been the scene of a misdeamanor and told the police that he did not see anything. (I assume it is a misdemeanor because the suspect was convicted and sentenced to less than a year using the author's photographs).

      No. He told the police he didn't hear any of the verbal exchange between the two parties. Hard to claim you didn't see anything when the police used the photos you took to prosecute the suspect.

    34. Re:Short on details by ceoyoyo · · Score: 1

      I'm Canadian (although mostly Scottish by ancestry). I once stayed in a bed and breakfast in Ireland.

      The woman running it said "oh, you're American!" I said "well, Canadian actually." She said "basically the same thing." I said "sure, I guess that makes you English?"

    35. Re:Short on details by sheramil · · Score: 1

      It was around this time that I started noticing police cars everywhere: Parked near my home, pulling up near me in car parks, driving behind me at all times of day. I wondered if they had information that someone connected to the court case was out to get me, and they were making sure I was safe.

      The paragraph above makes me think that the author regards his place in the universe with a bit more awe than is warranted.

      Is he still considered paranoid if the police ARE out to get him?

    36. Re:Short on details by Frank+Burly · · Score: 1
      Yes. But his travails began with what proved to be a low-stakes case, so I'm not sure why the police are out to get him. Another poster pointed out that the photographer deleted his photos when he learned that there was a search warrant, but that doesn't answer why the prosecutor jumped straight to the warrant rather than take (what the photographer said) was the more ordinary and non-hardass approach.

      Since the guy is a "press photographer" he should have little trouble getting a real reporter to lay the facts out.

    37. Re:Short on details by seoras · · Score: 1

      Different countries, believe it or not, in legal terms.
      The 1707 Act of Union that created what is now the UK, allowed Scotland to retain it's own separated laws.
      So if a law is passed in Westminster it needs enacting twice. In English law & Scottish law.
      It's probably one of my favourite things about Scotland, the freedom to roam anywhere.

    38. Re:Short on details by Pax681 · · Score: 1

      I'm Canadian (although mostly Scottish by ancestry). I once stayed in a bed and breakfast in Ireland.

      The woman running it said "oh, you're American!" I said "well, Canadian actually." She said "basically the same thing." I said "sure, I guess that makes you English?"

      I wish you had videos of that moment bud. That would have been hilarious!

    39. Re: Short on details by oobayly · · Score: 1

      Would you feel physically threatened by a bloke with a camera? How do you live a life where you're constantly scared, it's got to be a horrible existence.

    40. Re: Short on details by oobayly · · Score: 1

      To expand on it. Some UK police (especially London) got wind that they could arrest photographers using Section 44 of the Anti-Terrorism Act. Unsurprisingly, they didn't stop to investigate what powers they actually had. It turns out that you have to already be suspected of terrorism before taking photos - the police can't see you with a camera, think "terrorist", and then apply the powers to arrest you.

      It cost some forces a large amount of money settling wrongful arrest cases against photographers.

      Their previous conduct means that I tend to assume the police are in the wrong when it comes to photographer stories. I'm far less cynical for most other cases.

    41. Re: Short on details by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      He wasn't arrested "for standing in a field", he was arrested for obstruction after violating a police cordon and not following a simple instruction to leave the cordon. Cordons to protect potential crime scenes can be established anywhere and prosecutions of people violating them have been tested and upheld by the higher courts. I hope he does get in to work as a special, because not only will he see that the police have neither the time, inclination, resources, or interest to 'harass' him, but he'll also have to make split-second decisions that will be misrepresented and pored over by armchair experts the world over QED

    42. Re: Short on details by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      He's American. Most of them are scared little rabbits frightened of their own shadows.

      Thus all the gerns......

    43. Re:Short on details by Whibla · · Score: 1

      Funny, because it might be true. ;-)

    44. Re:Short on details by Whibla · · Score: 1

      I'm English.

      Are you sure that I'll only tell you to fuck off if you call me Scottish? :-)

    45. Re: Short on details by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The Magna Carta (of which there were several versions) was about baronial rights, not those of the hoi poloi.

    46. Re:Short on details by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      She could be forgiven for thinking that Canada is in America.

      The use of "American" to refer only to people from the US is common, but I wouldn't assume someone in another countries would be aware of it.

    47. Re:Short on details by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The Scotsman will kill you if you call him an Englishman

      Not if he's a true Scotsman, he won't.

    48. Re:Short on details by Maritz · · Score: 1

      The police don't care that someone is standing in a field. Was he doing something that was illegal? Was he trespassing on private property and the owners didn't want him there, perhaps?

      Read The Fucking Article, it says what he was doing in the field. Taking fucking pictures.

      --
      I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
    49. Re: Short on details by Maritz · · Score: 1

      It appears that you find misbehaviour from the police utterly fucking unthinkable. Stop being stupid.

      --
      I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
    50. Re:Short on details by Maritz · · Score: 1

      There are a lot of weird laws in England that relate to ownership and rights relating to various tiny sections of land.

      Events in the article take place in Scotland, which is clearly pointed out on numerous occasions, and it's also pointed out more than once than in Scotland you are allowed to be in people's fields. Other than that, 10/10 comment.

      --
      I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
    51. Re: Short on details by Paradise+Pete · · Score: 1

      It appears that you find misbehaviour from the police utterly fucking unthinkable.

      And that he thinks "being a dick" is justification enough.

    52. Re:Short on details by Paradise+Pete · · Score: 1

      Was he trespassing on private property and the owners didn't want him there, perhaps?

      Per the article (which perhaps to your surprise can sometimes be a source of information about the topic at hand): "Now, for anyone outside Scotland, there’s something you need to know: You can walk through fields here. It’s not illegal. It’s specifically protected in law, in the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003. And although not relevant in this case, if there’s a crop then you can still walk in the field, you just have to stay at the edge."

    53. Re:Short on details by Paradise+Pete · · Score: 1

      It's more likely than the other way around. For many in the Asian world if you asked them what continent America is in they wouldn't know for sure, but it's certain they would know of the country.

  2. Re: Just desserts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    NARC schill bingo!. What do I win? If you cops ain't doing anything wrong, what are you afraid of? isn't that what you tell us? Something is wrong when you need to enable psyops to get citizens to not hate cops. Think about it.

  3. Sounds typical by burtosis · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's only a matter of time before a journalist is arrested for being outstanding in the field.

  4. Re: Just desserts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    The vast majority of us, myself included, neither (a) work directly for the public through the public largesse, nor (b) have taken it upon ourselves to "protect and serve" the public. In either case--and certainly when both are true, it is appropriate for the public to exercise oversight.

    It's much like using in-home cameras to monitor one's babysitter or housekeeper.

  5. Re:Just desserts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Spoken like someone who's sucked a dick to get out of a traffic ticket, then paid for the ticket anyway.

  6. Re:Just desserts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1
    If your work takes you into public view, then you can't expect not to be viewed, by eyes or lenses [indeed, guess who controls the surveillance cameras...].
    Police are granted an effective monopoly of force and deserves to be under public scrutiny of how they use that.

    As the authorities so often say to the commoners - if you have nothing to hide you you shouldn't object to this $whatever...
    Guess they don't like it when the boot is on the other foot - but you'll happily lick their toes in lieu of the boot...

  7. Social normal with a purpose by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Your government actually likes these things because it not only generates publicity for the police precinct but that's one more set of biometric data they may not of had. Your government wants all the photographers and reporters on file.

  8. Re:Just desserts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    same treatment at our place of employment

    That's right! Why should anyone inspect my source? It works and that's all that matters. Assholes can take my word that it's written to spec.

  9. Re:Good. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    even though he has created millions of jobs and restored civility and respect for all points of view to the white house.

    What universe do you live in?

    He hasn't created a single job. This administration's fiscal year started yesterday. All jobs created up to now were created by the fiscal policies of the prior administration. FACT

    Civility and respect? Come over here and I'll grab you by your fucking pussy and see if you still think there's any civility in that! All his whining about the press? Maybe if Twitler wasn't such a douche the press would give him a break.

    And BTW, where's his taxes? And the wall that he was going to make Mexico pay for. And repealing the ACA? Yeah, that douche. Back under your rock, you slimy git.

  10. Re:Good. by nospam007 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "Let's not forget how utterly corrupt and liberal the press has become. I don't know about the UK but here in the USA the mainstream press is 100% bullshit all day every day. "

    While in the UK Foxnews got cancelled because nobody watches it.

  11. Journalist forgets he doesn't live in the USA... by Powercntrl · · Score: 0

    ...gets arrested for taking photos of police.

    It's legal here, and generally you'll have no trouble finding a lawyer if you ran into that sort of issue here.

    But there's also Trump, and our horribly awful healthcare system. So just stop photographing the police, and be glad it's the least of your worries.

    --

    ---
    DRM is like antifreeze, to the MPAA/RIAA it's sweet, to the consumers it's poison.
  12. That would be funnier if not true. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Any journalist worth their chops has to get arrested a few times in their career. Having said that, it usually involves something more socially/legally charged than STANDING IN A FUCKING FIELD, OR PHOTOGRAPHING AN ACCIDENT.

  13. Well, about 15 troll comments so far by Archtech · · Score: 3, Insightful

    And nothing else. I am still waiting for Slashdot to implement my request for a marker in each thread to show where the trolls stop, and the actual discussion begins.

    But I suppose that's what the moderators are for.

    --
    I am sure that there are many other solipsists out there.
    1. Re:Well, about 15 troll comments so far by Mashiki · · Score: 1

      "Comment Threshold +2"

      --
      Om, nomnomnom...
    2. Re:Well, about 15 troll comments so far by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hahaha

    3. Re:Well, about 15 troll comments so far by myowntrueself · · Score: 1

      "Comment Threshold +2"

      Yeah but on articles about anything related to the Sacred Apple, anything remotely unpositive about Apple gets modded troll very fast. So if you want to see anything thats not completely besotted with the marvelous and godly Apple you have to lower your threshold a bit.

      --
      In the free world the media isn't government run; the government is media run.
    4. Re:Well, about 15 troll comments so far by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah but on articles about anything related to the Sacred Tesla, anything remotely unpositive about Tesla gets modded troll very fast. So if you want to see anything thats not completely besotted with the marvelous and godly Tesla you have to lower your threshold a bit.

      There, FTFY. You could also usually substitute Google for the same result.

    5. Re:Well, about 15 troll comments so far by myowntrueself · · Score: 1

      Yeah but on articles about anything related to the Sacred Tesla, anything remotely unpositive about Tesla gets modded troll very fast. So if you want to see anything thats not completely besotted with the marvelous and godly Tesla you have to lower your threshold a bit.

      There, FTFY. You could also usually substitute Google for the same result.

      No way, Apple has WAY more religious devotees.

      --
      In the free world the media isn't government run; the government is media run.
    6. Re:Well, about 15 troll comments so far by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Way too many people around with the +1 karma bonus for that to matter.

    7. Re:Well, about 15 troll comments so far by Paradise+Pete · · Score: 1

      anything remotely unpositive about Apple gets modded troll very fast.

      Try making a thoughtful comment rather than trotting out the same old hackneyed phrases. Sure, you'll still get some rabid fan downmods, but it won't be from me. If you say something constructive or interesting I'll mod it up, even when I don't agree.

  14. A Photographer by ISoldat53 · · Score: 1

    Outstanding in his field.

    1. Re:A Photographer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yard. Scotland yard to be precise.

  15. Seriously Slashdot?? by bothorsen · · Score: 0

    This is a person complaining about the police, and you just let him post it here?? No attempt to find the other side of the story? No concerns about posting this when it's only this particular photographer that complains like it?

    Anyone who reads this should know that it's completely unreliable. That doesn't mean it's not true. We just can't know. Sure, it's hard to find out what really happens, but without at least an effort to do so, we definitely won't know.

  16. Re:Good. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Stop watching MSNBC you lie-beral moron.

  17. Re:Just desserts by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 4, Insightful

    filming XXX doing their jobs in the hope that he will catch one of them slipping up

    Hilariously, that seems to be the point of the notorious British CCTV surveillance nightmare. ;-p

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  18. Re:Just desserts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Peacekeepers? Must be nice. In the US, our officers are more into falsely arresting nurses for doing their jobs and shooting black people with no consequence.

  19. Shark jumping by OzPeter · · Score: 3, Insightful

    What we have here is a classic shark jumping moment. A slashdot reader submits a story based on an un-substantiated* blog entry written by himself of events pertaining to himself and this make the front page. And as a tie in to this story, TFS links to a story of exactly the same provenance from earlier this year.

    This totally smacks of a Bennet Hasselton style content.

    * I am not denying the likelyhood of the events as describe. Its the mixing of subject and author that is problematic.

    --
    I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
    1. Re:Shark jumping by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're years too late, Cmdr Fonzie was writing about having his name changed on World of Warcraft over a decade ago.

    2. Re:Shark jumping by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 0

      What we have here is a classic shark jumping moment. A slashdot reader submits a story based on an un-substantiated* blog entry written by himself of events pertaining to himself and this make the front page.

      And yet, I still trust it more than anything that comes out of the mainstream media.

      --
      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
    3. Re:Shark jumping by fermion · · Score: 1
      I can tell you that in the US my friends and colleagues have been harassed by police for standing on the road with a camera. They were required to deleted the pictures and leave the area or be arrested. Outside of the US we have been harassed and required to delete photos of public buildings.

      The laws prohibiting photography in the world where everyone fears terrorism more than they value freedom are sometimes pretty vague and give the police excessive power to harass.

      I have no doubt that standing in a field with a camera, especially if that field were next to a sensitive target, would get a photographer arrested.

      --
      "She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
    4. Re:Shark jumping by Pax681 · · Score: 1

      I can tell you that in the US my friends and colleagues have been harassed by police for standing on the road with a camera. They were required to deleted the pictures and leave the area or be arrested. Outside of the US we have been harassed and required to delete photos of public buildings.

      The laws prohibiting photography in the world where everyone fears terrorism more than they value freedom are sometimes pretty vague and give the police excessive power to harass.

      I have no doubt that standing in a field with a camera, especially if that field were next to a sensitive target, would get a photographer arrested.

      nah man.. the only thing they are sensitive up that way is any evidence of sheep molestation on an industrial scale getting out ;)

    5. Re: Shark jumping by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Remember that the first amendment means that security guards/cops/fox news can lie about the law or your rights with impunity...

    6. Re: Shark jumping by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes but that's understandable in Russia.

    7. Re:Shark jumping by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      OY! It's called animal husbandry for a reason...

    8. Re:Shark jumping by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yep, that was my take too.

      I looked at the old story he linked and he said the police issued a warrant for seizure of his devices - let's be fucking clear here - a warrant. That means it's been formally checked and signed off, and therefore issued with good reason. It's not like they arbitrarily turned up and took his stuff, they found legal justification to be able to be issued a warrant.

      Then all his friends and the journalists union told him that the police were exactly right, but he still decided somehow he was hard done by.

      I've now read the blog post too, where he states that someone did 243 days in jail for a violent act, in part proven by his photos, and decided by a jury and that he was also hard done by because he said he hadn't witnessed any violence even though the jury obviously felt the photos suggested otherwise.

      He then goes off into a paranoid rant about how the police are out to get him (I'll give you a hint Andy - you don't fucking matter, they have better things to do than tail you, the issue isn't that you're a super important person that they're out to get, the issue is that you're paranoid and need serious psychological help). He further claims evidence of this was when he pulled up at a road traffic accident and an officer aggressively told him not to take photos, which he chose to do anyway.

      I can think of many good reasons why an officer wouldn't want wannabe paparazzi taking photos of a road traffic accident ranging from maintaining the dignity of the victim, through to making sure the roads were clear and that he wasn't at risk of getting run over, or causing a further accident himself. Still, he did his best to piss this officer off, to the point the officer said he wouldn't allow press to photograph accidents anymore.

      So he turns up at another accident, then acts surprised when the officer tells him he can't take photos. What does he do? He decides to defy this and try and take photos anyway by trying to avoid the police cordon by walking through a field.

      And here we have it - a story about how he was arrested for standing in a field. But from the evidence in his own blog it's clear he wasn't - it's clear he was arrested for obstruction of police officers in their duties, that is, the police were trying to keep a cordon for safety and dignity and he decided to defy it.

      Editors - can we therefore correct the headline from:

      "Police Allegedly Arrest UK News Photographer For Standing In A Field"

      To:

      "Police arrest paparazzi photographer for actively and wilfully interfering with their work at road traffic accident scenes and release with a warning"

      You know, given that that's what actually happened.

      This guy has not a leg to stand on - his friends wont stand by his view, the journalists union basically told him to stop being an ass, he's paranoid, and yet here he is in Slashdot telling us it's not his fault.

      Fuck off Andy, you're paparazzi vermin, listen to what the people around you are telling you and stop making up absolute lies in headlines and summaries that are contradicted even by your very own blog posts just to try and make the police look bad because you broke the law by interfering with ongoing police incidents and complained that you got a warning.

      Let be honest, the only reason you want to be a special constable is to try and get the scoop on gory scenes early. I hope to fucking god the caution they gave you keeps you out of the force. You're basically a real life version of Nightcrawler.

  20. Was he arrested or not? by Nkwe · · Score: 1

    Why is the term "allegedly" used in the title? Either he was arrested or he was not. This isn't a matter of someone being accused of something and a decision of truth not yet made, this is a news report about an event. Is the author saying that they are not sure he was arrested or that it hasn't been proven that he was arrested? Isn't it the job of the reporter to determine the reportable facts of the story?

    1. Re:Was he arrested or not? by dgatwood · · Score: 1

      Why is the term "allegedly" used in the title? Either he was arrested or he was not.

      A slight word order change will make it more obvious:

      Police Arrest UK News Photographer—Allegedly For Standing In A Field

      Clearer?

      --

      Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

    2. Re:Was he arrested or not? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why is the term "allegedly" used in the title? Either he was arrested or he was not.

      The detail you are missing is that "being arrested" is entirely separate from "being guilty of a crime"

      Of course he was arrested, it states as much.
      But until a judge in a court states so, his crimes are only alleged.

      A judge at a later time will determine if he is guilty of those crimes, or not guilty, after which the crime will no longer be alleged.

      None of that however changes that he was arrested.
      If he is found guilty, the fact remains he was still arrested.
      If he is found innocent, the fact remains he was still arrested.

      But why you think a crime isn't alleged and is determined as fact, before any judicial authority has even had an opportunity to do such a determination, is the only thing in this topic that is actually confusing.

    3. Re:Was he arrested or not? by Nkwe · · Score: 1

      A slight word order change will make it more obvious

      I agree -- your wording is clearer and not sloppy as is the actual title. It's not that I couldn't figure out the implied intent of the title, it's that I find it annoying that reporting and writing has gotten really sloppy. While someone with reasonable command of the English language can determine the intent, there are other readers who might not. A new speaker to the language may not parse an ambiguous or imprecise statement as intended. On a sarcastic note, I am kind of surprised that given the trend of news reporting the title wasn't written as: "You will be shocked at what this reporter was arrested for allegedly doing in a field."

    4. Re:Was he arrested or not? by arth1 · · Score: 1

      Why is the term "allegedly" used in the title? Either he was arrested or he was not.

      It can be hard to ascertain in countries where arrest records are not public until or unless someone is formally charged.

    5. Re:Was he arrested or not? by yndrd1984 · · Score: 1
      And you're missing the point that in this title then word "allegedly" is in the wrong place, it's literally saying that the arrest was alleged:

      Police Allegedly Arrest UK News Photographer For Standing In A Field

      For the crime to alleged, it would have to be:

      Police Arrest UK News Photographer For Allegedly Standing In A Field

      And what they really meant was that they weren't sure what crime prompted the arrest:

      Police Arrest UK News Photographer, Allegedly For Standing In A Field

    6. Re:Was he arrested or not? by dgatwood · · Score: 1

      I agree -- your wording is clearer and not sloppy as is the actual title. It's not that I couldn't figure out the implied intent of the title, it's that I find it annoying that reporting and writing has gotten really sloppy.

      I figured as much. My newswriting teacher would have knocked off ten points for that headline. :-)

      I'm more irritated by the use of allegedly in situations where nothing is alleged. If there's airtight evidence of the "alleged" event playing in the background, that's no longer alleged—the reasons for the events, perhaps, but not the events themselves.

      --

      Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

    7. Re:Was he arrested or not? by Pax681 · · Score: 1

      He is making an allegation that the police arrested him for standing in a field. the allegation is that they arrested him with no legal grounds for erm... being on someone's grounds... legally..so the alternative way of putting it "Photographer alleges police arrested him for standing in a field ".. clearer?

    8. Re:Was he arrested or not? by myowntrueself · · Score: 1

      Why is the term "allegedly" used in the title? Either he was arrested or he was not.

      The detail you are missing is that "being arrested" is entirely separate from "being guilty of a crime"

      unless you are in the USA and applying for a job.

      --
      In the free world the media isn't government run; the government is media run.
    9. Re:Was he arrested or not? by Xest · · Score: 1

      It's the bit that they arrest him for that's alleged.

      It's false of course, he even admits in his own blog that what he was actually arrested for was obstruction - interfering with an ongoing police incident by trying to take photos of car crashes despite being asked to stay a distance away behind the cordon, which he then tried to circumvent by going off road into the field instead.

      But that obviously hasn't stopped him trying to play the victim in this case by outright lying in the headline about why he was arrested and so forth.

      Why is this drivel on Slashdot? Since when did it become a site where criminals get to try and justify to the world why it wasn't their fault and why the police made them commit the crime?

      At the end of the day this guy was trying to make money from taking photos of injured people and literal car wrecks, with no care for the risk he causes to others or himself by leaving his vehicle parked up near an accident when the police need to keep roads clear, whilst trying to leave the injured with at least some dignity - i.e. so some dickhead isn't photographing a flash in their face whilst they're bleeding out. He proclaims the scene was clear, he proclaims the first accident was minor - that's not his judgement call to make, it's the police's, they gave him a judgement he didn't like and he actively decided to fight them on it and disrupt their work, then wondered why he was cautioned for obstruction.

      The fact is contrary to popular belief police don't hang around car accidents and such for shits and giggles, in fact, I suspect the last thing they want to be doing is lingering bored shitless in whatever weather may currently be occuring asking people not to come any closer because there's been an accident. The fact is no one other than the first responders know who may still waiting to be cut out of a wreck regardless of how many ambulances may have already left the scene, no one knows if there's a decapitated body in there, no one else knows if there's a dangerous fuel leak, or a fire, or hazardous materials in the vehicle such as gas canisters. The police protect scenes like this with an abundance of caution and ask people not to park up next to such scenes because of the amount of times some idiot has pulled up and gotten out only to be hit getting out their car causing a second incident and so forth.

      If the police were arbitrarily taking his stuff without warrant, or genuinely harassing him whilst he was trying to expose police wrongdoing or something then fine. But that's absolutely not what's happening here. His own blog paints how utterly fully of shit he is - he claims that when the police wanted his photos they'd refused to take his statement that he witnessed no violence but then goes on to admit that the person in question was found guilty by a fucking jury of committing violence with his own photos used as evidence - that is, he's basically admitting that he wanted to lie to police about what he saw.

      Maybe rather than making the already difficult job the police in the UK have even more difficult he should respect them when they tell him "not today" at a car crash scene and stop trying to fight them on it just because he's desperate for the car crash porn money he's so desperately after.

  21. Re: Just desserts by beelsebob · · Score: 3, Informative

    For reference - neither have these cops sworn to protect and serve the public. They have sworn “I, do solemnly, sincerely and truly declare and affirm that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of constable with fairness, integrity, diligence and impartiality,and that I will uphold fundamental human rights and accord equal respect to all people, according to law.”

  22. Re:Journalist forgets he doesn't live in the USA.. by serviscope_minor · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Well done for the USA! USA! USA! post. No journalist has ever been threatened arrested or beaten for photographing the police in the US, despite it being legal.

    It's legal here too.

    generally you'll have no trouble finding a lawyer if you ran into that sort of issue here.

    His union has been support.

    So just stop photographing the police, and be glad it's the least of your worries.

    If the police are afraid of what might happen if the public see them in action, it'll rapidly become the greatest of your worries.

    --
    SJW n. One who posts facts.
  23. Re:Journalist forgets he doesn't live in the USA.. by beelsebob · · Score: 2

    It's legal to take a photo of anything you like in the UK, as long as you're stood on publicly accessible property when you take it.

  24. How to become a whiny little victim: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    (1) Do something illegal. Let's say you are kiddie fiddling.

    (2) Take something irrelevant to the incident. Let's say you are wearing blue jeans.

    (3) Announce to the world: "Man arrested for wearing blue jeans".

    Instant cry-baby victimhood status achieved! Profit!

  25. Re:Good. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Let's not forget how utterly corrupt and liberal the press has become. I don't know about the UK but here in the USA the mainstream press is 100% bullshit all day every day. For example they are constantly anti-Trump, no matter what he does, even though he has created millions of jobs and restored civility and respect for all points of view to the white house. The press has become the enemy of free nations everywhere and needs to be stomped down good and hard to remind them what their jobs are, which is to inform people not to parrot liberal talking points.

    LOL. Good one.

    Then I saw (a) someone else take your post seriously & (b) remembered the recent news about the Trump supporters blaming Obama for his response to Katrina (even though Bush was President then) ... so perhaps you actually believe what you wrote.

    Now, if you were joking the bad news is that, apparently, there are many people whose world view is so distorted that they actually believe what you wrote (e.g. Trump supporters).

    Sad.

  26. Re: Just desserts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    With all due respect, most of us actually are accountable at work. Many of us with historical lots of our every move, and archived 4k video of every moment we're at work.

    Cry me a river that the folks we give guns to occasionally for a few minutes have to have the same level of scrutiny as a McDonald's burger cook.

  27. "underhanded tactics" by innocent_white_lamb · · Score: 2

    The application for the warrant quickly made its way through the court.... I securely erased my computers and memory cards. I couldnâ(TM)t risk the police being able to identify sources from other stories, or finding passwords to access my email and instant messaging accounts which could compromise other peopleâ(TM)s sources.
     
    So he is notified that he is the subject of a search warrant and immediately erases all of his data. Wouldn't that act alone get you a jail term in normal circumstances?

    --
    If you're a zombie and you know it, bite your friend!
    1. Re:"underhanded tactics" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      1. The British press use the word allegedly all the time as we have this quaint notion of "Innocent until proven guilty". We also have some of the worlds worst libel laws based on judges who apply a very generous coverage to how people can be libelled even if the libel is waaaaay off-shore and in another language. However I digress.

      2. if the person is not the subject of a warrant and has not had a preservation order applied to their goods or chattels then the bloke can do what the fuck he likes with his property. Its up to the police to preserve the evidence, not him. If the police are stupid enough not to keep the stuff, thats their problem.

      3. Oddly enough the courts can be pretty lenient on the 4th estate, the police can try and prosecute journalists though normally they don't tend to get that far. There are notable exceptions, but most times a journalist standing his ground, not obstructing the police will not get prosecuted. I'm unclear on Scottish law here as I live in England. The police have harassed a lot of photographers in the UK for taking perfectly legitimate photos, they huff and puff and threaten all sorts of stuff, but if it goes to court it gets thrown out. It's a lot of hassle for the photographer though. The police often threaten people under the Prevention of Terrorist Acrt for taking photos in the City of London or Westminster. Its complete bolllocks as we have a prefect right to do it. Some areas are under various acts which makes taking photographs illegal. Try taking pictures of anything nuclear and you'll have a very swift visit from the boys in blue, these boys will be carrying H&K stuff and will have a very low sense of humour. They also know the laws and you are probably now in deep shit and will require a lawyer :)

      Just my 2c

  28. Re:Good. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Do you even live in the same word as the rest of us?

  29. One of the reasons by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    People are starting to ignore the media, at least here in the USA is because they keep giving over opinionated stories with extreme spin. There are two sides to every story and when you "journalists" refuse to give the other side I automatically assume its bull shit. Give us facts please and keep this unsubstantiated over opinionated gibberish to your close friends. You honesty think we believe the whole police department is out to get you, following you, and arresting you for only standing in a field? Possible maybe but not plausible. So until you give us a little more proof than just a ranting blog, I'm going to move this "news piece" into my mental trash bin along with Fox News, CNN, and the BBC.

  30. Pics or it didn't happen! by Fly+Swatter · · Score: 0

    Isn't one of the unspoken rules of journalism to report news, and not be the news?

    1. Re: Pics or it didn't happen! by oobayly · · Score: 1

      Sure, but the police preventing a journalist/photographer from reporting the news is indeed newsworthy. It's not like he's in the news for having an affair, drink driving, etc.

  31. Re: Just desserts by Z00L00K · · Score: 1

    And the press is in place to be the ones watching the law enforcement to prevent them to go too crazy. For the public this is one of the few ways to prevent public servants to become public masters. It don't work all the time though. And some reporters have unfinished business with law enforcement which means that they can go beyond what the law allows them to do.

    But regardless of if it's reporters or law enforcement personnel that exceeds the law it's up to the courts to decide a law was broken or not.

    Reporters shall also take care to not harm ongoing investigations. It may mean that they should consider delaying release of their findings at least until the harm that it could cause to an investigation or court verdict is limited.

    Anyway it's not up to the individual cop to take action against reporters except to protect them from unnecessary risks.

    --
    If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
  32. Re:Just desserts by jellomizer · · Score: 1

    As a police officer you are a public official, granted extra powers. The public has a right to make sure the extra power granted is used properly.

    That said, the press needs to find a way to reward honest and fair treatment on what is going on. Government controlled media plays to the party, private media, is trying to get what makes money. We need a way to cover the truth.

    --
    If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
  33. Re:Journalist forgets he doesn't live in the USA.. by Z00L00K · · Score: 1

    I can also imagine that you could stand in other places as well to take a photo if you got the permission from the property owner.

    Film the street from someones apartment shouldn't be a big deal.

    --
    If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
  34. Re:Journalist forgets he doesn't live in the USA.. by arth1 · · Score: 1

    It's legal to take a photo of anything you like in the UK, as long as you're stood on publicly accessible property when you take it.

    And don't intrude on anyone's reasonable expectation of privacy.
    I.e. if someone slips behind a tree to take a leak, you cannot take a picture of their privates with the justification that you were standing on publicly accessible property.

  35. Now there's a man outstanding in his field by skoskav · · Score: 1

    I just came here to leave a MST3K reference. Thank you.

  36. Re:Good. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    All jobs created up to now were created by the fiscal policies of the prior administration.

    You mean, all jobs up to now were created by the Republicans in control of Congress?

    Since, ya know, Congress actually writes laws, allocates money, and all that.

  37. the photographer should have won by FudRucker · · Score: 3, Funny

    won the Nobel Prize for being outstanding in a field

    --
    Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
  38. Re:Good. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Stop watching fox, you über moron.

  39. Caution by Martin+S. · · Score: 2

    To receive a Police caution, you must first admit the offence, if you do not confess, a caution cannot be issued. It has to be proven in the normal way.

    https://www.gov.uk/caution-war...

    1. Re:Caution by MrL0G1C · · Score: 1

      It's not a caution, it's a warning.

      --
      Waterfox - a Firefox fork with legacy extension support, security updates and better privacy by default.
  40. Re: Just desserts by XXongo · · Score: 2
    I expect this guy was attempting to be ironic.

    If you can't tell the difference between sarcasm and trolling, that's because in some cases there really isn't any difference. Sometimes even the person posting doesn't know whether they're being ironic, or trolling, or sometimes both.

  41. Re:Journalist forgets he doesn't live in the USA.. by Powercntrl · · Score: 0

    No journalist has ever been threatened arrested or beaten for photographing the police in the US, despite it being legal.

    I didn't say that. I specifically said that if you do run into trouble for photographing the police in the USA, there will very likely be a horde of lawyers beating a path to your door to take your case.

    Despite whoever modded my original post as "Troll", the fact is, photographing law enforcement in the UK is more loophole-y than it is in the USA. We take our constitutional rights quite literally. Just ask any fan of the second amendment how they feel it should be interpreted.

    --

    ---
    DRM is like antifreeze, to the MPAA/RIAA it's sweet, to the consumers it's poison.
  42. Three year old photo by Martin+S. · · Score: 1

    The proof he is a news photographer appear to be a three year old photo of the Northern lights public in a small regional newspaper.

    1. Re:Three year old photo by Pax681 · · Score: 2

      The proof he is a news photographer appear to be a three year old photo of the Northern lights public in a small regional newspaper.

      well that and his credit saying "SPP" which is Scottish Provincial Press who own rather a lot of the little local papers up in the highlands. so yeah.. he's press. not everyone works a national paper

  43. Standing in a field by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Well, so long as he wasn't running through a field, I suppose that's okay.

    1. Re:Standing in a field by Nkwe · · Score: 2

      Well, so long as he wasn't running through a field, I suppose that's okay.

      Depends on whether scissors were involved not.

  44. Re:Good. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There's no need, we have the British Bullshit Corporation to ensure we each receive out RDA of bread and circuses, and the best part is that we are legally obliged to pay for it.

  45. Re:Just desserts by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This asshole insists on filming peacekeepers doing their jobs in the hope that he will catch one of them slipping up. How many of us would appreciate the same treatment at our place of employment? I say lock him up, throw away the key, and withhold the condoms. What a douche.

    If I were working in a daycare or school, an old-age home, or any other place where even the whiff of impropriety would be a huge problem, I'd welcome video surveillance. Great way to get rid of false accusations. I have a sister who's made plenty of false accusations of mistreatment by staff, theft (the stuff inevitably shows up where she forgot she stashed it), you name it.

    The propensity of people who have no real life to complain about every imagined slight is incredible. For example, one time after accompanying her to a doctor's appointment, she started whining about how it's unfair that the transport didn't take her directly back to the facility, instead diverting to pick up another patient on the way to the same destination. I finally got fed up and told her that she's lucky that they were only diverting for one extra patient, because the van has a capacity of 3 wheel chairs, that she should be grateful to live in a country where all the care and housing she receives is free, and that other people have it worse than her.

    And then we got to pick up the next patient - who, unlike her, had no legs. He had had to wait even longer, but he wasn't complaining. He was just happy we showed up.

    And getting angry calls from the rest of the family accusing me of force-feeding her (she's anorexic) when I did nothing of the sort, and there were plenty of witnesses that all I did was sit with her and try to encourage her to eat at least some of the meal. Damn right I'd want cameras.

    --
    "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
  46. Re: Just desserts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And sometimes it's because there is no difference.

  47. Re: Just desserts by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 1

    If the reporter has evidence of official malfeasance, why should they delay releasing that info? Play by the rules or you're disqualified. We had a case here of police illegally wiretapping reporters. Should that be covered up until after the reporter is tried for leaking details of an investigation into leaks about police wrong-doing? Bullshit.

    --
    "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
  48. Was it Balmoral? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No? Then irrelevant.

  49. Re: Good. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Nice partisan shill. Go choke on a bag of dicks.

  50. Re:Good. by Ryanrule · · Score: 1

    Fuck you nazi

  51. 2A All Day Everyday by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is what happens when you take arms from your citizens. The Police state shall rise!

  52. Re:Good. by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 2

    Trump hasn't created any jobs. Until such time as Trump actually introduces a budget, any job creation is due either to (a) private enterprise operating under Obama's last budget, or (b) public spending under Obama's last budget.

    Even his wife Melina is increasingly anti-Trump, snubbing him very publicly. He needs to be liked and seen as being powerful that you can be pretty sure she's used her leverage to get herself a very expansive and lucrative post-nup. After all, she's smarter than he is.

    --
    "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
  53. Re:Good. by doctorvo · · Score: 1

    Which goes to show that indoctrination by the corporatist UK government works extremely well: independent thought has been pretty much stamped out across the country.

  54. But there wasn't a bull. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So you'll have to make up an excuse that actually fits the data.

  55. Hook, line, sinker, rod, fisherman, boat, ocean by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Outrage, the cure for thought.

  56. Re:Good. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...and the best part is that we are legally obliged to pay for it.

    no we're not, BBC is funded through the tv licence fee which you do not have to pay if you don't want to. you don't get to watch tv if you don't pay but it is in no way mandatory

  57. Re:Good. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Who isn't?

  58. Re:Good. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    It used to be just a case that if you owned a device capable of receiving TV broadcasts they would drag you through the courts, nowadays it also encompass anything capable of streaming video off the net.

    The argument that this is somehow not technically mandatory when 99%+ of UK households are in fact legally obliged to obtain a TV licence whilst the onus is on you to prove that you don't doesn't hold much water with me mate. And before you raise the issue of pensioners, they too are obliged to obtain a licence, it is at no cost but they must still hold one, and trust me the BBC get very angsty when you tell them you don't want one.

  59. Re:Good. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Eat bootheel Trotsky bitch. SMASH! That's yo' teeth, wowser ...

  60. Re:Good. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That's why Brexit was such a landslide, right?

  61. Re:Journalist forgets he doesn't live in the USA.. by nukenerd · · Score: 1

    It's legal to take a photo of anything you like in the UK, as long as you're stood on publicly accessible property when you take it.

    It certainly is not. Try taking photos of someone else's children in the park for example - you need to take care not even to get them in frame by accident. Try taking "candid" pictures - be careful that the subject does not notice. Then there are your photos with a telephoto lens of the girl down the road who forgot to close her bedroom curtains.

  62. Re:Just desserts by Pax681 · · Score: 1

    they are never called "peacekeepers" or "peace officer" here bud.. just Police Officer.. well not just that.. but that's the official title!

  63. Re:Just desserts by avandesande · · Score: 1

    Scotland had their chance to split from UK and they blew it

    --
    love is just extroverted narcissism
  64. Re: Just desserts by alexo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Rule of thumb: If it's an AC post, assume trolling (or just douchebaggery).
    https://www.penny-arcade.com/c...

  65. Re:Just desserts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This asshole insists on filming peacekeepers doing their jobs...

    Ah, now peacekeepers is one epithet I've never heard anyone here call the polis...most of them could never be repeated in polite society (but there's a lot of fuckers, bawbag, cunts etc. etc. involved)
     

    ..in the hope that he will catch one of them slipping up.

    Slipping up? sorry but that's endemic in the current disorganisation from the top down...

  66. Re:Good. by Teun · · Score: 1

    Melania watches Game of Thrones and after the last episode she warned Donald that walls are not dragon proof...

    --
    "The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
  67. Re:Journalist forgets he doesn't live in the USA.. by Pax681 · · Score: 2

    It's legal to take a photo of anything you like in the UK, as long as you're stood on publicly accessible property when you take it.

    Really? I got my city and guilds in photography AV Tech back in the mid 80's and during that course we got some law applicable to photography.
    There re corcumstances where it would in fact be "Assault by photography" here in Scotland if you are on public land or private land it matters not for this. If you use long lenses to invade someone's personal privacy where they are at home and have a reasonable expection of privacy.
    Mostly it has historically been the paparazzi that have fallen foul of this. But yeah.. you can be arrested to taking photo's from public land... context is all and sweeping generalizations are usually off the mark.

  68. Re:Good. by Teun · · Score: 1

    That BBC is in no way connected to Fake News outlets like say the Daily Mail or The Sun.
    Maybe you confused the BBC with Rupert Murdoch.

    --
    "The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
  69. Re:Journalist forgets he doesn't live in the USA.. by Pax681 · · Score: 1

    But there's also Trump

    Could be worse: it could be Hillary, and with her new wars, new taxes, and new free speech restrictions.

    and our horribly awful healthcare system

    If you like the UK healthcare system, it means cutting per-patient Medicare/Medicaid spending in half, making most doctors government employees, cutting the average doctor salaries in half, introducing waiting times of many months, and limiting services to the elderly. If you think that results in a better healthcare system, you're a fool.

    you must be referring to the NHS in England. In Scotland it performs much better.

  70. No such thing as a Caution in Scotland. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Complete and utter bollocks. Fake news. There is no such thing as a "police caution" in Scotland - that's an English legal sanction. Simply doesn't exist in Scots Law.

    Slashdot - you have been trolled.

  71. Re: Good. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And when your criteria are met in the coming months, you will move the goalposts and set another requirement.

    We know how you operate. You're a liar and a snake who will say anything to support your false narrative. We're done caring what you think. Fuck off.

  72. Re: Journalist forgets he doesn't live in the USA. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Of course you can't *publish* it if for example it has company logos or statues or buildings designed by architects in the background...

  73. The Future ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Is this the way the future is meant to be ... ... or is it just a photographer standing in a field ..."

  74. Re: Good. by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 1

    How is it a lie that Trump hasn't passed a budget yet? Or pretty much anything, for that matter? You're just another fat, embittered loser. And obviously you care what I think, or you wouldn't have replied to it. As I said, loser.

    --
    "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
  75. Re:Journalist forgets he doesn't live in the USA.. by doctorvo · · Score: 1

    Except for waiting times, everything I said applies throughout the UK/US. As for waiting times, Scotland still has waiting time targets (!) of 6 weeks for diagnostic tests and 18 weeks for referral to treatment. That would be completely unacceptable even as targets in the US. Of course, by US standards, Scotland is dirt poor, about 30% below Mississippi.

    And if you're going to make arguments of "but in this part of the UK", I'd point out that if you go by states and regions, you can find always find parts of the US as well that do spectacularly well compared to the rest.

  76. Re:Journalist forgets he doesn't live in the USA.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Slipping behind a tree to take a leak can end up with being added to the sex offenders register in the UK.

  77. Re:Journalist forgets he doesn't live in the USA.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Nothing illegal about taking photos of someone else's children in the park. Nothing illegal about them being in frame otherwise either. Nothing illegal about candid pictures of someone. Telephoto lens through someone's bedroom window is your only valid point.

  78. Re:Journalist forgets he doesn't live in the USA.. by Powercntrl · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Could be worse: it could be Hillary

    It was more of a general statement on how the founding fathers got the free speech thing right, but our election process still has a few bugs. If things were flipped around and Hillary had won the electoral college but lost the popular vote, you can bet the other side would've cried "foul" too. (Also: Insert quip about the shortcomings of our essentially two-party system here)

    If you like the UK healthcare system, it means cutting per-patient Medicare/Medicaid spending in half, making most doctors government employees, cutting the average doctor salaries in half, introducing waiting times of many months, and limiting services to the elderly. If you think that results in a better healthcare system, you're a fool.

    If you can afford to pay your way in our profit-driven healthcare system, yes - that system sounds worse. However, if you can't afford a plan with realistic co-pay costs and deductibles (and are unlucky enough to live in a state which rejected the ACA subsidies), you may as well have no insurance at all.

    Being uninsured means either paying completely out of pocket for all your medical expenses, and/or going to the E.R. and defaulting on the bill.

    It's not all that uncommon to hear about people here who have lost their homes due to medical expenses. But we can take all the pictures we want of the sheriff when he comes to serve the eviction notice. Yay.

    --

    ---
    DRM is like antifreeze, to the MPAA/RIAA it's sweet, to the consumers it's poison.
  79. Re: Journalist forgets he doesn't live in the USA. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Or you could live in the US and just die because you're too poor to afford medical care.

  80. Re:Journalist forgets he doesn't live in the USA.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You are the fool. The problems with the UK healthcare system are down to lack of funding by the government, on purpose. If they spent the same % of GDP that is spent in the US there would be no waiting times, doctor salaries would be higher, and there would be no limit to services to the elderly (except there aren't any limits now)

  81. Re: Just desserts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Peacekeeper! LMFAO! Seriously, you need to get out more if that's your view of the police FORCE, they are called that for a reason.

  82. Re:Good. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Watch BBC's election news coverage of Trump election here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovgksCCTO6Y

    Lips quivering, cries, loud cries of "NO." Sad faces and depression about Trump win all around.

    TLDR: BBC is fair as fuck, obviously (unless you are a Russian Trump Nazi Misogynist!)

  83. Re:Journalist forgets he doesn't live in the USA.. by Pax681 · · Score: 1

    you know.. we have choice here too. We can get private policies and btw... I have a BUPA family plan, they are a massively cheaper here than over there. you guys get humped for healthcare.
    Those waiting times are for routine diagnostics and proceedures. When it comething more serious then things speed up...
    I got treatment for cancer a few years back(nothing terminal but scary nonetheless), I went with the NHS at the Western General in Edinburgh and the place is AMAZING. the staff , facilities and support are first rate. Recuperative care...... that was with BUPA.
    Not everyone can afford private but if you can then why not?
    Stephen Hawking credits the NHS with saving his life and is currently in a war of words with the Health Secretary over how important the NHS is
    You can piss and moan about how shitty our universal healthcare is... yet we have it and you don't.
    our people DO get care when they need it and in Scotland, even the prescriptions medicines are free for children, the disabled, unemployed, students and even some people on lower incomes.
    I more than happily pay my National insurance contributions every month. It pays for any medical emergency that may happen to me or my family but also helps pay for unemployment benefit should I become unemployed. Everyone here at some point or points in their life will have reason to thank the NHS for being there and never having to worry about deductibles or prescription medicine prices. if people need treatment they will get it... unlike the US where deductibles and prescriptions fees will get in the way IF people have insurance at all.
    So we appreciate social healthcare as do many places worldwide. A healthy workforce is a happy workforce. a happy workforce is a more productive workforce. so it makes sense from an employers side too.

  84. Re:Journalist forgets he doesn't live in the USA.. by doctorvo · · Score: 1

    It was more of a general statement on how the founding fathers got the free speech thing right, but our election process still has a few bugs.

    Our election process works quite well: unlike European parliamentary systems, it has kept us from sliding into tyranny for more than two centuries.

    Insert quip about the shortcomings of our essentially two-party system here

    Again, if you look at European history, the two party system is a feature: parties like the NSDAP and dictators like Hitler could only come to power under Europe's multi-party parliamentary systems.

    If you can afford to pay your way in our profit-driven healthcare system, yes - that system sounds worse. However, if you can't afford a plan with realistic co-pay costs and deductibles (and are unlucky enough to live in a state which rejected the ACA subsidies), you may as well have no insurance at all.

    The problem with our health care system for the past half century has been that it hasn't been "profit driven", or more precisely, that it hasn't been a free market health care system. It has instead been driven by government-granted monopolies and socialization of costs.

    Being uninsured means either paying completely out of pocket for all your medical expenses, and/or going to the E.R. and defaulting on the bill.

    I have news for you: being insured these days also means paying completely out of pocket for all of your medical expenses, given the high deductibles most affordable plans have.

  85. Re: Just desserts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And something like what he said is what those jackholes with the blue stripe flag say. That is essentially their worldview. They see their overlords as benevolent, not oppressive. Those flags, which run afoul of federal law, which says you are not to alter the flag and fly it. You arent even legally allowed to fly a flag with less than 50 stars without flying a 50 star flag above it. And these blue Gomers fly an altered ( desecrated ) flag and think they are patriotic.

  86. Re:Journalist forgets he doesn't live in the USA.. by doctorvo · · Score: 1

    you know.. we have choice here too. We can get private policies and btw... I have a BUPA family plan, they are a massively cheaper here than over there.

    How nice for you. But you have a system in which the government provides a basic level of healthcare through government-run institutions, controls costs strictly, and permits a thriving national market for supplementary and private insurance.

    That's not what the US healthcare debate is about. The US healthcare debate is about providing everybody the same top-notch medical care regardless of income without meaningful cost controls on providers. And then people pretend that such a "universal healthcare system" is anything like the UK system.

    The US has the money to provide UK-style healthcare out of the existing Medicare/Medicaid contributions. Obama had eight years to do it, instead he screwed up the private insurance market.

  87. Re:Journalist forgets he doesn't live in the USA.. by doctorvo · · Score: 1

    If you can afford to pay your way in our profit-driven healthcare system, yes - that system sounds worse.

    Let's be crystal clear here: the existing Medicare/Medicaid system could cover every single American at the same level as the British are covered by NHS without increasing Medicare/Medicaid contributions at all. Furthermore, per patient costs in Medicare/Medicaid are higher, and outcomes are worse, than in the US private system, even controlling for demographics.

    You're right that the problem in the US is with "profits", but it's not the profits of insurance companies. The profits we're talking about here are the profits of the pharma and medical cartels and Democratic reformers aren't touching those. Quite the contrary: they want to mandate that everybody is forced to pay for those profits by law.

    While Democrats love to point to universal healthcare in Europe, they are pulling a bait and switch: single payer healthcare in Europe overwhelmingly uses nationalized providers and strict salary and cost controls, but Democrats aren't proposing that because it would upset their biggest donors who make massive profits off the current system.

  88. Re:Journalist forgets he doesn't live in the USA.. by Pax681 · · Score: 1

    you know.. we have choice here too. We can get private policies and btw... I have a BUPA family plan, they are a massively cheaper here than over there.

    How nice for you. But you have a system in which the government provides a basic level of healthcare through government-run institutions, controls costs strictly, and permits a thriving national market for supplementary and private insurance.

    That's not what the US healthcare debate is about. The US healthcare debate is about providing everybody the same top-notch medical care regardless of income without meaningful cost controls on providers. And then people pretend that such a "universal healthcare system" is anything like the UK system.

    The US has the money to provide UK-style healthcare out of the existing Medicare/Medicaid contributions. Obama had eight years to do it, instead he screwed up the private insurance market.

    the US is 22 trillion in debt and rising :-)

  89. "Respect Mah Authoritay! by Fencepost · · Score: 1

    This is a situation where something last winter pissed someone off when he insisted that they go through proper channels, and in response someone in the police or prosecution office decided to make an example of him - instead of properly requesting photos they filed for an order allowing them to seize basically everything electronic that he owned, then said "If you give us these photos, we won't come in and completely destroy your livelihood by keeping all of your stuff for a year or two and returning it with 'accidental' damage."

    This is a followup to that, basically he didn't knuckle under to someone in a slight position of power and they took umbrage.

    Whoever he pissed off is the kind of petty tyrant that gives police departments a bad name.

    --
    fencepost
    just a little off
  90. Re:Good. by Teun · · Score: 2

    Look here, the turnout in the 2016 election was about 56% of the electorate, of them a 46% minority voted for Trump.
    So why are you surprised reasonable persons the world over, including a majority of US citizen, are upset with the outcome?

    --
    "The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
  91. Out standing in his field by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There, are you satisfied photographer? You are now documented as being out standing in your field.

  92. I was arrested in NH for filming this year by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They do all sorts of crap to intimidate and harass people and if you film it they get mad- even in public places where you have every right to be. They can't explicitly arrest you for filming because that isn't a crime (though they have in the past here in NH and we won both criminal and lawsuits against them for it). Now the arrested me for disorderly conduct and crossing the street. One is a class a criminal offence with up to a year in jail. The other is like a traffic citation. It's a violation level offence. I have refused the best ever plea deal on this where they would drop all charges provided I admitted guilt to JUST the violation. Basically this way they can use it against me (even though it's only a $62 ticket) in the future to intimidate me and get me to admit I did something wrong. No, I wasn't wrong. I was totally right. There is no law against crossing the street outside specific circumstances in NH. The officer also tacked on criminal charges to target the media present and protesters who were filming an immoral if not unconstitutional checkpoint. They are technically allowed to do DUI checkpoints- but only under specific conditions which were not met. They also are using these checkpoints to catch people committing other minor violations. There have been a mere 3 DUI arrests in all the years they've been doing this in Manchester and they do them regularly and inconvenience a lot of people. They are not at all effective and DUI incidents have actually increased as a result of these checkpoints.

    There are lots of activists in New Hampshire who go out and film police and while some of them are dicks or unrepresentative of the majority there are lots of great examples of cops breaking the law and harassing innocent people- from illegal searches to assaults on minors:

    https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgnVXppkmzBKfTOwe-KqAJQ/videos

    This cop was caught sleeping for example in his cruiser and his reaction was very interesting. He appears to have been intoxicated and when it was reported the police outright refused to investigate one of their own:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4Mph3EaSyw

    A few weeks later he assaults an eight year old boy in front of a dozen people!

    Another police officer was convicted in Keene, NH of a DUI and is STILL on the police force. There are lots of videos of him being called out and criticized. A part of the guy's job is to go around the college neighbourhoods looking for drunk under-age college students and arrest them. It's a tactic used to generate dollars for the city. It's completely legal to drink IN PUBLIC ON CITY SIDE WALKS but only if you are dining at a city restaurant! It's targeting the poor and particularly poor college students.

    http://www.freekeene.com/ - for more freedom activism in New Hampshire (covers a lot of what is happening with the Free State Project and similar migratory organizations in NH that focus on gathering liberty-minded people in one place to create a free state- a lot has been accomplished in the past couple years from decriminalizing drugs and removing regulations on bitcoin to protecting drone hobbyists to protecting those who film criminal police for police accountability purposes).

    1. Re:I was arrested in NH for filming this year by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Document number or it did not happen.

  93. Re:Journalist forgets he doesn't live in the USA.. by Cederic · · Score: 1

    Agreed. I've taken photographs of children and posted them online. It's perfectly legal, along with photographing the police. I take pictures of them exactly because they tried to prosecute people for it and got a spanking.

    As for candid photography.. it's my favourite sort. Street mostly, but also events.

  94. Re: Journalist forgets he doesn't live in the USA. by Cederic · · Score: 1

    Of course you can. In the UK you use those photos commercially too, although some restrictions around logos.

  95. Re:Journalist forgets he doesn't live in the USA.. by Cederic · · Score: 1

    Bullshit. Basic level of healthcare my arse.

    The NHS provides an excellent level of healthcare.

    It is possible to get marginally better outcomes if you pay insane sums of money but that's true in the UK and the US. In the UK you get close to those margins for no extra cash; in rhe US sizeable numbers of people can't afford to get anywhere near.

    Checked life expectancy in the two countries lately?

  96. Re: Good. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    >You're just another fat, embittered loser.

    Signed,
    Extremely Tolerant, Socially Conscious Liberal

    As per usual.

  97. Re: Just desserts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You are legally allowed to fly any flag you want. It's called freedom of expression.

  98. Re: Just desserts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Flag Code.
    The flag should never have placed upon it, nor on any part of it, nor attached to it any mark, insignia, letter, word, figure, design, picture, or drawing of any nature. (section 8g)

  99. Re: Just desserts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Cops say "oink, oink, oink!"

  100. Re:Journalist forgets he doesn't live in the USA.. by doctorvo · · Score: 1

    In the UK you get close to those margins for no extra cash; in rhe US sizeable numbers of people can't afford to get anywhere near.

    Yes, and as I was pointing out: that's because the public US healthcare system is so damned inefficient. The crony capitalist crap that the Democrats have been working towards, however, is nothing but a massive handout to donors of the Democratic party. Instead of creating a healthcare system like that of the UK, which spends about $4000/patient/year, Obama and Hillary have been pushing for a healthcare system that forces everybody to cough up $12000/patient/year and delivers worse outcomes than the UK.

  101. Re:Journalist forgets he doesn't live in the USA.. by doctorvo · · Score: 1

    Checked life expectancy in the two countries lately?

    Yes, have you? Maybe you can clearly express what you think that data shows.

  102. Re:Journalist forgets he doesn't live in the USA.. by doctorvo · · Score: 1

    The US has the money to provide UK-style healthcare out of the existing Medicare/Medicaid contributions. Obama had eight years to do it, instead he screwed up the private insurance market.

    the US is 22 trillion in debt and rising :-)

    So? The mandatory contributions to the public medical system in the US already bring in sufficient money to provide UK-style healthcare with no deficit or borrowing.

  103. Re: Just desserts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Nothing supersedes the Constitution, so sorry, it's still not illegal.

  104. Re: Just desserts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Oh and this:

    The Federal Flag Code does not purport to cover all possible situations. Although the Code empowers the President of the United States to alter, modify, repeal, or prescribe additional rules regarding the flag, no federal agency has the authority to issue “official” rulings legally binding on civilians or civilian groups.

    Your rules only apply to government organisations.

  105. Re:Journalist forgets he doesn't live in the USA.. by Pax681 · · Score: 1

    The US has the money to provide UK-style healthcare out of the existing Medicare/Medicaid contributions. Obama had eight years to do it, instead he screwed up the private insurance market.

    the US is 22 trillion in debt and rising :-)

    So? The mandatory contributions to the public medical system in the US already bring in sufficient money to provide UK-style healthcare with no deficit or borrowing.

    BUT.. you still won't get it or the fight will be longer and more arduous than you think due to America's hangover from the McCarthy era and the fact that in America it's "fuck you.. pay me" and "me me me fuck you" .
    It's more of a "we we we" here with no fear ot McCarthy ghosts damning collectivism socialised healthcare as communism.. or to be more American "communistic" because you like to end words with "istic" so you sound smarter(hint..it doesn't work).
    BUT.. if you are so MASSIVELY in debt... is that why President Fuckface Von Clownstick wants to raise the debt ceiling to borrow more to build his idiotic wall and be able to afford the tax cuts to the rich maybe.... maybe... give some genuinely shit cover to some people while still throwing millions of Americans under the bus going to NoCoversville... yeah.. America is so fantastic!.....

  106. Re: Just desserts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Most black people getting shot by police are committing violent crimes, but I guess just letting blacks kill each other is fine right?

  107. Re: Just desserts by oobayly · · Score: 1

    If they're so incompetent that a man with a camera causes them to slip up, then it's definitely in the public interest.

  108. Re: Good. by oobayly · · Score: 1

    Nope. That is completely wrong. They can ask you to pay, but all you have to do is say "I don't consume any BBC productions". I know people that have done so, and am pondering doing it myself.

    Sure, it may tedious, and there's no way it should be a criminal offence, but you do not have to pay a TV license just because you own a TV or computer.

  109. Re:Just desserts by Megol · · Score: 1

    When then pictures leak of something someone in some obscure group can consider offensive and written widely about by the trash we call newspapers I think you'd change your mind.Because it's _that_ we are talking about - not some surveillance video that is only used internally if something suspect is happening.

    There have been many cases where lives of innocent people have been risked as everyone thinks they have the right to interfere with police and ambulance personel. They don't. They think they have the right of publishing the faces and injuries of seriously hurt people. They don't.

    This seems to be more of the same. Fuck him.

  110. Evil Fox by JimSadler · · Score: 2

    In court Fox News has argued that they are an entertainment organization and not a news service. It is their view that they can lie as part of the entertainment. They seek ignorant viewers who get great pleasure in someone seeming to agree with their beliefs. their viewers are brainwashed and very hard to rescue.

  111. Re:Journalist forgets he doesn't live in the USA.. by doctorvo · · Score: 1

    So much anger and vitriol towards the US... that's not somebody talking who is happy with his circumstances.

    You know, I have plenty of reasons to be angry at Europe, having grown up there. But I'm just glad that I'm out of there.

  112. Re: Just desserts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The ones doing the reporting are doing it for money, nothing more.

    "Peace sells, but who's buying?"

  113. More details by mikael · · Score: 1

    He was photographing an accident from a vantage point in the field. The police officer didn't like that and demanded that the photographers hands over all his cameras and photographs. If he doesn't do so, the police will get a court order and warrant to seize his equipment at home. So the photographer has no option but to do as requested.

    It really looks like someone is covering up for a mate. The driver would get away with it if there's no other evidence - "this flock of sheep deliberately and wilfully jumped from a ridge into the front of my car as I was driving by slowly" would replace "I was drunk, driving like the devil down a narrow country road and knocked down a flock of sheep being herded down to the next field".

    --
    Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
    1. Re: More details by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      To be fair, sheep do sometimes jump onto the road, and on a windy road you may not see it until very close. So whilst the speed limit might nominally be 60mph, anything above 20mph and you can hit a sheep. You probably wouldn't want to do 60 on many of the roads to avoid going into a ditch, but 40, without sheep, might be plausible. So if you aren't expecting sheep... The prime reason for an adult sheep crossing the road seems to be its lamb already having crossed, lambs having little road sense.

    2. Re:More details by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The only covering up is by the photographer. I just read his account of the previous incident and he stated that he was going to give a statement that he didn't see violence outside court for an incident the police were investigating but that the police refused to use is statement - he doesn't explain why, maybe they found him to be related or associated with the person in question?

      Yet the person was convicted anyway BY A JURY, with HIS PHOTOS used as evidence.

      It sure as hell sounds like he was trying to hide the photos and lie to the police to cover up for someone.

  114. Re: Journalist forgets he doesn't live in the USA. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The UK government spending on the NHS, as a percentage of GDP has been falling*. European countries pay on average about 2% more on healthcare compared to the UK, although they are a more complex marketplace with private insurance, so a proportion of the additional spending goes on administrative costs. The NHS, in terms of cost for given outcomes is remarkably efficient, although for some specific illnesses places like France and Germany have better outcomes, a!though that gap has shrunk even in the last decade, I.e. the NHS has become increasingly efficient.

    * I wonder if part of that is the NHS IT modernisation project costs falling out of the current budget.

  115. Andy Smith is .. by eric_harris_76 · · Score: 1

    Andrew Smith is Scottish?

    What a shock!

    --
    There's no time like the present. Well, the past used to be.
  116. Re:Journalist forgets he doesn't live in the USA.. by Cederic · · Score: 1

    I think it shows that the average Brit will live almost three years longer than the average American.

    While I'd hesitate to attribute that all to the NHS I think it demonstrates that the NHS is hardly causing people to die young.

  117. Re: Good. by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 1

    Still failed to address the issue - how is it a lie that Trump hasn't passed a budget and as such, cannot take credit for any job creation to date?

    --
    "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
  118. Re:Journalist forgets he doesn't live in the USA.. by doctorvo · · Score: 1

    While I'd hesitate to attribute that all to the NHS I think it demonstrates that the NHS is hardly causing people to die young.

    No, it doesn't even do that. All your line of reasoning demonstrates is your utter ignorance of the subject.

  119. Re: Just desserts by KingBenny · · Score: 1

    i thought everything superceded any constitution anywhere today, its the new black ... or fad , or something, raison d'état, what about the children, in the name of kill the terrerizts, whatever shuts the plebs up in democratic western lobbyland
    etcetera and bla, "for standing in a field" ... well that beats my "for looking at a car" i guess cos i wasnt arrested, just stopped with about three cars and a biker-cop in the middle of street in front of smallville passing by, "but we have to come", yea i know man, and you see all those people watching now, THAT's the problem here in hickville
    can you tell me who called ? no we can't we dont know that
    o so its anonymous , i cant even complain back for harassment or slander
    you could file a complaint
    could, okay, can i go ?
    sure, ofcourse,
    thanks
    next time wear a plastic bag when you come from the supermarket ?
    euhm ...... if that saves me from looking at a car
    bye
    something like that
    standing in a field is actually a legal issue hm ?

    --
    Free speech was meant to be free for all... how can anyone grow up in a nanny state ?
  120. Re: Just desserts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    FYI, nobody's going to read that drivel on account of the stupid layout.

  121. Re:Just desserts by JosKarith · · Score: 1

    Oh, police kill BAME people here too - it's just that cos' we don't hand a firearm to anyone capable of reciting the oath of office they have to be more ...creative... about it
    https://www.theguardian.com/uk...

    --
    'Don't worry' said the trees when they saw the axe coming, 'The handle is one of us.'
  122. Re: Just desserts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Most black people getting shot by police are committing violent crimes

    Good point. If only some of the shootings are for non-violent actions then what's the harm? After all, you've to got to break a few eggs to make an omelette.

  123. Re:Good. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    here in the USA the mainstream press is 100% bullshit all day every day

    What percent bullshit is Trump? Not 100%, surely, but it's got to be up there somewhere.

    he has created millions of jobs and restored civility and respect for all points of view to the white house.

    Citation definitely needed there, Captain Gullible. And as an aside, how many points of view do you personally respect?

  124. Re:Just desserts by houghi · · Score: 1

    My sister works in a home of the elderly. This all sounds like standard behavior. Things get "stolen" all the time. One time the stolen false teeth where found a week later in another persons mouth.
    I have seen people who put on glasses that where not theirs. They already had glasses on, so now they had two pairs on. I have seen it with my mother who thought they stole her keys, while she had placed them somewhere.

    However that does not mean that cameras are welcome in a home. It is, after all, a home, not a prison. That means that they should have a certain expectancy of privacy. I doubt you would be ok to have camera's in your home where others have access to the content.

    So no, never camera's just to prove that things didn't happen. And if you think that the family will stop accusing you if you have video, you are wrong. They will come up with some excuse.

    Camera's are a technical solution to a social problem in this case (and most others) and will do more harm than good in the long run.

    --
    Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
  125. Re:Just desserts by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 1

    The camera can be made to only be active when someone else is present in the room. Access can be limited to a trusted relative. Technical solution to a technical problem.

    The idea is that we have two choices - either come up with a technical solution, or require the presence of at least two people to provide care, even if it's something as simple as getting them a glass of water. We can't afford the staffing levels of the second option, which would also have the effect of preventing timely intervention in an emergency.

    It's not a question of proving anything to someone who's got dementia - it's protecting innocent people from wrongful accusations that are known to be a common occurrence in such situations. Either that, or body cams for all staff. Same end result.

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    "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.