Arrested for asking a policeman for his badge number / stripped search in front of male officer

[Liberal_in_LA]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/video/2009/jun/21/fit-watch-kingsnorth-arrests


Arrested for asking a policeman for his badge number - video at link

The Guardian has obtained this police footage of Emily Apple and Val Swain being arrested by surveillance officers after asking for their badge numbers at the Kingsnorth climate camp last year. The two women speak to Paul Lewis about their arrest, imprisonment and official complaint

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Two years ago, Ms Swain, from Grangetown, Cardiff, launched Fit Watch, a group dedicated to monitoring the behaviour of police Forward Intelligence Teams at major protests. She said she has evidence of officers removing their numbers to avoid identification.

Ms Swain, Ms Apple and Geoffrey Cornock, also from Grangetown, were observing officers outside the Senedd on June 24 last year when they were arrested and taken to Cardiff Central Police Station.

Ms Swain, a former community development officer who was later made redundant, said last night: “I was forcibly strip-searched by a female officer. I was on the floor, face down being restrained by a male officer. They removed my top and my underwear.

“It felt horrendous. The police shouldn’t behave like this.”

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/2009/06/23/police-robbed-me-of-my-dignity-with-strip-search-91466-23947769/

[Downtown Hound]

1. Good for them for taking a stand!

She's right. We have let the police get away with this kind of thing for far too long. It's time to start fighting back.

[Liberal_in_LA]

2. event is spreading over the web. Thank goodness for digital cameras and the web

[ProgressiveProfessor]

3. In the UK? Seems doubtful

[Downtown Hound]

4. What do you mean? n/t

[ProgressiveProfessor]

6. My experience there is that when it come to Government actions the people are subjects

and sheeple. Very disappointing. There is rarely the challenge to Government that I see in the US

[rurallib]

7. didn't they have about a million out to march against Iraq invasion?

[Eric J in MN]

5. Here in Minnesota, journalist Amy Goodman of "Democracy Now" was arrested...

...during the Republican Convention for trying to talk to a group of cops on the street.