New "Prevent" policing strategy expects universities to spy on 'vulnerable' Muslim students

The "underpants bomber" Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is a Muslim who studied at UCL; therefore, all Muslims studying at universities should be monitored in case some of them turn out to be vulnerable to extremist ideology. This seems to be the thinking behind the new anti-terror guidance being issued to universities by police officers implementing the government's revamped Prevent strategy. The Guardian reports that "University staff including lecturers, chaplains and porters are being asked to inform the police about Muslim students who are depressed or isolated under new guidance for countering Islamist radicalism." The guidance specifically asks staff to identify Muslim students who fit one of a number of "at risk" profiles such as showing signs of depression. Many university staff have expressed disquiet about plans that seem to infringe students' civil liberties.

Indeed, I'd say that at best this is an invasion of privacy. Going beyond that, it is also a breach of confidentiality in at least two respects: 1) unauthorised disclosure of the one's religious background; 2) unauthorised disclosure of a medical condition. This is bad enough, but also consider that we are talking about students who have done nothing to arouse any reasonable suspicion. We are talking about students who have not been charged with or even suspected of any crimes. We are talking about students who are simply vulnerable, a measure which relies heavily on some staff member's judgement. It gets worse.

Universities that agree to the renewed version of the scheme are trained to refer "at risk" students to Prevent officials. The student is then monitored by a panel including a detective from Scotland Yard, who assess any potential terror threat. The student is not made aware at any stage that they are under investigation.

No knowledge that one is under suspicion and surveillance. No recourse whatsoever. Plenty of opportunity for false positives. Plenty of scope for jumping the gun. This is yet another example of the prevailing attitude in government that it should be doing everything within its power to thwart terrorism, as though terrorism is the biggest problem this country is experiencing and we can't afford to waste a moment. This attitude is instilled in the public and it is amplified and fed back to the authorities in what I like to call the hysterical feedback loop. Whenever the police fail to anticipate and thwart some attack (which they inevitably will because security cannot be guaranteed absolutely) they complain about the need for greater powers, which they are then given. But this is a con. Acts of terrorism are extremely rare. They can certainly happen and they do occasionally, but there has only ever been one successful terrorist attack in the United Kingdom employing the Islamic extremist modus operandi of suicide bombing.

This of course occurred on the 7th of July 2005. 52 innocent people were killed with over 700 more injured. There have been a handful of other attempts which have been unsuccessful. Either the threat is not as serious as we are being led to believe, or the police and intelligence services are doing a fairly impressive job. Whichever way you look at it, it's hard to deny that terrorist attacks in Britain are not nearly as prevalent as they were late last century when the perpetrators were mainly Irish republican dissidents. We seemed to deal with it much better then.

I have little doubt that there are people in this country or outside, probably of the Islamic extremist variety, who as I type right now are plotting some new and yet greater atrocity against Britain or one of its allies. It is the job of the police and the intelligence services to identify and to stop these people who are in fact engaging in criminal activities. It is not their jobs to snoop on ordinary people fitting particular profiles just on the off chance they might one day become receptive to ideas of mass murder. The reality is that very few would. The ones we hear about represent the tip of a very large iceberg whose massive bulk of normal, sane humanity remains happily submerged in anonymity. This is as it should be. The danger of enticement can be mitigated in other ways that do not breach Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

If people are vulnerable to extremist ideas, then it is the proponents of extremist ideas that we should be chasing down. We should challenge these ideas vigorously and openly. We should build strong moderate support bases at universities to combat the pressures bearing down on disaffected Muslim students from dangerous groups. As suggested by the Federation of Student Islamic Societies, we should engage with Muslim students instead of spying on them. Being Muslim is not a crime and neither is being depressed or estranged from one's family. British Muslims need to know that as human beings and members of British society, they enjoy the same status as their neighbours. They need to know that they will not be treated any differently or trusted any less simply for identifying with a religious faith. I really believe that would help to combat terrorism much more effectively than this cack-handed Prevent strategy being bandied about now.

#TwitterJokeTrial and related posts migrated from Flayland - http://flay.jellybee.co.uk

Hi. I've just finished migrating all of my old personal blog entries pertaining to the Twitter Joke Trial and other civil liberties matters. These can now be found here in Arsehole Justice, which seems to make sense. Consider any articles older than August 2011 to have been migrated in this way. The original articles still exist in their previous locations, but commenting is disabled and all links have been brought forward.

Your mission, should you choose to accept...

Hello there. We really need more contributors. There are lots of things we want to write about, but only so much time. If you would like to contribute to Arsehole Justice, please let us know and we'll discuss the ground rules. Here are a few topics we would like to explore, along with some helpful links:

Unite Against Fascism doesn't understand freedom of expression. This is not exactly an issue of justice, but it illustrates a blind spot in justice and public opinion to do with political correctness. All too often this sort of thinking results in people being prosecuted or persecuted for "unacceptable" speech. http://uaf.org.uk/2011/08/sign-now-support-the-right-to-march-against-edl-racists-and-fascists/

"Prevent" officers expecting universities to spy on disaffected Muslim students. https://twitter.com/#!/flayman/status/108470225162350592

Met Police issue Criminal Justice and Public Order Act section 60 blanket orders for all of London over 48 hours of Notting Hill Carnival. This is a ridiculous stretch of legislation allowing random stop and search designed to deal with specific localities, now apparently covering entire cities. http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/s60_and_s60aa_authorisations_28t

A mother pleads not guilty to Serious Crime Act charges in magistrates' court, claiming her BBM message was a joke. Magistrates still seem to think she should be indicted. This is, I believe, the first case of its kind where the defendant entered a plea of not guilty at the arraignment. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/mother-denies-trying-to-incite-riot-2347452.html

Coalition government U-turns on scaling back emergency terror laws. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/government-move-to-relocate-terror-suspects-2347547.html

...And really, anything else you think is worthy of a post if we agree. We may cover one or more of these topics in the meantime. Hope to hear from you. Let's show these arseholes that we mean business!

Head of Humberside Police wonders why justice isn't normally so swift

I read an article in The Independent today that quoted Tim Hollis, Chief Constable of Humberside Police. In the wake of the worst riots the UK has seen in decades, he had this to say:

"We really did see rapid and robust justice with offenders being arrested, charged, put before the courts and sentenced in days.

"This undoubtedly contributed to taking the momentum out of the disorder - but for the police and public it did raise the question as to why cases take so long to get to court in the normal course of events."

If Mr. Hollis doesn't mind terribly, I'd like to take that one. Although defendants have a right to a speedy trial, they also need time to prepare an adequate defence. In fact, they need time to consider a defence. Defendants are innocent until they have been proven guilty as a result of a legal process that does not benefit from being rushed. The swift justice we've seen following the UK riots has impeded some people's abilities to defend themselves properly. This is dangerous and should absolutely never be the norm.

In some cases we saw defendants hauled before the magistrates within a couple days of being charged. People who used social media to comment ironically on the riots were accused of committing the serious crime of incitement. One 17 year old young man was charged with an offence under the infamous section 127 of the Communications Act 2003 for sending a menacing message via a public electronic communications network for a Facebook update and subsequent conversation that resulted in the offending message being deleted after 20 minutes. Had there been more than two days between the charge and the hearing, he might have come to realize that he did not have to enter a guilty plea. That the message was menacing in its context was not disputed. That the defendant had an awareness of this was also not disputed. There was no time to consider an adequate defence.

Hollis then questions "why imprisonment is not used more effectively at an early stage for those who make the lives of the law-abiding a misery on a more routine basis". Again, a person is law-abiding until proven otherwise. This is true even of people who have offended in the past. It's the job of the magistrates and professional judiciary to determine whether bail should be granted. They follow guidelines. I'm sure police would like to see speedier justice in most cases. It makes their jobs easier. However, that's not what justice is for. The administration of justice is designed to protect the innocent, first and foremost. That's every man woman and child, regardless of suspicion or evidence, until the justice system pronounces a verdict. Punishing and rehabilitating the guilty comes second and by a long way. Perhaps Hollis is commenting on the failure of custodial punishment to serve as a deterrent. I can't quite tell what he's trying to say.

To be fair to Chief Constable Hollis, here is the piece he wrote in the Yorkshire Post today that was quoted by The Indy. It is not a bad piece. The tone is overall positive and I agree with much of what he has to say. Unfortunately, his paragraph fourteen ruins it for me. If the swift administration of justice served to take the momentum out of the riots, as he suggests, then I suppose it went some way toward fulfilling the primary duties of the police and the courts to protect the innocent. It was unfortunately full of errors and there are many successful appeals expected. There has already been one successful appeal overturning a custodial sentence. This should never be considered business as usual. That would be arsehole justice.

Shy 19 year old woman of good character could go to prison. LMFAO!

If you've read some of our recent posts then you may be familiar with the case of 19 year old Hollie Bentley from Wakefield, West Yorkshire. You may have also read or heard about the case in the news. If you did, then you would not have seen what is perhaps the most crucial piece of evidence in the case. The papers have been reporting that Bentley wrote the text "Who's up for it?" in some way referencing a Facebook event she'd created called "Wakey Riots". What the papers are not reporting for some reason is that at the end or her offending remark, she wrote "LMFAO". In case anyone is unaware of this particular text-speak, LMFAO is shorthand for "laughing my fucking arse off". The only place I've seen this reported is here, and that's only because the author was at the hearing and heard the evidence read out.

I don't know why news outlets would choose not to print that little nugget, but I do know it adds nuance to the story. Here's what LMFAO means to me in this context. Hollie Bentley believes, quite rightly I suspect, that the notion of a riot on the high street of Wakefield, West Yorkshire is absurd. That's the crux of the joke right there. It may have other hidden meaning. For example, it is boldly laughing at a prospect that is terrifying, which is a sort of affected bravado. I suppose we'll have to ask Hollie Bentley what she meant when she wrote that. She should do a little soul searching and think carefully about the answer. Her personal liberty depends on it. LMFAO! :(

Social media turns everybody into wankers.

Social media turns everybody into wankers.

It's as simple as that. As soon as anybody gets involved in social media, they immediately turn into hopeless, irretrievable dickheads. They lose about 50 IQ points, and begin delivering the most ill considered and moronic opinions.

I can give you some examples from my current favourite social network, Twitter:

Duncan Bannatyne famously called another user a (sic) "pheadophile" for daring to suggest that smoking in one's car with one's children in it isn't the worst crime known to man. This is an intelligent, successful man. Something's gone wrong in his brain there. Surely?

And what about Tory councillor Gareth Compton who posted:

"Can someone please stone Yasmin Alibhai-Brown to death? I shan't tell Amnesty if you don't. It would be a blessing, really."

Honestly. What a wanker.

Or Paul Chambers

"Crap! Robin Hood airport is closed. You've got a week and a bit to get your shit together otherwise I'm blowing the airport sky high!!"

Blowing up the airport isn't going to help your flight to leave on time, is it, you dozy twat?

Wanker.

And then there's me. Earlier today, one of my Twitter followers asked me for advice on how to stop his son picking at his skin all the time.

I suggested that his son take up smoking.

I am a dickhead. It's right there in black and white on Twitter if you need the evidence.

But. Has any of the above really done anybody any harm? There might be one or two bruised egos, or offended Twitter friends (sorry Adrian!) - but nobody actually died, right? Nobody got hurt? Sticks and stones, and all that.

We're currently looking at a whole bunch of prosecutions brought against other social media users who posted some really dumb shit on Facebook in response to the riots. In EVERY SINGLE CASE so far, nobody actually got hurt as a result of their stupid posts, and no crimes were committed as a result of those posts. In the majority of cases so far, it's pretty clear that the poster was making a bad joke.

So we're perhaps just looking at another collection of social media wankers who happened to stray into the firing line of a political hot potato.

But the point is: their conversation isn't any different to the content posted by 90% of the social media users out there. As a social media user, we see content like this, and we say to ourselves, "Oh, just another wanker like me".

And now the judicial system is weighing in on social media, and as soon as they've got involved, they've become wankers too. They've lost 50 IQ points, and started talking just as much bollocks as the rest of us.

So the obvious defence to anybody faced with a charge under the Serious Crimes Act or the Communications Act in the coming weeks is:

"Social media turned me into a wanker. And now it's turning you into a wanker as well. Your honour."

Apologies for linking riot cases to #TwitterJokeTrial and #IAmSpartacus

I must apologise to the Paul Chambers defence for the use of some hashtags in my attempt to raise the profile of some post riot Facebook cases. It had not occurred to me that linking these events could damage Paul's case; however, it has been pointed out that this is a possibility. Winning the Paul Chambers appeal is the most important thing right now. It may help to quash these other convictions, even those under the Serious Crime Act. I have two motivations for raising the profile of these other cases: 1) people are going to prison, and that's hard; 2) to my mind, each new conviction that goes unchallenged increases public acceptance. Nevertheless, I shall now respectfully refrain from using the #TwitterJokeTrial and #IAmSpartacus hashtags to advertise these cases. Please follow suit.