Friday, 15 January 2010

The arrest warrant!

I was the week beginning 14 Decemeber 2009 i think it was the Tuesday and the office is receiving calls from Isreal regarding the arrest warrant for Tzipi Livni who was going to attend a meeting in London the weekend before.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/dec/14/tzipi-livni-israel-gaza-arrest

anyway the journalist was demanding where is he? he being the senior partner who was at court in the morning of that day.

they thought that the firm had got the warrant issued againts her. i wish they did but no it was another firm and good for them, if these kinds of actions are going to be taken against poor and helpless people then yeah you're not welcome here and if you do come your going to pay for the war crimes you committed.

i'm glad it stopped her coming. but will that pressure be mounted again? maybe not now as private arrest warrants can only be issued by the attorney general. but the points been made, war criminals are not welcome in the UK and even though there might be restrictions on arrest warrants don't think there aren't other ways for war criminals to pay.

there are a lot a people out there who are not happy with war criminals walking around and thinking that they are just going to get away with it. you're time will come.

ttp://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/law/columnists/article6985729.ece?&EMC-Bltn=HHO982F

Thursday, 14 January 2010

Stop and Search

This week saw a victory for everyone who has and would have been stopped under s.44 of the Terrorism Act 2000. Although the power to stop and search without reasonable grounds was given to the police for a specific purpose. They started to abuse the power and stop anyone and everyone they wanted to. It's a shame that even though the breaches of this act were apparent for years the police and the government couldn't have taken steps to ensure that the power wasn't abused by police officers and it had to take nearly 6 years for this jugdement to be handed down. the government will amendment the section if their appeal is dismissed to make the use of the power more tigher. but could the government not have amended it before so that the public for the last 6 years didn't need to be treated like suspects just because they decided to walk in the streets? tp://www.liberty-human-rights.org.uk/issues/6-free-speech/s44-terrorism-act/index.shtml

just on another note about Liberty. It is one of the cornerstone organisations of this country and needs more support for us. so please join them and support them.

Snow Police

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/4/20100114/tuk-police-rapped-for-riot-shield-sledge-dba1618.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jan/14/sledging-police-reprimanded

Sunday, 3 January 2010

2010.

Tomorrow is the new working year of 2010. a decade has gone past but little to no change has happened in the last ten years. mostly because we have been distracted by the numerous and no end in- sight conflicts that we can't stop becoming part of. hopefully 2010 will start a new decade and a new start for all of us and more of a reflection on improving and changing public services. well you probably know what i'm most concerned about, the police service!

there needs to be an improvement in the way that the police are perceived and that is by the way the police act. i was reading in the guardain this week following Jack Straw's comment on the police, that the police service has not seen any change or reform for the last 40 years. Maybe 2010 is the time for that reform and shake up so that there is a renewed way in which police officers behave when they carry our their duties.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/dec/31/jack-straw-police-comments

Another change that needs to be made is regarding the Acpo domestic extremists unit. The article in the guardian highlighted this issue.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/oct/26/police-challenged-protest-files

I can't seem to find the Court of Appeal case this article refers to but there is an entry on Wikipedia which refers to it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forward_Intelligence_Team and you have to watch this http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/video/2009/dec/11/photographs-police-anti-terrorism-laws the police don't like it when the tables are turned and their photos and details are requested. Did you see how the officer hesitated when showing his badge?

Nearly forgot new rules on how long the police can keep the DNA of innocent people on their database. at the moment it's a postcode lottery whether your request will be granted or not. otherwise 6 years but this will be looked at and in the next 6 months we should have clear outlines.http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/libertycentral/2009/dec/31/dna-retention-public-police

2010 is a year for change

Wednesday, 30 December 2009

Holiday work

yes, as predicted i have been working during the holidays. i have put it off for a while but had to start to get some work done before we all start the new working year on Monday. the thing i've noticed with the cases are that the police do not seem to investigate as throughly as you might think and do not seem to understand the stress, anxiety and most of all the humiliation that a police action can have on an individual. the cases that i'm working on range from police searches to detention without charge for more serious but on the information unfounded reasons had the investigations been done propertly right from the start.

what i don't understand is that if the police are given all these powers to arrest, detain, examine and prosecute why there does not seem to be any consideration for the way the powers are being used?

complaints are being made to the DPS and the IPCC everyday i bet but this does not seem to be making a difference. is the police complaint being taken seriously or is the DPS just doing the old admin trick, replying then filing and moving on to the next? that's how i feel with some of the complaints that are being made. there does not seem to be a change in the way that policing is being conducted. the pace codes are being breached, the breaches being pointed out but still the same misconducts are being committed by other officers. why???? what is the point of a police complaint when it will not change the way that officers apply the codes?

questions that i think i need to ask. if the complaint procedure is just a way to appease people when their human rights have been infringed it's not working as when no action or change is seen by the public they will soon catch on and they will demand why no lessons have been learnt by the numerous complaints made.

and a sad thing especially after the 10 year anniversary of the death of stephen lawrence, that disproportionate amount of police action is still against black members of the public and excessive force is used against them in most cases that i'm working on.

have things changed in the way the police do their jobs? are lessons being learnt from all the complaints being made against the police? There needs to be a recognition by the police that they represent the law and need to be following the law and their codes to the letter otherwise faith in the police will deminish and i wouldn't want that to happen, but it is happening and the police aren't doing anything about. they are just ignoring it as if it's not a big deal. which is a bit arrogant as well. which is the main feeling that may of my clients feel towards the way the poilce behave.

anyway enough with the moan.

i better get back to my holiday work and see what other complaints there are against the police.

Saturday, 19 December 2009

Work, work and more work

For the last i don't know how may weeks now i have been work non-stop to the point that if i don't work 7 days a week i feel as if i'm missing something in that day. Yes, even today i will be working and tomorrow as well. Deadlines are deadlines and when there is no one else that can help it's just you and the deadline. Hopefully the work will level off next year so i get the weekends to take a break. But anyway, 3 more work days and then holiday, although i will be taking files home on the 23rd.

Monday, 14 December 2009

Day 1 of Super-Inquest

It's not every day that you're involved in a case which has such importance and significance to the society, that hopefully the outcome of the inquest will save lives and change the landscape of how construction is carried out from now on. well i am part of that as a legal representative for one of the family memebers who lost loved ones in the Lakanal fire and hopefully through our legal representation make a contribute to those changes.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/dec/14/lakanal-flats-fire-report-harman


Peter Walker
Tower block fire in Camberwell, south London
Lakanal House, the scene of the fatal blaze in Camberwell. Photograph: Carl Court/PA

Harriet Harman today told police and fire investigators to "get a move on" after it emerged a report into the causes of a south London tower block blaze in which six people died would not be completed for at least six months.

Lawyers representing relatives of those killed in the fire at Lakanal House, in Camberwell, voiced anger and said it was "unfair" that they should have to wait so long to find out what happened.

On the first day of the so-called "super inquest" into the July tragedy – which will take a wider than usual remit and is headed by a retired high court judge – the Metropolitan police said they were still carrying out forensic tests which would not be completed until mid-June.

The six victims, three of them children, were killed when fire spread rapidly through the 14-storey block, which was designed in the late 1950s.

Investigators are particularly looking to discover what caused the blaze to move so fast between several floors, trapping people in their flats.

Fire safety experts believe years of botched renovation work could have compromised the safety of the block, meaning criminal charges against the landlord, Southwark council, are possible.

Blocks such as Lakanal are built according to a principle known as compartmentalisation, in which each flat is supposed to be fire resistant for at least 60 minutes.

However, it is thought renovations over the decades jeopardised this.

Today's session, led by Sir Thayne Forbes, was a preliminary hearing to determine timetables. No date for the start of the full inquest has been set.

Harman, the leader of the Commons and the MP for Camberwell, said she had been told informally this might not be until 2011.

"It's not good enough. They need to get a move on," she said. "I think they need to account for what they are doing. They need to explain why they are taking so long."

The delay is also a cause of concern for residents of similar buildings – notably those in a block adjoining Lakanal – who still do not know why the fire spread so fast.

"It's a day-to-day concern for the people living there, who saw the bodies being taken out, who have to go to bed every night worried about their safety and that of their children," Harman said.

Louise Christian, a solicitor representing Rafael Cerves, whose wife, son and stepdaughter died in the blaze: "We don't even know when the inquest will begin. I think the coroner could have pressed the police for a proper timescale at the very least. It's very unfair on the families."

Experts in tower block fire safety are concerned that the problems at Lakanal are replicated in hundreds of other high-rise buildings around the UK,

"It's very important that we see at least some interim reports from the investigation," said Sam Webb, a retired architect who led the UK's first-ever national survey of tower block fire safety.

"This isn't only an issue for Southwark – it's something for landlords around the whole country."

Helen Udoaka, 34, her three-week-old daughter, Michelle, Dayana Francisquini, 26, and her children Filipe, three, and four-year-old Thais, and 31-year-old Catherine Hickman died in the blaze.

Hickman's father, Pip, described how his daughter, a fashion designer, died after being advised by a fire brigade officer to stay in her flat and wait for help.

Her body was found a few feet from her front door, with her keys in her hands. The next-door family, who ignored the advice and left the building, survived.