Police hold mother-of-three for reading 'Independent' outside Downing St.

[Gloria]

Police hold mother-of-three for reading 'Independent' outside Downing Street
By Terry Kirby, Chief Reporter
Published: 01 July 2006

An anti-Iraq war protester was questioned by police outside Downing Street because she was reading The Independent.

Charity Sweet, 40, and a mother-of-three, was holding a copy of Thursday's edition which carried the headline: "Warning: if you read this newspaper you may be arrested under the Government's anti-terror laws."

Inside was an article reprinted from Vanity Fair magazine which ran across the first three pages of that day's issue of the newspaper. The article, by the writer Henry Porter, accused the Blair Government of a sustained erosion of civil liberties.

As she sat outside Downing Street, Ms Sweet was approached and questioned by a police officer. When he had finished his inquiries she was astonished to be handed a form detailing the reasons for his interest which included "reading today's Independent".


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DU thread I started previously with link to Vanity Fair article.......

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=103&topic_id=219745&mesg_id=219745

[intheflow]

1. This doesn't bode well at all.

Although I can't believe the officer really wrote that! Doesn't he know you have to be sneaky to erode civil liberties... and never leave a paper trail? :eyes:

[WhoWantsToBeOccupied]

5. I was hoping this was a joke. It's not. Here's the link.

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article1152047.ece

[Mnemosyne]

2. K and R Bastards. n/t

[SensibleAmerican]

3. Well, the headline was right

n/t

[bananas]

4. They arrested a woman named "Charity Sweet" ??

Surreal.

[NVMojo]

6. fuck, blair and bush assholes got together and planned this blackout

of information? Yep, i believe it.

[EFerrari]

7. Maybe we ALL should start reading ONLY Spanish newspapers.

Jerks!

[GoddessOfGuinness]

8. Did she sing "Hey Big Spender" after she was questioned?

Too weird...

[Pachamama]

9. Things in the UK seem to be mirroring what is happening here!

Guess the Poodle has learned very well from his master!

This final statement in the Vanity Fair article sums up how I've been feeling about what is happening here:

.."the sense of being in one of those nightmares where you are crying out to warn someone of impending danger, but they cannot hear you."