GOVERNMENT known as telling lies to win an argument cise is the same: lie through your teeth and rely on the media to report it as the objective truth. new, revamped, Police and Criminal Evidence Bill is a case in point. along wish the Bill was Published week Briefing Guide from the Home Office of propaganda and distortion which most of the snuffled up regurgitated enCausasucalv.
The Bill has been redrafted because of the tremendous the original version, which united and medical professsions with civil and equal rights campaigners. The new version attempts placate the HOIC influential sections of the establishment without ditching the meat of the proposals.
Under the guise of police por gela police UUWCIS the seeks to legalise and extend already current abuses of the powers of search, arrest and detainment. The Tories have given the Bill a face-lift even plastic surgery couldn't serve to disguise its intent a lilassive cAtension and legalisation of police powers.
The main changes to the bill are as follows:
A arrestable offence' includes murder, kidnapping and so on. But any offence can be deemed serious if it has or could result in harm to the security of the state or to public order: SO watch yourself demos or picket lines.
An offence can "serious' if it results in or lead to serious financial loss to anybody. Over the past few months, police officers have been dressing. up in ripped jeans and I-Shirts in order to entrap gay men outside the gay pub The Colherne.
They have used the 1956 Sexual Offences Act, the so-called 'gay sus-law'.
This law, "soliciting for immoral purpose public place' is specifically designed to keep men off the streets. It can- gay not be used for men who harass women, but is used extensively against prosulues.
The police know that most gay men charged wil plead guilty as there is a verv rea inreat ot losing their jobs through any the highest clear-up rate: 97 per cent. Officers like it disinformation otherwise - is the Whether 'policing' Grenada or Britain the exerThe And it's the person who suffers the loss along with the police who decide if hoey think it's serious or If the cops decide to arrest you on a serious ofrence wey can keep you l custody without charge for up to 4 days. . A new police power of forcible stop and search will be established throughout the country, with the powerte list 'reasonable torce necessary'. • Police would be able to carry out intimate body searches on the pretext of searching which could be used to cause olysical ingury, well as strip searches on any pretext.
Insignificant changes nave veen made mome sections of the Bill which powers to set up road DOCKS. CALCISOU grounds to get search warTalls. the right to arrest and detain for minor offences of people who have no fixed addresses; criminalisation of the oftence of 'atfront to public decency'; detention without charge for up to 96 hours for serious oftences and denial of access to a lawyer for up to 36 Looking at the Bill as a becomes Cical who are the targets of the powers. UlaLk Asian gays, the homeless, trade unionists, demonstrators the oppressed and the dispossessed.
The Bill aims to legalise the already current pracboss their arrest ligues because it's However gays fighting back. packed Earls mcculle Court decided to set up a defence Calvas lu men who use the pub. Many gay men spoke of their experiences al the hands of the police, including one Irish man who was hospitalised result.
The campaign especially relevant as "This branch/GMC/etc 1. Deplores the conduct importuning tor immoral purooses 3. Demands that the Metropolis should immediately instruct his officers.
ual Offences Act 1956 should as to annoyance caused by the alleged conduct. tices of recently report, commissioned by Metropolitan Police themselves, Concluece that there was already widespread abuse power to stop , and search on reasonable and that racist language and racial prejudice alc rampant among London's defenders of law order.
Along with the increas ed USC surve lance. computers and informers the Police Bill completes a package which Thatcher MODES will be adequate tc deal with social unrest which could explode in the future and Wllake the 1981 uprisings look like a picnic.
The National Cambalgn against the Police Bill has plannea a conference on 19 January next ycal. Ine unanimous accision of the Labour Party Conic cice lo oppose the Bill has to be transformed vlactical and active opposition the lactive opoment and local areas.' As Cecil Gutzmore, secretary of the campaign says: The so-called concessions cannot disguise the essentially reactionary and oppressive thrust this Bill . If it becomes law, the ightmare of a ponce state will be a reality.
• National Campaign against the Police Bill can be contacted at 50 Rectory Road, London N16, 01-249 8334.
National Conference: Sat November, Sir William Collins School, Charrington Street, London NW1.
National march and rally: Sat 21 January, Brockwell Park, London to Trafalgar Square.
THIS IS AN UNOFFICIAL PICKET
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order of the day as Reagan and Thatcher limber up to meet the challenge of policing in 1984.
Socialist Action 4 November 1983 leakedo ice.