Gatwick Airport closed, because idiots are flying drones close to it.

[AnnO'Neemus]

I'm not sure I would've bothered to take legal action against the police but I wasn't in their position. They obviously had it bad from the police. I'm not sure how they can say "delighted to be vindicated." Does anyone seriously think they were guilty? The lack of prosecution is the bigger story that affirms their innocence as well.

Airports are now so tooled up with detection that it may never happen again which makes it all the more mystifying.

Without this action, though, there's a possibility that some people would've thought 'No smoke without fire'. And also, their names are out there on the internet as having been connected with the investigation.

I don't know if they tried to fly anywhere on holiday recently, but I imagine there's a possibility that their names might've been on security lists in connection with this case.

Too right they should've taken the police to court for wrongful arrest and imprisonment. Cops need to be held accountable for their actions. But also, this very public slapdown and paying of compensation is newsworthy and will serve to further clear their name beyond doubt.

 

[teuchter]

Incidentally, this is one of my favourite threads of recent years and I'm delighted to see it bumped.

Everyone freaking out about Gatwick being shut for a day or whatever, and little did they know what 2020 would bring to the air travel table.

 

[two sheds]

Everyone freaking out about Gatwick being shut for a day or whatever, and little did they know what 2020 would bring to the air travel table.

You're right it's not G5 it's DRONES that are spreading coronavirus

 

[DJWrongspeed]

Without this action, though, there's a possibility that some people would've thought 'No smoke without fire'. And also, their names are out there on the internet as having been connected with the investigation.

I don't know if they tried to fly anywhere on holiday recently, but I imagine there's a possibility that their names might've been on security lists in connection with this case.

Too right they should've taken the police to court for wrongful arrest and imprisonment. Cops need to be held accountable for their actions. But also, this very public slapdown and paying of compensation is newsworthy and will serve to further clear their name beyond doubt.

Thanks for that. Yes I agree with you now that you've spelt it out. I did a bit of reading as well of the police handling of it at the time and it was woeful.

 

[existentialist]

Thanks for that. Yes I agree with you now that you've spelt it out. I did a bit of reading as well of the police handling of it at the time and it was woeful.

In a way, and without wanting to dilute the debate on racism in policing in any way, this is another good example of what is so wrong with our policing culture: I think that the police seem to operate from a premise that, if they are having anything to do with you, you must be guilty of something. And then they rather idiotically assume that the thing you must be guilty of is what they think you're guilty of. Which is why we get these clodhopping situations where they're overreaching themselves, and then being forced to retract.

I've no idea how you change that kind of cultural thinking - and I'm sure there are no straightforward quick fixes - but WE need it to change, even if THEY don't see the need. Because, whichever way you cut it, and however many armoured personnel carriers and helicopters you give them, the only way policing can work in anywhere other than a totalitarian state is by consent. And, at the moment, I suspect most consent regarding policing comes from a fairly narrow margin of reactionary, authoritarian-type people, and not the population as a whole.

 

[Saul Goodman]

I'm getting extremely irate about replies from someone on an RC helicopter forum. These are his replies:

200k for that!!! Think I'll whiz round to Gatwick with my trannie and look suspicious. What is it with public bodies that scatter our money around like that?

I question how hard the police lawyers defended then against some ambulance-chasing lawyers. My point is that public bodies seem to prefer settling (with our money) as the least-worst option.

Sure, the complainants were detained improperly, but an overall £200k?????. Many people get arrested whilst not guilty and investigations are underway but I bet they don't get this level of compensation. Even £55k is a lot of money for the 'offence'.

My reply to him...

These people had their lives destroyed. They were put forward as "The Morons Who Ruined Christmas"

Their only crime was owning a radio controlled aircraft, yet the cops informed red-tops that they were going to arrest them, despite ZERO evidence that they'd done anything wrong. His boss even said that he'd been working, installing windows, on the day in question.!

What do you think it's worth, to be dragged out of your house at gunpoint. To have your name splattered and sullied all over the papers, and all over the world, as "The morons who ruined Christmas", then released without charge, because you did nothing wrong? Do you think they should have sucked it up, because cops are somehow better than us, and their lies trump the truth, or do you think the cops should be held to account, for (effectively) kidnapping and shaming innocent people?

 

[Boris Sprinkler]

To be fair, I’ve ruined Christmas more than once

 

[SpookyFrank]

In a way, and without wanting to dilute the debate on racism in policing in any way, this is another good example of what is so wrong with our policing culture: I think that the police seem to operate from a premise that, if they are having anything to do with you, you must be guilty of something. And then they rather idiotically assume that the thing you must be guilty of is what they think you're guilty of. Which is why we get these clodhopping situations where they're overreaching themselves, and then being forced to retract.

I've no idea how you change that kind of cultural thinking - and I'm sure there are no straightforward quick fixes - but WE need it to change, even if THEY don't see the need. Because, whichever way you cut it, and however many armoured personnel carriers and helicopters you give them, the only way policing can work in anywhere other than a totalitarian state is by consent. And, at the moment, I suspect most consent regarding policing comes from a fairly narrow margin of reactionary, authoritarian-type people, and not the population as a whole.

I don't think it's a genuine assumption of guilt so much as the fact they like treating people like shit and if there's suspicion of wrongdoing, then they're allowed to do that.

 

[existentialist]

I don't think it's a genuine assumption of guilt so much as the fact they like treating people like shit and if there's suspicion of wrongdoing, then they're allowed to do that.

I suspect one feeds off the other. "Looks like they're guilty" → "Let's rip into them" → "Oh look, we've ripped into them, they MUST be guilty", rinse and repeat.

It's what happens when you have power without ANY accountability. And our press are unaccountable.