From: Andrew Johnson
Date: 2007-08-12 23:16:06
This happened in Liverpool to a friend of mine. He is a quiet and shy type and did not initially want to draw attention to this story. I only send this round because it was posted on our UK 911 forum. He was on his own – simply handing out leaflets. Stephen sent me his account, but he freely admits he is not that used to writing stuff out, so I helped him tidy it up and clarify some points. (And no, I didn’t change anything.) So, what do you think should be done, people? Here’s what happened to me on Tuesday 3rd July2007 – as far as I can remember. There is more, but I can’t recall everything – most of the important stuff is here, though. This was a stressful situation for me. I was giving out leaflets for about an hour before the police stopped me, I was giving out flyers and Posters on Bold Street in Liverpool Town Centre when I was stopped by two policemen and asked what I was doing. I told them I was giving out leaflets for the William Rodriguez Last Man Out of the North Tower talk in Liverpool, and then the two policemen started getting verbally aggressive and intimidating straight away by saying . “Are you making money out of this!? Is Rodriguez making money out of people!?” I said “No, what’s the problem? I’m only giving out flyers.” Then, they stopped and cautioned me – under the Terrorism act – they body-searched me and confiscated all my Rodriguez leaflets/flyers. They took my details and made a call on the radio and they told me they had put me on the Terrorist List. They said I was acting suspiciously. One of the policemen asked me if I was “anti-disestablishment”. I said, “Yes!” (I think he probably meant “anti-establishment”, but he said “anti-disestablishment”.) They said, “What about the firemen?” I said, “I’m not against the firemen.” They asked, “Where did I find out about this Rodriguez guy?” I said, “From the 9-11 Website.” I told them I didn’t think Muslims “did” 9/11. They said they wanted to look in my bag. I said “OK.” They asked me if I had any sharp objects. I said “Only a pair of scissors for cutting up leaflets.” I had more stuff in my bag – A4 papers, leaflets, postcards some DVDs etc. These were all for the talk that evening. The policeman said, “Are you going to give this out as well?” I said No! That’s for the Casa! That’s for the Casa! (The Casa is the venue where William Rodriguez was to speak at). They nearly took it, but I became submissive, because I didn’t want to lose all my stuff – I had just spent a lot of money on it – I told them I had just spent quite a bit on the printing. I had to hold all the things out of my pockets – in my hands. As I held my arms up, they body-searched me – treating me as if I was a criminal/terrorist. I’m a peaceful person! They asked, “Do you have any ID?” I said, “Why do I need ID?” The policeman said, “That wasn’t what I asked you.” He said again, “Any ID?” I said, “No.” The 2 policemen told me that if I wanted to complain, I would have to go to a certain police station, but I can’t remember the name of it, because I wasn’t listening. They started lecturing me, saying things like “Where would we be without the Police?”. They said they would give me the benefit of the doubt. I had to “back down” and kind of say “a three bags full, sir”. I thought afterwards how I’d just been stopped under the terrorism act – there’s no benefit to that. I felt that I couldn’t stick up for myself, because they would have arrested me – that’s the impression they gave me. I didn’t want to miss the night at the Casa and end up in jail! And then they walked off with my WR leaflets. I felt that they had totally abused their power and that they had “got off” on their power trip. ———————————————————————- —————— Thank you to Andrew Johnson for helping me put together my account of what happened. I’ve attached the flyers and leaflets I was handing out, plus the Police Stop form I was given, It’s clearly marked Terrorism.
