Students Rioting in London.

[Sparkle]

Originally Posted by Chris

I have a suggestion.

You can't charge someone for slander. It's a civil matter. And as it is not possible in law for a public institution to sue for either slander or libel, don't expect to see the Met taking her to the County court either.

Slander, defamation of character, etc. You sure you can't sue for these things if not charged?
So you are saying that if I go to hospital, and then I tell the media that a police officer tried to prevent me from using that hospital on the grounds that I was a student, protester, gender or ethnicity, etc, and as a result I nearly died. The IPCC then look into this and decided that my claim was entirely fictitious.
Then there is nothing the police could do? I don't believe that to be the case.

[Mr Angry]

Originally Posted by Chris

I have a suggestion.

You can't charge someone for slander. It's a civil matter. And as it is not possible in law for a public institution to sue for either slander or libel, don't expect to see the Met taking her to the County court either.

In fairness, whilst the Met cannot sue for libel named police officers could.

Why has it taken the police so long to charge this chap and why now, before any publication of the IPCC report?

Strange timings.

[Sparkle]

You can be charged with wasting police time, so stop the nonsense fellas. You can bend over backwards to defend the met all you like, but I think everyone can see there is something not quite right with what we've been told so far.
It may have a perfectly valid explanation that doesn't incriminate the met, but still I believe there is more to this case.

Originally Posted by Mr Angry

In fairness, whilst the Met cannot sue for libel named police officers could.

True, but there has been no suggestion in this thread of any 'named' officers. The statement made was "surely the police are going to charge her for slander". Having been shown to have a basic misunderstanding of how the laws of defamation work, Sparkie's argument has segued thus:

Originally Posted by Sparkle

You can be charged with wasting police time, so stop the nonsense fellas.

See what he did there?

[Derek]

Originally Posted by Mr Angry

Why has it taken the police so long to charge this chap and why now, before any publication of the IPCC report?

I believe that the Met have many thousands of hours of footage to wade through and once they have sufficient evidence of a particular person committing an offence the files goes to the CPS for an OK to charge.

With that amount of footage, the protestors tending to cover up faces so necessitating ID from various sources and angles it takes time to come up with the goods.

This lot aren't the first and they won't be the last.

Originally Posted by Sparkle

You can be charged with wasting police time, so stop the nonsense fellas. You can bend over backwards to defend the met all you like, but I think everyone can see there is something not quite right with what we've been told so far.
It may have a perfectly valid explanation that doesn't incriminate the met, but still I believe there is more to this case.

Yes you can be charged with wasting Police time for making a false complaint, as the last person who complained about me found out , but the main question is whether it is in the public interest to proceed with charges. In this occasion where the mother is obviously upset and made some comments I wouldn't say dragging her through the courts is necessary or proportionate.

Originally Posted by Derek

In this occasion where the mother is obviously upset and made some comments I wouldn't say dragging her through the courts is necessary or proportionate.

Hey, that's not on! The police are heavy handed if they act and covering something if they don't. They are not allowed under any circumstances to act in a proportionate manner. Please now go to room 101 for 're-education'.

[Derek]

Originally Posted by Chris

Hey, that's not on! The police are heavy handed if they act and covering something if they don't. They are not allowed under any circumstances to act in a proportionate manner. Please now go to room 101 for 're-education'.

I'll borrow some of Lew's rats to chew my face off for daring to suggest anything other than summary execution for Mrs Meadows.

[Sparkle]

Originally Posted by Chris

Please now go to room 101 for 're-education'.

Will that be £9K per year, or will you throw it in for free like the way your generation had it?

Originally Posted by Sparkle

Will that be £9K per year, or will you throw it in for free like the way your generation had it?

/awaits clarification

[Mr Angry]

Originally Posted by Derek

I believe that the Met have many thousands of hours of footage to wade through and once they have sufficient evidence of a particular person committing an offence the files goes to the CPS for an OK to charge.

With that amount of footage, the protestors tending to cover up faces so necessitating ID from various sources and angles it takes time to come up with the goods.

This lot aren't the first and they won't be the last.

Yes Derek, I'm well aware of the processes and challenges involved.

What I'm questioning is the timing in relation to Meadows being charged.

The IPCC investigation is ongoing and indeed the call for witnesses to the incident is still active on their site.

It strikes me that the timings of his being charged are somewhat strange.

[Derek]

Are you suggesting that the Police should sit on any evidence they have just because Alfie has made a complaint against them?

[Mr Angry]

Originally Posted by Derek

Are you suggesting that the Police should sit on any evidence they have just because Alfie has made a complaint against them?

No, that's not what I'm suggesting. That said, it wouldn't be a first were they to do so and it's certainly an avenue / option open to them in this scenario.

[danielf]

Originally Posted by Chris

/awaits clarification

I think it relates to tuition fees.

Yes, I was beginning to suspect that. As it simply ignores all the points that are currently 'live' in this thread I'm thinking I'm just going to ignore it in return.

Originally Posted by Derek

Is slander a criminal offence?

Regardless I'd imagine the police have better things to do than drag everyone who lies to them through the courts.

If they did then we really wouldn't have enough prisons to take them all.