Comment by teitoklien | Hacker News Reader

Comment by teitoklien | Hacker News Reader

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> Detectives were last night accused of acting like East Germany's feared Stasi secret police for quizzing Helen Jones over her calls for the resignation of local councillors embroiled in the WhatsApp scandal exposed by The Mail on Sunday.

The article says clearly “last night”, what you think happened doesn’t change what was said by the woman who explicitly stated what happened to her and had to live through it that night.

(on rechecking yes i’m wrong about daytime vs nighttime indeed they visited at morning)

but even with that you think its acceptable if it’s daytime for police to knock on doors due to facebook posts about not liking current ruling councillor stuck in a scandal ???

if this gets politically acceptable get ready for china like atmosphere in future around politics (without china like infrastructure or growth) forced disappearances , thoughtcrimes & thought police…

The doorcam footage is clearly in broad daylight, it's dated February, and further down the article it says:

> At around 1.30pm last Tuesday ... a detective sergeant and another officer knocked at her door

You've made some edits to your post since I replied, so...

> but even with that you think its acceptable if it’s daytime for police to knock on doors due to facebook posts

It's handled on a case by case basis. The police will generally notify someone if they're the subject of a harrassment complaint, and it's not uncommon for them to visit either to give a verbal warning or to advise them on the law. That's... just how the system works in the UK and has done for a long time. Police in the UK are often in and around the community, working with it and giving out advice where it may help to prevent crimes.

Perhaps the police were too keen to visit in person this time. Perhaps they felt pressured to demonstrate a response by the fact that the complainant was linked to the council. That's another issue entirely. But this single incident is not the sign of a steep decline into authoritarianism that you want it to be.

That is saying that last night the detectives were accused, not that they visited the woman last night.

Also note it doesn't say who is making this accusation about the detectives, the article is not designed to inform you but to provoke a reaction.

Also consider that they will be carefully selecting what posts of hers to quote rather than telling you everything she wrote that lead to the complaint.

Do you actually know what she wrote?

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