Policing in the UK: Brett Duxfield - Bonfire arrest.

Hat tip to English Rose for ths pic of one James Gordon "Cyclops" Brown trying to do sums.

Some classic police fuckwittery here. Just read how police find plenty of officers and time to process a minor bylaw. Guess it must have been a rather quiet night at the local station...

Bonfire Night on the village green at Elwick went off in the traditional blaze of glory. But Guy Fawkes wasn't the only sacrifice

Two days later, organiser Brett Duxfield was arrested, held at a police station for ten hours and charged with arson, for which the maximum sentence is life imprisonment.

He was taken from his home at 8am and had his DNA and fingerprints taken after police received a complaint that a 130-year-old bylaw banning fires on the green had been broken.

Mr Duxfield appeared before Hartlepool magistrates and was granted bail after the case was adjourned.

Last night the 39-year- old lorry driver said: 'This is a nightmare. I never thought this would happen.

'If you cannot have a village bonfire on a village green on November 5 - a tradition hundreds of years old - what is the world coming to?

'It's ridiculous and it means we have turned into a police state. It wasn't even me that lit the bonfire.'

The bylaw has usually been quietly ignored, but this year the parish council threatened to enforce it. Despite this, villagers went ahead.

Although the source of the complaint about the fire is unclear, many presume it came
from the council. Mr Duxfield's arrest has led to a huge row between villagers and the council.

A public meeting was held at the primary school and two councillors have resigned...

He said that on Bonfire Night, 14 uniformed police officers had turned up wearing protective clothing.

He said he gave his name as a point of contact and was told that officers were only there as a matter of safety.

'Two days later, three police officers turned up at my home at 8am and I was arrested,' he said. 'I was interviewed until about 11.45am and then I was thrown in the cells until 6.15pm.

There you go, start a bonfire or rather organise a bonfire and get treated as a criminal. I guess this is what Tony Blair would call being "Tough on bonfires, tough on the causes of bonfires."

Maybe they arrested him for conspiracy to organise a bonfire without correct paperwork.

New Labour - "I want them all dead. I want their family's dead. I want their houses burnt to the ground. I want to go there in the middle of the night and piss on the ashes."

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