Locked Up For Downloading A Book On Guns

[mrjarrell]

Clifford Rutley was going in for open heart surgery. Sadly, he found himself arrested and jailed for downloading a book on how to build firearms. Life in Not So Great Britain just continues to get worse for people who have an interest in self defence and the tools to carry it out.

via Libertarian Enterprise

All my life I've known that I was born with a congenital heart defect and that I would eventually need open heart surgery to rectify it. Fast forward 38 years and my time had come. I spent some time with my parents the week before my operation, waiting for the call to come into hospital.
There were a number of cancellations and one occasion where I actually came into hospital, got comfortable in a bed for the operation the next day to only be told that the time slot in the operating theatre had been taken by a transplant operation and that I'd have to go home. So, I called my parents to come and pick me up and take me back their place.
By now I was feeling sick to the stomach thinking about the operation. I didn't relish the thought of having my chest sawed in half; being put on a bypass machine and having someone stop my heart to start cutting it up with a scalpel to replace certain defective parts. I spent a few more days with my parents before I got a 100% positive confirmation that I was going to go in for the operation. With only one day to go before this I felt quite sick to the stomach and needed to do something to take my mind off things. Therefore, I decided to go back to my place one last time before I went under the knife.
So, you can imagine the sicker feeling I got when I walked up the stairs to my flat and saw that my front door had been smashed in, screwed back together and the lock replaced—meaning my key no longer worked so I couldn't gain access to my own home. My immediate thoughts were still centred on the operation I was going in for the next day but now I had the additional stress of a break in. I grabbed my mobile phone and called my brother and he said that the only thing I could do was call the cops. Naively I did this and they asked me to wait where I was until they got a unit out to see me.
It was at this point that one of my neighbours arrived on the scene. "Have I been burgled?" I asked him.
He then went into a full description of what had happened. Apparently a mass of police came along and broke down my door. He said they spent some time in my flat and removed quite a lot of stuff. He tried to explain to them that I was having an operation but none of them took the time to listen to him. I went into my neighbour's house and had a coffee to calm myself as I waited for the police to arrive. My weak heart was beating heavily in my chest as I continued to become more and more stressed. Then I saw the police car arrive so I went back up to my flat.
A lone police man came up the stairs and asked me to confirm my name and such. He then asked me to open my car and he found my mp3 player and portable hard drive. These were promptly confiscated by him, along with some copies of Alex Jones latest documentaries and a copy of Innocence Betrayed—A History of Gun Control. Then he read me my rights.

Read the rest at the source.

 

[snapping turtle]

Thought crime is not a crime.

 

[mertbl]

That's just what you think....

 

[geronimojoe85]

Gotta love the taste of that Victory Gin.

 

[indykid]

That also shows how well socialized medicine works.

 

[gunowner930]

And to think this country stood toe to toe with Hitler.... I wonder what British WWII vets think of what their country has become.

 

[mrjarrell]

And to think this country stood toe to toe with Hitler.... I wonder what British WWII vets think of what their country has become.

They're the "greatest generation" that got them where they are today.

 

[ATM]

What a pitiful system.

If I lived there, I'd order an ebook like "How To Break Out Of Jail" and then wait for them to come smash down my door and arrest me.

I'd greet them with a smug look and then I'd just wink at them.

 

[antsi]

It's a perfect example of how people who haven't broken the law have nothing to fear from a police state. In the end, the guy got his stuff back. No problem here, nothing to see, move along.

We'd be so much safer in the US here if our cops could do stuff like this and search through people's homes and computers for whatever whim.