James O'Brien's clash with retired police officer over proof needed to arrest someone
12 September 2022, 15:54 | Updated: 12 September 2022, 17:08
James O’Brien clashes with retired police officer
James O’Brien clashed with a retired police officer who believes police need “no proof” to make an arrest if they decide a citizen is “potentially distressing”.
After an arrest of a 22-year-old woman at St Giles Cathedral who held an anti-monarchy poster, James O’Brien posed a question:
“Freedom of speech, does it extend to holding up anti-monarchy placards?”
James shared that he felt it was the not the right time but that he does not agree with police "carting" away those who do so and refuse to leave.
Retired police officer Dave in Lewisham called in to give his thoughts.
“It is a section 5 public order offence it’s causing harassment alarm or distress,” he started.
James inquired: “Do you not need someone to tell you that they are distressed…don’t you need proof that someone is in distress?”
The caller insisted: “No you make that call yourself.”
To clarify the caller's stance James said: “Any police officer can cart away someone holding a sign they don’t like and claim they have done so because they believe it was causing distress, despite having no evidence that it was… that’s not right.”
Dave maintained his thoughts: “It is completely right.”
Addressing the situation at St Giles Cathedral James said: “A police officer there decided that a placard could cause distress to some ‘as yet unspecified person’ and therefore he is allowed to arrest them - for possession of cardboard.”
In response, the caller said: “Yes but it’s not for possession of cardboard,” accusing James of being "semantic".
Later on in the exchange, James added: “You think it’s fine [that] a copper… saw a piece of cardboard with some words on it he decided it might be distressing and then arrested the person in possession of the cardboard.”
The caller continued to support his view saying: "Absolutely."
To complete his point James said: “We are not arguing with each other, you just think that’s fine and I think that is profoundly frightening.”
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