Posted by quazar 6 hours ago
Under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act, police are allowed to stop anyone passing through a UK port “to determine whether they may be involved or concerned in the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism”.
The person who is detained can be held for up to six hours, is legally obliged to answer questions and must provide the password or access number for electronic devices, or be held to have committed a criminal offence if they refuse.
So, basically, just because you pass the border, English citizen or not, you have to provide the password to all your devices on request, without even a probable cause or any justice decision or oversight. And if you don't comply, you will be sentenced as a terrorist...It is a core characteristic of a nation that it is able, if it chooses, to inspect every single person and item entering it.
Even countries with open borders reserve the right, and have often exercised that right, to close their borders and enforce strict customs, immigration, and security laws.
It doesn't matter where. Europe, Asia, Africa, "good" countries, "bad" countries-- if you cross their border you can be compelled to unlock your phone.
If you think you live in a country that cannot do so, you are wrong. The only differentiating characteristic among all nations is the nature of the reaction if you refuse to comply.
Such a shame to see that country go from what it was to what it is now.
It's like they've all decided "ok so we've done being strong and great, now let's try be the biggest pieces of shit we can be".
There's a funny story that Bill Binney tells, the former technical director of the NSA who blew the whistle on the spy programs following the patriot act, about when a couple of FBI agents were sent to his house to arrest him. He wryly says "I caused a problem for them" by telling them something they weren't cleared to know. The FBI guys radioed their superiors, and then were immediately ordered to get away from Binney
(Note that I’m speaking broadly when I say “right,” in the sense that these are human rights that should be universally respected. The UK certainly doesn’t seem to respect the right against self-incrimination, given that it charges people with a crime for not allowing a border agent to rifle through their phone.)
You're describing a violation of privacy, possibly privilege, not self-incrimination doctrine. Self incrimination relates to compelled speech [1].
No? If we do that we render the term meaningless as any incriminating evidence could be termed self-incrimination.
Self-incrimination is about speech. Violations of privilege are not self incriminating. Neither is murder. Both are bad. But just because something is bad doesn't make it every specific type of bad.
How can you trust him given his personal history of violence, fraud and lying? Are his accounts corroborated by someone reputable?
From his record on Wikipedia and the facts in this article, he's either an idiot with impulse-control issues, or a provocateur who repeatedly gets himself in trouble to play victim for views. Neither suggests a reliable narrator.
Guy been put through hell, in the new UK where free speech is nonexistent and people are imprisoned for opposing 'the party'.
Mind you, I'm not English nor do I live there, but it's scary seeing what is happening there and how it seems to be spreading
What a shock.
A smear campaign forced him to assault "an off-duty police officer in a drunken argument," "illegally [enter] the United States using a friend's passport," repeatedly violate simple court orders, repeatedly libel people including children and stalk journalists [1]?
> it's pretty hard to refute what he says
I literally asked for reputable corroboration of his accounts.
> the new UK where free speech is nonexistent and people are imprisoned for opposing 'the party'
I'll file this under the category of people whose speech we are discussing because it's available, been amplified and is being reported on yelling into a microphone and/or on TV that they're being silenced. (Reminds me of South Park's "The Worldwide Privacy Tour" [2].)
Looking deeper, the guy is an entertainer. He says provactive stuff--some of it racist, some of it stupid, a little of it true (though never novel)--to an audience that wants to believe it's edgy and oppressed by supporting someone cosplaying a martyr. The role isn't unique to the right or left, but it is the domain of extremists.
[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_Robinson#Early_and_per...
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Worldwide_Privacy_Tour
In 2021, he was found to have libelled a 15-year-old refugee at a school in Huddersfield and was ordered to pay £100,000 plus legal costs. In 2021, he was subjected to a five-year stalking prevention order for harassing journalist Lizzie Dearden and her partner.”
Wow. Makes his alleged crime in this case, violation of an injunction, far more believable.
Not everything is a conspiracy. He libelled a person. A court said stop libelling. He violated that injunction.
The takeaway from this guy’s history is he’s a liar and serial lawbreaker. The outrage in this story is reliant on his account. As a result, this is a nothingburger without more information, in the same category as sovereign citizens claiming repression for drunk driving without a license.
If his planned defense against his other criminal charges was documented on the phone, that would make it information the state cannot legitimately seek or possess. And that’s not even considering his inherent right to privacy.
Sure. We have no evidence that is (a) true or (b) what happened.
> that would make it information the state cannot legitimately seek or possess
It might make some of it privileged. That's miles apart from "information the state cannot legitimately seek or possess."
Media should call this waste of oxygen by his real name on the headline.
the independent have used the name people would recognise in their headline