Man prosecuted for posting airsoft photos on facebook

[BALDYMONSTER]

I ended up selling all my airsoft gear due to this, and it has taken me quite a while to consider if I should take the risk of coming back to airsofting.

Tbh the way I was treated by Airsoft World in Kirkcaldy Scotland didn’t help due to many issues.  But I do miss it a lot so perhaps I will get back into it at some point.

After all this time more has actually come to light regarding the absolute targeted and focused harassment of myself. Everyone in the legal fraternity tells me to go and seek compensation but if I’m being honest I am still waaay to wary of the cops now to do anything.

Still got all my kit and I don’t half miss my VFC GBB 416! So maybe I’ll start up again.

Thanks for all the support and input guys/girls. 

Again, there was honestly nothing at all at the back of this. No online arguing or threats, no previous firearms convictions, quite the opposite actually, no bad blood or Illfeeling between me and/or anyone or anything.

Even if there were, then why on earth would the cops allow a presumably high risk individual that they believed had section 5 firearms and three hand grenades to sit with these in his home for over a week whilst under 24 hour surveillance? I’m pretty sure that if they actually did think they were all genuine section 5 firearms they would have been through my door at 03:00 pretty sharpish. And if they had actually read what was typed underneath the pics and then checked UKARA then they would have been quite confident that I was just another airsofter. So maybe send a couple of firearms officers and a couple of other uniform cops to knock my door, cuff me and then searched the house and checked that they were in fact airsoft items.

Id have been totally OK with that, no issues at all.

The damage this has done to myself has been more than a little glancing.

Its also very telling that the local paper has removed all pics and information that they reported on concerning the entire thing.......

 

[Rogerborg]

Ah, I wondered if the story in the local rag had fallen down the memory hole - I've not been able to find it again.

If I hadn't seen the article and the pictures documenting the scale of the swoop (in public!), I would honestly find it hard to believe something like that could have happened.

But it did happen, and we're still left none the wiser about who authorised it or why.  It reads like a plot that Kafka would have rejected for being too incredible.

I'm sorry to hear that you got shot of your RIFs, but it was totally understandable.  And I'm glad that you're thinking of coming back to our legal, safe, sociable hobby, despite the best efforts of ScotPlod to mess you up.

 

[BALDYMONSTER]

Thanks Roger, regarding the pics from the local paper. I’m thinking they were told or thought it best to remove them, as far as I know news items stay up online for years past the date they were first reported do they not?

The entire thing seemed to come from the very top which is more than a little worrying.......

 

[Aengus]

Even if there were, then why on earth would the cops allow a presumably high risk individual that they believed had section 5 firearms and three hand grenades to sit with these in his home for over a week whilst under 24 hour surveillance

This is Scottish police we're talking about.. It would require them not to be inept and well yeh. 

What happened with airsoft world if you don't mind me asking? They've always been decent to me.

 

[typefish]

Its also very telling that the local paper has removed all pics and information that they reported on concerning the entire thing.......

Not particularly, if something might leave the rag with a bit of liability (as in, not in the public interest), they're going to remove it.

I'm still surprised to this day about how extreme this whole thing was.

 

[BALDYMONSTER]

Not particularly, if something might leave the rag with a bit of liability (as in, not in the public interest), they're going to remove it.

I'm still surprised to this day about how extreme this whole thing was.

You and me both!!!

 

[Pdubyuh]

I'm just glad that society is so crime free they have time for stuff like this........

 

[Tackle]

I'm just glad that society is so crime free they have time for stuff like this........

very true, but typically with many forces at the moment if they cant solve a crime with the minimum of effort, I.e. You supply them with perfect cctv & can name the perps for them, then its usually written off via a phone call.

the only exceptions to this are when they can screw over law abiding people who unfortunately may have unknowingly crossed a line, & who aren't slippery enough to offer up a strong defence when questioned, usually in a "casual" matey way lol.

before anyone takes offence ?, I'm very pro police, the problem isn't the guys on the front line, but rather the lazy good for nothing policy makers ?

 

[gasman]

That'll have been target driven policing: pressure to announce X number of drug busts in order to justify the budget spent.

I strongly suspect this is Operation Something-Or-Other too, given Scotchland's position on air guns.  The distinction between airsoft and air guns isn't going to much bother a copper who's been told to go and find X examples of Scotchmen posing with shooters.

That said, in my younger days I was both illegally searched by ScotPlod and giving a casual slapping in the back of a van, so I'm not going to leap to their defence.  Recently, a colleague collared a ned who was setting fire to his garage, dragged him inside, called ScotPlod, and they turned up, arrested him, and offered him a caution for unlawful detention.  He (correctly) told them to do one, the Fiscal harpies took it to court, and fortunately the Sheriff sent them away with a bee in their ear. He's currently going down the route of suing ScotPlod for unlawful arrest (Tommika nailed that it's down to whether it was necessary at the time, not based on the final result of the case).

Sad, but not shocking - it's far easier for the Criminals' Justice System to target the generally law abiding, and it wouldn't surprise me to hear that the chap in this case was offered a caution too, just to hit their sanctioned-detection targets, and turned it down.

I find this so true of to days police with their shit attitude to law abiding people. It is no wonder a lot of people that once would have helped the police now say fuck you.

When I was young a policeman would not be shy about giving you a clip round the ear and pointing you in the right direction where today's politically correct police are more likely to arrest the innocent party.

A good example was a friend of mine that caught a thief in his van stealing his tools. The thief locked himself in the front of the van with my mate poking him with some screw rod from the back trying to get him out, the wife having called the police who arrested my mate as the thief said he was just walking by and saw the van door open and went to close it when this mad man attacked him.

 

[Druid799]

I find this so true of to days police with their shit attitude to law abiding people. It is no wonder a lot of people that once would have helped the police now say fuck you.

When I was young a policeman would not be shy about giving you a clip round the ear and pointing you in the right direction where today's politically correct police are more likely to arrest the innocent party.

A good example was a friend of mine that caught a thief in his van stealing his tools. The thief locked himself in the front of the van with my mate poking him with some screw rod from the back trying to get him out, the wife having called the police who arrested my mate as the thief said he was just walking by and saw the van door open and went to close it when this mad man attacked him.

Sad thing is I believe you as well , a friend got scammed with an online sale for a lot of money , got all the evidence needed went to the police , they weren't interested at all until he said “fine I’ll go and sort it my self !” Next thing you know there practically threatening him with being hung drawn and quartered if he even said boo ! To the bloke . Sad sad times .?