Man prosecuted for posting airsoft photos on facebook

[BALDYMONSTER]

On 22/10/2017 at 10:11 PM, Rogerborg said:

Wait, who was charged with a breach of the peace?  How many people are we talking about?

 

And I'm interested in the matters of public record, i.e. which local paper reported the armed response and helicopter arrest (I see that was confirmed by the chap's defence, good god), and where this was shared on social media.  There seems to be a peculiar paucity of information before the report of the acquittal.

 

I may be searching for information that's just not there, but it's just bizarre that one set of pictures out of thousands drew the wrath of ScotPlod and the Fiscal, and I'd very much like to avoid being their next victim.

 

 

The initial charge was breach of the peace as I had allegedly caused “fear and distress to a member of the public”.

 

When it became abundantly clear at trial that the police had lied and there was no member of the public complainant, they then desperately tried to change it to “of menacing character”.

 

When the prosecuting PF and the poor cops that were called to the stand were then shown the comments below the two pics it was nothing short of a complete cringe fest.

 

The Young PF who had absolutely refused to drop this, (through no actual fault or decision of his own) was visibly very panicked, shaken and distressed as to what he had been “dragged into” so to speak.

 

When we broke for lunch my lawyer had close words with the poor PF suggesting that he had better get the top guys down to explain all of this. As it was plain for anyone without an agenda or some sort of chip on their shoulder (like a particular naive member on here) that there were several more  laws being/had been openly and willingly broken to ensure this was taken through the court system and personally I believe to cause as much stress, anxiety, upset as possible to myself and my girlfriend.

 

Now, I’ve always been well aware that money and influence means power. And I have my own personal ideas who and what is behind this.....

 

And no, I’m not directly blaming the Police.

[BALDYMONSTER]

On 24/10/2017 at 0:33 AM, EDcase said:

That's unbelievable.

Surely there must be some legal recourse for the mental stress and property damage!?!?!

I guess it would cost too much.

 

Maybe talk to a news outlet...?

 

I'm shocked and sickened how completely incompetent some of these authority personnel are.

 

 

 

Tbh I would like to think so, but the very real problem is that bringing a civil case to bear has to come out of my own pocket.

 

And I just don’t have a few thousand I can lay my hands on anymore, I used to, but not now.

 

And if I was to lose I would be libel for the cops legal and court costs, the stress of that does not sit well with me.

 

It absolutely is not about just getting money. It’s about making certain individuals accountable for their actions and hopefully being left alone for the future.

 

Ive considered selling my airsoft stuff, watch and car to fund it but if I had to sell them and I lost I don’t think I’d handle it very well.

[BALDYMONSTER]

On 26/10/2017 at 9:19 AM, djben9 said:

im sure they are aware and im sure it will be in a future magazines, its to big an issue to miss and affects our sport and social media

 

 

I would really ally like to think so.

 

Its all too easy to just keep your head down for fear of sticking it above the parapet and getting it shot off. No pun intended.

 

But as a lifelong shotgun and firearms shooter, I have watched with despair at how the laws have been tightened, interpreted willy nilly and changed ever so slowly to restrict and further restrict the shooting communities hobbies, sports and past times.

[BALDYMONSTER]

12 hours ago, Rogerborg said:

 

You'd be surprised how much momentum the policeman's ball picks up once it's given a nudge and starts rolling.

 

Northumbria Police used an aircraft to take aerial pictures of the "crime" scene where a person was accused of eating an apple with intent.  The casus belli was that a copper thought she was using a mobile phone, went into red mist mode, and refused to wind his neck in when it turned out that he'd been wrong.  The Farce and CPS chose to back him to the hilt, apparently having wrapped up every other crime in the region:

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-335291/Pipped-Woman-driver-fined-eating-apple.html

 

So while I'm minded to agree that there's likely some back story that we'll never know, the stubborn prosecution was entirely in character.

 

 

In in all honesty, hand on heart, there is truly no “back story”. 

 

If there was some sort of driving force, relevant previous convictions or anything else that would have alarmed the cops to take such action then come on, it would have been brought out at the trial, remember that this was all on public record?

 

And the local paper “Falkirk Herald” ran the story for three days, do we really not think they would have been doing their level best to dig up some dirt on myself? They didn’t even hint at anything at all that would suggest I was of particular interest or elevated threat.

 

And honestly guys, if I knew or even thought of any reason as to why they seemed such action necessary I would say. I’d end up looking pretty stupid to not do so.

 

Ok, so I haven’t been an angel, who has? But I absolutely do not have any sort of extensive precon at all to warrant all this.

 

I don’t even have my fingers crossed behind my back as I type this, lol.

[BALDYMONSTER]

I only hope that when this happens to someone else, they have the money and resources to go ahead with a civil case  as a stand against this sort of personal targeted attack and harassment so as to stop it from becoming yet another pointless persecution of anyone and anything that has anything to do with or even loosely resembles a big bad evil gun......

[Rogerborg]

10 hours ago, BALDYMONSTER said:

But as a lifelong shotgun and firearms shooter,

 

The only thing I can think of is that if you have or had a shotgun or FAC, then that might might explain the SWAT-style arrest (found that now, what a circus - plainclothes, uniform and firearms, on a public street? What were they thinking?) on the basis that they had to assume it might have been a real firearm in the pictures / video.

 

However, that doesn't explain why they chose you of all people to investigate, unless they've actually got some shiny backside trawling Facebook shift after shift for anything remotely shooter related, pumping names into Friend Computer and seeing which ones flag up anything at all.

 

If you do decide to go ahead with a case against them the one thing that I can say with certainty is that police systems are fully audited and it should[*] be impossible for them to cover up the trail of anything that was recorded. Anyone truly independent who goes digging should[*] be able to discover something approximating the truth of how the case was handled.

 

Given that the firearms unit was involved, is PIRC already investigating your case?  At a minimum I'd want to be asking them to take a look.

 

[*] If Police Scotland's new system is operating correctly, although I've reason to believe that it's somewhat of a shitshow. Still, I'll be genuinely surprised if they've managed to mess up the auditing.

[Defender90]

The UK has become like Italy, a great country with an ancient history brought low. Heartbreaking and terrifying.

May I ask @Baldymonster, has there been any actual expression of contrition from any, or indeed all, of those involved? Whether private or public, is there likely to be? 

You say the "Young PF" was shaken when he realised what was actually happening, did he/she extend any kind of apology? Why did he/she keep going at it?

It's the details that stick in my mind, like your cctv camera being deliberately laid face down on the table. That's ... shall we say it looks to the layman like a bit of a giveaway that whoever did that knew they were doing wrong. 

[BALDYMONSTER]

 No apology at all, from anyone.

 

My lawyer and others in the legal profession all agreed that it was very strange and that it looked like it was coming from the top that this case was to go ahead and not be dropped regardless.

[BALDYMONSTER]

I have substantial grounds for pursuing compensation but I am not going to.

 

i simply cannot our myaelf or my girl through anymore stress like this.

 

The past few years have been tremendously stressful as it is.

 

Additionally, I have lost all confidence and faith in the Police now. I don’t believe for one second that if I was to pursue any case against them that they would do something else to me.

 

Whos to blame for this? I honestly think my so called “family” are behind all this. They have the money and legal connections to enable this kind of stuff.

 

They refuse to speak to me or have anything to do with me since I spoke up about years of abuse by my now brother in law. My “mother” is the most selfish, twisted and abhorrent individual o have ever known. It would not surprise me at all if she was behind this.

[EDcase]

The family issue is certainly a sad situation but it should not influence a 'professional' police force.

 

I can perfectly understand just wanting to put it behind you and moving on in life.

 

Best of luck for the future...

[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]

14 hours ago, BALDYMONSTER said:

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]

On 27/05/2019 at 21:56, BALDYMONSTER said:

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]

9 minutes ago, typefish said:

 

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]

36 minutes ago, Pdubyuh said:

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]

On 19/10/2017 at 08:19, Rogerborg said:

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]

8 hours ago, gasman said:

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 .😢