Great Britain – a police state?

Published 10/25/2012

• Lars Hedegaard
• Ingrid Carlqvist

A few days ago, The Telegraph was able to reveal that British prisons have started releasing a great number of rapists, sex offenders and violent criminals even before they have served half of their sentence. In 2011, 92 rapists, 176 other sex offenders and 6,990 violent criminals benefited from this benevolent policy. Many of those released carry on their old activities as soon as they are back on the street, which has caused a great deal of dissatisfaction – not least among the victims.

No such softness is on offer for people whom the state identifies as political criminals, i.e., those daring to challenge the policies of mass immigration and multiculturalism imposed by the current and previous governments. As a result of these policies, vast areas in the cities have turned into "no-go" zones, where peaceful citizens had better not enter.

In the case of these enemies of the state, there seems to be ample room in the otherwise crowded prisons.

On October 21, the state caught up with the leader of the English Defence League, Tommy Robinson, whose real name is believed to be Stephen Yaxley-Lennon. He is accused of having used a fake passport when entering the United States in September in order to give a speech at the September 11 SION (Stop the Islamization of Nations) conference in New York.

According to the indictment, he is supposed to have sneaked into country with the intent of committing crimes. He has been jailed for three months and is threatened with extradition to the United States.

The postulated sequence of events appears odd. As anyone who has traveled to the United States can testify, the American immigration authorities take no chances. Passports and visas are carefully scrutinized and all visitors are fingerprinted and photographed. One is asked to state the purpose of the visit: is it business or pleasure, where is one going to stay and for how long, does the visitor have any family in the US, etc.? It is all very thorough.

Now the British (and American?) authorities want us to believe that suddenly, a month and a half after Robinson's trip, they have discovered that he was traveling on a fake passport. If that is the American standard, it will be quite an encouragement to would-be terrorists. 

And what crimes do the authorities imagine that Robinson has intended to commit? Dispatch International's chief editors met Tommy Robinson in New York and listened to his speech at the Millennium Hotel in Manhattan, where he said nothing illegal.

Perhaps the crime is the fact that Robison and his cousin Kevin Carroll – another EDL leader, who also spoke in New York – minced no words in condemning the policies they believe are ruining their country?

The suspicion that the persecution of Tommy Robinson is driven by political considerations is confirmed by the fact that approximately 50 other EDL members, including Kevin Carroll, were apprehended around the time of Robinson's arrest. Even the leader of the British Freedom Party, Paul Weston, was grabbed and driven off in a police car after approaching the Wormwood Scrubs prison to enquire if Tommy Robinson was held there.

The prison authorities refused to give any information with reference to the Data Protection Act.

Kevin Carroll (out on bail) and Paul Weston have been released, as is supposedly the case with the 50 other arrested EDL supporters.

Tommy Robinson, however, can look forward to a lengthy stay behind bars. Long before his arrest, the authorities froze his accounts and consequently he has no money to pay for his defense.

According to information from the British Freedom Party, Robinson is locked up together with a great number of Muslims, who would hardly hesitate to get their number one enemy if given the chance.

If something should happen to Tommy Robinson while he is imprisoned, the British government probably wouldn't mind terribly. It has long ago identified the working-class EDL as public enemy number one.

Is Great Britain – the land that gave us Magna Carta, The Bill of Rights, John Milton, John Stuart Mill, John Locke, Winston Churchill and George Orwell – on its way to becoming a police state? A police state is one where the authorities use their means of coercion to crush their political opponents and strike terror into the hearts of others.

The recent wave of arrests points in that direction.