Hey, Rab, am I interested in women’s rights? Rab C Nesbitt s1e2: Rat, Mary, BBC 1990
Members of this Labour government once spoke out eloquently for civil liberties. That government is now enacting measures from identity cards to restrictions on free speech that are unprecedented in modern times. And its leader maintains that these new laws are needed to make us all safer. There is little evidence that these new laws and powers are actually making us any more secure. But there is evidence such changes are making us less free to speak our minds. Dispatches: Stealing Away Your Freedom, Channel 4 2009
You now have to seek police permission to hold a demonstration within eleven hundred yards of parliament. ibid.
Train spotting: a full body-search in a public place. ibid.
They also seem curiously zealous when it comes to investigating unfashionable opinions. ibid.
This sort of policing may not be familiar here but other countries know it all too well. ibid.
The move to allow detention of suspects for thirty days is a direct blow at habeas corpus which is meant to prevent anyone being held without charge. What’s more, Labour and Tory governments have seriously discussed limiting jury trial. The prime minister himself clearly thinks that he knows better than centuries of British tradition ... How is it that these benevolent liberal-minded people have ended up presiding over the current bonfire of liberties? ibid.
There are now 24,000 under-18s on the official DNA database who have never been cautioned or convicted. ibid.
Proposition 8 built a constitutional wall around marriage and excluded gay and lesbians from access to the most important relation in life. The Case Against 8, case in court Theodore Olson, HBO 2014
A fundamental right to pursue happiness is being taken away. ibid.
In 2008 the California Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples had the right to get married. 18,000 same-sex couples were married throughout the state. Six months later, voters passed Proposition 8, a ballot initiative which defined marriage as between one man and one woman in California. A federal lawsuit was filed on behalf of two couples challenging the constitutionality of Proposition 8. ibid. captions
The court sided with the proponents of Prop 8 and blocked the broadcast of the trial. ibid.
This steady stream of hate that came across the phone. ibid. plaintiff
Ted looks up from pizza and says, We won. ibid.
The proponents of Prop 8 appealed to the US Supreme Court. ibid.
It’s another 5-4 vote. ibid.
I live in a war zone every day. There is a war on women. It’s real. It can be very ugly. Seeing Allred, 2018
She is easily the most famous women’s rights attorney in the country. ibid. television reporter’s comment
For Gloria the Bill Cosby case is everything she is looking for. ibid. Laurie Levenson
Outside the venue Gloria Allred was leading the biggest protest to date against the comedian. ibid. television presenter
She talked about sexual harassment when nobody wanted to talk about it. ibid. commentator
More than forty women have publicly accused him [Cosby] of drugging and sexually assaulting them. ibid. Gloria
Today another woman has courageously come forward to accuse Donald Trump. ibid.
‘This was a vicious violent system; you could die trying to register to vote.’ Rise Up: The Movement that Changed America, History 2018
‘What we saw as a problem, they saw as a solution.’ ibid.
‘Their courage, their love, transformed the history of this country by affecting the hearts of people thousands of miles away.’ ibid.
Nearly a century after slavery, racial segregation was the law across the South. ibid.
The strategy begins with a single act of defiance. ibid.
The movement also chooses its leader: 26 year old minister who is determined to keep the protests going. ibid.
The Civil Rights Act is the most sweeping change in social policy since the Civil War. ibid.
‘We must overcome the crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice. And we shall overcome.’ ibid. Johnson
Equality is still elusive. ibid.
National Defense Authorization Act: Americans could now be subject to indefinite detention and even murder without the benefit of due process. Counter-Intelligence s1e5: Drone Nation, 2013
While Martin Luther King junior was leading the charge in the South, one Californian woman was fighting on the front line for workers’ rights … She might well be the most vocal activist you’ve never heard of. Dolores, news bulletin, 2017
‘But when it came time then to make it a union, the CSO decided not to support us.’ ibid. Dolores
‘The feudal wage slavery of agro-business is just an extention of the attitude that has existed in the country.’ ibid. activist
1962: ‘We had 1,000 members. We had benefits. We had a life insurance plan. We had an office. We started a credit union.’ ibid. Dolores
‘There was so much violence against the Filipinos.’ ibid.
‘Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez felt it was possible to organise farm workers when no-one believed that that was possible.’ ibid. Angela Davis
‘It was total government interference. So this was very clearly not only a battle against the growers, it was a battle against the government and their support of the growers.’ ibid. Angela Davis
Everything becomes tribal, truth no longer matters, the rights of the citizenry no longer matter. Chris Hedges, lecture Seattle University 2018, ‘Corporate Totalitarianism: The End Game’ *****
The confession was king and police were a law unto themselves. Catching Britain’s Killers: The Crimes that Changed Us III ***** introduction, BBC 2019
A miscarriage of justice so shocking it exposes the dark secrets of the police interrogation room and transforms the rights of us all. ibid.
‘Establishing time of death is terribly important: it is absolutely vital to get it right or the wrong people could finish up begin conviction.’ ibid. Dr Cameron
Radio Times: After the body of Maxwell Confait was found in his south London bedsit in April 1972, three boys were quickly arrested and questioned. Confait had been strangled, and the trio – Colin Lattimore (18) who had learning difficulties, Ronnie Leighton, 15, and Ahmet Salih, 14 – confessed their supposed involvement to police. ibid.
In the early 1970s the questioning of a suspect often took place in a cellblock, and with no independent witness, the only version of what was said came from the police themselves. The three boys were taken to Lewisham police station. ibid.
All three boys were being tried for arson, but Colin and Ronnie were also standing trial for the murder. They all pleaded their not guilty and protested their innocence. ibid.
‘The confession had been obtained under threats, duress without strong strong evidence … The police behaved badly.’ ibid. brief
‘Colin’s alibi was absolutely superb.’ ibid.
Life sentences with no time limit. ibid.
The Fisher Inquiry set out to discover how the boys could have confessed to something they didn’t do. ibid.
‘The police were absolutely hostile to begin with.’ ibid. Justice lady
New evidence emerged January 1980: a prison inmate was overheard discussing his and another inmate’s involvement in the crime. ibid.
‘One of the most serious miscarriages of justice in legal history.’ ibid. BBC news
The Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984: Pace. ibid. BBC news
The police culture of a previous era persisted. ibid. BBC news
Four years after Pace, a case in Cardiff would publicly expose the dangers of a police service that still chased confessions. On Valentine’s Day 1988 20 year old Lynette White was found stabbed to death in her flat in Butetown near the Cardiff docks. 10 months later her ex-partner Stephen Miller was arrested on suspicion of murder and questioned at Cardiff police station. After five days of interrogation he confessed to Lynette White’s murder … At his trial Miller was found guilty of murder along with two other men both implicated by his taped confession … ‘They’ve become known as the Cardiff 3: serving a prison sentence for life for a murder they say they didn’t commit.’ ibid. television news
January 27 2017: Seven days after President Trump’s inauguration: ‘Donald Trump out! Immigrants in!’ The Fight, protests, 2020
‘… I’m establishing new vetting measures to keep radical Islamic terrorists out of the United States of America – we don’t want them here.’ ibid. Trump
For 100 years the ACLU has defended individual rights and liberties guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States. ibid. caption