The Free

12,000 a year arrested in UK for social media posts – 32 a day- The Times

The suspects are prosecuted under laws criminalizing “offensive” speech online.

by (banned in EU) on 8th April 2025 via thefreeonline at https://wp.me/pIJl9-GAd

Thousands of people in the UK have been detained and questioned by police over online posts deemed threatening or offensive, The Times has reported, citing custody data.

According to figures published on Friday, officers make around 12,000 arrests annually under Section 127 of the Communications Act 2003 and Section 1 of the Malicious Communications Act 1988. These laws criminalize causing distress by sending messages that are “grossly offensive,” or by sharing content of an “indecent, obscene or menacing character” via electronic communications

networks.

In 2023 alone, officers from 37 police forces made 12,183 arrests – around 33 per day. The Times said this marks a 58% increase from 2019, when 7,734 arrests were recorded.

At the same time, government data shows that convictions and sentencings have dropped by nearly a half. While some cases were resolved through out-of-court settlements, the most commonly cited reason was “evidential difficulties,” particularly when victims declined to proceed.

Freedom of speech, NATO states’ role in their own defense, migration crisis: Key takeaways from Vance’s Munich address

The statistics have sparked public outcry, with civil liberties groups accusing the authorities of overpolicing the internet and undermining free speech through the use of “vague” communications laws.

The Times highlighted the case of Maxie Allen and Rosalind Levine, who were arrested on January 29 after raising concerns in a private parents’ WhatsApp group about the hiring process of their daughter’s school. Six uniformed officers arrived at their home, detained them in front of their youngest child, and took them to a police station.

Statistics of arrests for posts on social networks in 2022 in Russia and the UK pic.twitter.com/JN6PsdTfJ7
— Sprinter Observer (@SprinterObserve) January 13, 2024

The couple was questioned on suspicion of harassment, malicious communications, and causing a nuisance on school property after the school alleged they had “cast aspersions” about the chair of governors. They were fingerprinted, searched, and locked in a cell for eight hours.

“It was hard to shake off the sense that I was living in a police state,” Allen told the Daily Mail, adding that the messages contained “no offensive language or threat” but were simply a “bit sarcastic.”

IRISH STATE RAMPS UP REPRESSION

In Ireland as in all Europe the Bloody Genocide is backed by the ruling classes- sold out to the Zionist Billionaires – No State will sanction Israel or defy the USA- Constitutions, NATO and Human Rights are seen as just Bullshit.

by Diarmuid Breatnach at Rebel Breeze on 6th April 2025 via thefreeonline at https://wp.me/pIJl9-GA9

At the gates of Leinster House Parliament.. Photo: D.Breatnach

In the space of four days, Dublin has seen 23 activists in peaceful protests arrested and assaulted by Gardaí Police as the activists protested the slide of the Irish Gombeen¹ ruling class towards NATO and their complicity in the Genocide in Palestine.

Mothers’ Day protest against genocide – 14 arrests

The Mothers Against Genocide group organised a vigil for Sunday night of Mothers’ Day outside Leinster House, seat of the Irish parliament and Government. The intention was to hold the event that evening but for some to remain there overnight, leaving at 7.30am.

Plasticised printed photos of murdered Palestinian children were laid out on the ground with children’s shoes, toys etc spread around symbolically against the main gates with battery-powered ‘candles’ lit among them. Nearby a refreshment stall was set up.

By the advertised starting time of 7pm many had arrived and more kept coming, a very large crowd by nearly 8pm when there were some speeches, a few songs and a poem performed by different people, then a projection was being arranged after 9pm at which point I left.

The event was dignified, without even chanting. Policing was very sparse and low-key.

Despite the organisers’ commitment to leave at 7.30am and apparent agreement from the Gardaí present not to interfere with that arrangement, at around 6.00am more Gardaí² arrived and demanded the clearing of the gates by removal of the icons to the murdered children.

IRISH GOMBEEN RULING CLASS STEPS UP REPRESSION– Twenty-three activists arrested at three different Dublin events between Monday and Friday. Three women reported being strip-searched. Six activists were pepper-sprayed into the eyes. Oppression leads to resistance; the system responds with repression.

In protest, some of the participants lined themselves up in front of the gates. The Gardaí approached the women, trampling over the photos and symbolic children’s items and began to remove the women, some of them quite violently, resulting in their arrests and those of three men also.

The 14 arrested were taken to different Garda stations where some women were strip-searched, an invasive psychological weapon used extensively by the British Occupation against Irish Republican women during the 30 Years War and still used by them against male Irish Republican prisoners.

Slovakia to cull 350 brown bears after fatal attack

Posted on April 4, 2025

In Spain, programs are being implemented to prevent problematic bears from becoming accustomed to the presence of humans

by Miguel Ángel Medina EFE on APR 06, 2025 via thefreeonline at https://wp.me/pIJl9-GzA

Slovakia has declared a state of emergency throughout the country following a fatal brown bear attack on a 59-year-old man, who died in the Detva region in the center of the country, a few days ago.

Amarena bear was shot dead. The Amarena Bear was hit by a gunshot by Mr. LA on the outskirts of San Benedetto dei Marsi, outside the Park and the Contigua Area.

Following the incident, the government has approved the culling of up to 350 brown bears, a number very similar to the total bear population in Spain — there are about 370 between the Cantabrian coast and the Pyrenees — and about a quarter of all bears in the Central European country (about 1,300, according to the BBC).

Bear attacks are rare in Spain because the government implements programs to prevent them from becoming accustomed to the presence of humans.

“We can’t live in a country where people are afraid of going to forests, where people become food for bears. The intensity of bear attacks is increasing significantly, and we are in a period when they should be hibernating,” Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico said Thursday after a Cabinet meeting, in which the measure was approved.

“Slovakia will address preventive abatement in areas, as is the case in Romania. While there were some 650 bear encounters in 2020, there were as many as 1,900 last year. The increase is absolutely clear; the figure goes up every year,” said Environment Minister Tomáš Taraba. Regarding attacks on people, 108 have been recorded in the Central European country over the past 25 years, according to official data

These bear attacks have resulted in claimed human fatalities only twice: last October in Liptovský Mikuláš, in the north of the country, and now in Detva, although there have been injuries and the presence of these animals has kept many communities on edge.

Meanwhile, the number of animals slaughtered since 2000 has risen to 604 individuals, with 2024 being a record year: 94 shot and 50 killed as a result of traffic accidents, poisoning, poaching, or intraspecies attacks, according to data from the same ministry.

The state plans to kill 350 bears, reducing the brown bear population to fewer than 1,150 individuals, a figure estimated by experts based on data from six years ago. Taraba estimates that a total population of 800 animals is sufficient for the species to be viable.

The emergency situation declared by the Slovakian government requires the removal of all bait, while the elimination of the animals can only be carried out by emergency teams, not hunters.

Greenpeace Slovakia and other environmental and conservation organizations have harshly criticized the government’s decision to prioritize the killing of brown bears, arguing that it ignores scientific evidence and jeopardizes biodiversity conservation.

These NGOs maintain that conflicts with these animals often stem from improper waste and food management, and that there are effective, non-lethal methods to prevent incidents.

Cylindrical trap for hunting problematic bears, in an image provided by the Brown Bear Foundation.Fundación Oso Pardo

An endangered animal in Spain

In Spain, brown bears were critically endangered in the 1980s, with around 60 or 70 individuals remaining in two scattered regions (the Cantabrian coast and the Pyrenees). An ambitious recovery program has increased the population to 370 animals in four decades.

The risk now is that some animals will approach towns and become habituated to humans, causing incidents or dangerous situations. To prevent this, the region of Asturias has implemented a program to control what it calls problematic bears, that is, those that approach containers or houses because that’s where they can most easily obtain food.

When a bear is considered to be engaging in these behaviors, a cylindrical trap filled with food is set up. When the bear enters, it is put to sleep, blood and fur samples are taken to assess its health, and a GPS collar is fitted to help understand its movements.

This is where the second phase begins, called “conditioned aversion”: its movements are tracked, and when it approaches a food source in a village, wildlife rangers are alerted.

The moment it begins to eat, non-lethal rubber bullets are fired at it so the animal associates the two sensations and won’t do it again. This prevents many encounters between bears and people.

Family meet Bear and 3 cubs in Val d’Aran. Panic as Son Disappears. .. Bad Bear eats horses. – The Free