Are you breaking the law?
Photo courtesy of Nath Brye

Are you breaking the law?

With amendments and clauses being added daily to laws made centuries ago, is there any wonder very few people know how to defend themselves against a law they never knew existed, just because a police officer with targets needed to make an arrest?

Due to my work in cultural diversity and community cohesion several years ago, and being married to an Arab, as well as involved with the Islaamic community, I was invited to become a Police Assessor.

My role was to monitor recruitment and promotions within the police force on the grounds of Respect for Race and Diversity; a role which meant a new applicant or career minded officer either got the job they were after, or they didn't.

I took my work very seriously, I still do, and when I started studying law, speaking with lawyers and judges, as well as probation officers, one thing became very clear to me. No one within the legal industry really knows the law until they are representing someone in a court of law and has to do the research leading up to the case.

They have a rough idea, but with so many changes in the law, no one can keep up to date. It is physically and mentally impossible. Understanding how to use the law and the multiple clauses and sections then comes down to how successful the lawyer is at manipulation.

Detaining someone requires questionning (in most cases) and prosecuting someone needs evidence. Nothing new or ground breaking in this concept.

Except when we look at Article 9 in the UDHR which states "No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile". Something that came in very handy to know following my arrest and detainment in a Scottish Police cell for 57.5 hours, without questioning, without being told what I was being arrested for, and without charges.

There was no law I had broken, there was no reason to arrest me, no reason to detain me; and there was certainly no reason to put my children in emergency foster care until I was released on bail.

After the 57.5 hours in which I had been detained, I was handcuffed again, put in another cell in an armoured vehicle before being driven to a court, hauled into another police cell for a few more hours, and then presented to a judge in a court room who then told me what my charges were.

This resulted in the police breaking the law by kidnapping me and my children, breaking the laws set in place by those who make them and detailed on the UK's very own governement website.

Arrested and held in a police cell longer than legally allowed. If I had committed murder then they were only allowed to detain me for 36 hours, longer than 48 hours, I would have had to have been suspected of terrorism. So what had I done to be detained for 57.5 hours?

Me? A law abiding citizen, unless you count the 1-3 mph over the speed limit on motorways and dual carriageways every now and then, or the recreational hedonist lifestyle I enjoyed in my late teens and early twenties.

A white, educated, upstanding member of the local and regional business, educational and political community, arrested? Detained? Released on bail? How very dare they?

But this is the harsh reality of a three year court case that I had to fight back in 2015 against the police in Scotland due to the arbitrary arrest by a racist, misogynistic male police officer who had an issue with mixed race families, single mum's and Arabs.

Throughout this whole situation what I witnessed by police officers, lawyers and judges was shocking.

A judge declaring a woman insane because she was in therapy for grief.

A man clearly dillusional and in need of therapy and treatment for severe mental health problems sentenced to prison.

The gender and racial inequality within the court staff.

The disregard and disrespect the judge had towards people for a variety of reasons not only surprised me, but it scared me.

This was Scotland in 2015, and this man was in charge of people's freedoms and futures.

With the training I had been given for my role as a Police Assessor, and the study of law I had undertaken, this judge was not fit for his role, nor were the arresting police officers, and the prosecutors well let's just say they learnt about the laws in Scotland through the defence my lawyer and I presented to them - much of which I researched and wrote.

Knowing my human rights, and the articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was a game changer for me in the court room. I had the aces up my sleeve and the career background to be able to work with my solicitors to have 'not guilty' verdicts presented.

The amount of tax payers money wasted on this case was staggering, and the caluclations were just rough estimates based on cost of vehicles, the average salaries of all the people I dealt with directly, and the fuel and facilities involved.

I spoke a few days ago about the spending of governments and how many children could have been educated with the amount spent on Trump's inauguration ceremony. The amount of money spent on the charges brought against me, could have kept 100,000 babies alive in Special Care Baby Units for 10 days each.

But instead it was more important for a police officer to gain extra 'credits' and hit certain targets for his up and coming promotion.

Now this isn't about how bad the police are, or really about my case. It is about how understanding your human rights, and fighting for them on an individual level can help others who have nothing to do with you.

Imagine being able to save the lives of 100,000 babies just because human rights were a way of life for all, and those in positions of power, such as police officers, lawyers and judges knew - and abided by the UDHR because they know you and I know our human rights and can defend ourselves.

Imagine if human rights was a way of life for all of us? And how free we would really be, not the perceived illusion of freedom being offered to everyone at the moment, but really truly free.

Imagine if all the laws which govern us all today were updated and were all more in line with the UDHR.

And imagine if all the laws made well over 100 years ago, which are not relevant to today's society were removed and the ones which remained were actually based on morality, ethics and human rights!

The United Nations states at the very top of their webpage "Peace, dignity and equality on a healthy planet" but how can this be so when peace, dignity and equality doesn't reside within the majority of people on the planet, and very few people know how to achieve inner peace, understand what dignity is for them or have equality?

Perceptions of dignity vary from culture to culture, and most people confuse the difference between treating people equally and treating people the same. I treat my children equally, but I do not treat them the same because they are different individuals.

In Article 2 it states "Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status".

This wasn't honoured in my case, nor is it being honoured around the world at the moment with the forced injection and identification programmes being implemented.

Article 2 goes on to state "Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty".

Certain countries are refusing entry to people from specific countries, and they have been doing so for a number of decades. And it has been allowed to happen because we are not informed. We have allowed it to happen.

Many people do not understand that to own who we are, honouring ourselves and our bodies is an act of sovereignty, and under the UDHR, no one, not even the state has the right to take that away from us.

We are all sovereign beings, and we have a right to choose who we wish to be, how we wish to parent, how we choose to educate ourselves and our children, how we wish to honour our bodies, how we wish to heal or medicate our bodies, and no one can take that right away from us.

And if they try, and if they are insistent, then we have the right to take action against them, using the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a form of defence.

Studying the law isn't a hard thing to do, but we are led to believe that as mere citizens we couldn't possibly understand how to represent ourselves in a court of law.

I am here to tell you that it is entirely possible to do so, and if you read Crossing The Line, you'll see how I did it.

All we have to do is become informed, trust our own judgements, know our rights, and then act from a place of sovereignty.

Sovereignty is our birth right, our inalienable right, so own it, live it, and nurture it.

It may well be the thing that saves the lives of you and 1000's of others.

*To get your hands on a copy of Crossing The Line, please visit https://geni.us/JuP0Lc

#udhr #sovereignty #humanrights #humanrightseveryday #humanrightsmonths #crossingtheline #policescotland #policecorruption #systemicabuse #knowyourrights


Dawn Bates

Author coaching for those brave enough to challenge the status quo | Disrupting the publishing industry | Owning My Ovaries & Drinking Tea Down Rabbit Holes Daily

2y

September Smith Rhona Malone think you'll both be interested in #TheScotlandSaga 😉

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Pete Canalichio - Brand Strategist

Equipping OVERCOMERS with brand strategy, brand expansion and brand licensing tools. Consulting | Coaching | Workshops to enable them to compete with the big guys.

2y

Crossing the Line was one of the most riveting books I have read. It is incredible what Dawn Bates Author Strategist and Publisher had to go through and to see exactly how she did it. Moreover, I learned about the power of will, perseverance and prayer to get through unjustice of this magnitude. Amazing book!

Dr Talat Uppal

Director @Women's Health Road | FRANZCOG, FAAQHC, FACHSM Founder, Australia’s first Abnormal Uterine Bleeding (AUB) Hub

2y

Fantastic article! Thank you

Dawn Bates

Author coaching for those brave enough to challenge the status quo | Disrupting the publishing industry | Owning My Ovaries & Drinking Tea Down Rabbit Holes Daily

2y

Deon Joseph what are your thoughts on this? Kjersti Bergsåker-Aspøy how are thigs playing out in Norway now, and what are your thoughts?

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