Thread by @richfelgate

Yesterday, myself, a documentary filmmaker and @tomsdinner, a press photographer, got arrested by @HertsPolice whilst filming the @JustStopOil protest from a public footbridge over the #M25.

🧵....

Police had no interest in seeing press ID and handcuffed us instantly on arrival. They said they needed to search me for items which could be used to commit criminal damage. Obviously, they found nothing, so an officer said “just arrest them for conspiracy instead then”.

We were held in custody for about 13 hours and were questioned by the police, who tried to get me to reveal my journalistic sources and give them the pin to my phone. Tom's house also got searched by police and they took his daughter's iPad.

I had to spell it out to the police many, many times that I'm a filmmaker, not a protester. I had to give rigorous details of my work (making a feature doc, being a @bectu member, screening at festivals, getting broadcast deals, winning awards, licensing footage to news outlets)

and still they were extremely skeptical but eventually realised they made a mistake and released both Tom and I with no further action.

I'm aware of at least 7 arrests of journalists during the @JustStop_Oil protests so far, perhaps more after today.
This is second time I'm been arrested whilst working in the last month. At this point, all these arrests of journalists are not by accident.

Are the police so mind-numbingly incompetent that they can't tell the difference between a photographer and protester or do they know exactly what they are doing?

@netpol #JustStopOil