Mind how you go...
My gorgeous girl, who should have being doing a History A level today was arrested yesterday whilst demonstrating against our loss of civil liberties. She went off to demonstrate at about 5pm yesterday carrying a placard saying Gordon Brown is a Dangerous Cult with a couple or school friends. Her Granny was coming up to help her revise and sort herself out so My Girl planned to be home by 8.30. At about 1 oclock today she was released, charged with Affray and Assault. "What did you do?" I asked. "Nothing" she says, "just that I was wearing red and at the front." I said if you assaulted someone there would be evidence. She says "Right, I am not worried" What about Affray? "Well, I did call a policeman a bastard when I saw him battering the hands of a girl with his stick"... So she was in the wrong place at the wrong time, nevertheless exercising her right to pro-*test*-('"). What really bugs me was that although My Girl requested that her Aunt and Granny be informed of her arrest, none of us knew where she was until she rang me at 1pm today. True, I was reassuring myself that she was probably safe in a police station, but having a 17 year old go missing in London for 17 hours is not a comfortable experience. And will she get that Foreign Office Fast Tracking now? What's that you say? Lots of teenage girls being criminalised? Yes. My Girl almost never swears, and she will have been very shocked. Just spoken to her again. Apparently the plod taking her details asked her to marry him and said he wished they were all like her. He asked her how she would describe her build; "womanly" was the response. That wasn't on the list so he had to make do with medium. The officer said he hoped there was "refined" on the list for accent but they had to make do with "cultured" instead. She was woken every hour in the wee hours to see if she was yet prepared to make a statement without a lawyer present. Sensibly, she wasn't, and when she did get one she made no comment at all. Update: If anyone knows any shit-hot lawyer it would be a real help to have some names. http://lilith-stuff.blogspot.com/2008/06/mama-mia.html

They will try - probably already tried - to get her to accept a caution. Or do you suppose people generally are wise to that ploy by now?

Sounds like this one is. My own daughter who is nearly 15 and just starting to get out and about with her friends has been well prep'ed to say nowt and not accept a caution under any circumstances if she's unlucky enough to be detained by our brave boys in blue. She's probably canny enough not to. I hope.

That is excellent preparation for what is an increasingly likely possibility for anyone in this country, young or old. "I have nothing to say" is about the ONLY thing that it is safe to say to Herr Plod these days. Forty years ago I had a London PC as a churchwarden, and he gave me thaqt advice back then. It seems that almost all guilty parties are convicted out of their own mouths ... and not a few innocent parties, too.

A lawyer I know told me that he advises all of his clients to say nothing. The prosecution will use every word you say against you, no matter how innocent. One of his clients was asked quite casually what music he likes while being interviewed. At the court appearance, the prosecuting barrister told of how the defendant showed more concern about the state of the music scene than about his offence. It's all about making you look bad, regardless of whether you are guilty. If you say nothing, they can use nothing.