Possession of an Offensive Weapon.

[salad]

One question, did you have permission to be camping where you were ? if not then your friend may want to consider weather or not they make a complaint as part of the complaint you would clearly need to say why you were there and that would involve the whole group then .

I know its frustrating to be accused of something that you were not involved in ( drug taking) but this may have to be a case of taking one for the team on your friends behalf as a complaint could bring more trouble than its worth . And yes I agree that from what you said the officer did not follow the rules but you need to ask your self could a complaint open a whole other can of worms for the whole group .

On the other hand if you had the land owners permission to be there and they can say you also had there permission to have that knife there , then as far as the law is concerned then you were on private property and your complaint should be straight forward . If you were on private property with the said permission then it does not mater weather you had good reason or not to have the knife you are within the law to have it .

Hope this is of some help, I know it possibly may not be what you want to hear but its what I think

 

[mountainm]

As below - Did you have permission from the land owner to camp there?

 

[Tadpole]

Does anyone not find it strange that someone would join a bushcrafting website to complain about the police?

 

[nigeltm]

Hi SaladNow way is this "one for the team" situation.On the face of it an officer has not followed procedure, carried out an illegal search and an individual accepted an inappropriate caution. This needs be challenged because;- the officer was wrong and needs retraining or disciplinary action- a caution will appear on CRB checks for the rest of his life, effectively barring him.from some jobs- it misinformed the public so they think it is illegal- damages public opinion and brings the force in to.disreputeThat is just for starters!Thereto of the group should have nothing to worry about. Even if they didst have permission to camp that is a matter for civil law, not criminal. The police do not handle civil law, that is the realm of compensation claims and injunctions.

 

[mountainm]

So you didn't have permission to camp there? How big was your hearty fire? How close to civilisation were you?

 

[salad]

Hi SaladNow way is this "one for the team" situation.On the face of it an officer has not followed procedure, carried out an illegal search and an individual accepted an inappropriate caution. This needs be challenged because;- the officer was wrong and needs retraining or disciplinary action- a caution will appear on CRB checks for the rest of his life, effectively barring him.from some jobs- it misinformed the public so they think it is illegal- damages public opinion and brings the force in to.disreputeThat is just for starters!Thereto of the group should have nothing to worry about. Even if they didst have permission to camp that is a matter for civil law, not criminal. The police do not handle civil law, that is the realm of compensation claims and injunctions.

I dont disagree with you mate, but a complaint still does have the potential to involve the land owner ( as the police complaints team may want to check if they were allowed there ) which may lead to a civil claim .
Yes under these circumstances the police officer would still find themselves in the cooking pot but if it was me I would want to have a clear idea weather or not the said landowner would end up perusing me as well if my camping came to there attention .

That said we don't know weather or not the OP had permission , and as I said its just what I think and its what I would consider if I was in this postion

 

[Retired Member southey]

sound like a load of tosh to me, you sound as if your trying to rosy up your mate getting off lightly for armed trespass, if this even happened at all, lots of people find it hard to live within the rules, but then again millions of people somehow manage to abide the laws and statutes of this country every single day, I wonder how they do it?

 

[widu13]

Some things do not ring true here. Lets step back a little and reassess. The land- yep, that been picked up on. Sat around a fire whittling until 5am without alcohol? Hmmph, every meet I've been to and whittling in the dark is not considered safe. Sitting around a fire until 5am without alcohol (or drugs)? I doubt it.

I have a good bit of experience with drugs of all classes, nothing smells quite like weed it's one of those unique smells. Let's get this very straight- a SINGLE police officer is perfectly and legally entitled to execute their powers of search and to decide upon the limit of them (unless excessive like an intimate search etc.)

So people have been sat around until 5am but the person still has the presence of mind to pack away the knife? Never read his rights? How does the OP know, was he there the whole time the person was detained.

Did this person have legal representation? If he had a genuine reason for possessing the knife I very much doubt he would have been arrested, never mind cautioned. Bear in mind also that the person had to have admitted his guilt to have been issued a caution.

There are some glaring oversights in this "account". Axe to grind?

 

[sasquatch]

Perhaps if the tin foil from the jacket potato was put in a bin out of site the whole fiasco could have been avoided?

 

[salad]

I have been thinking about this post for a while this morning and under normal circumstances I normally avoid posts which have the potential for strong disagreement, however there are some points in the OP that keep coming back to me .

In the past if i have camped out in an area that I am not sure if I should be then

1)I have always made sure that I either have a stove to cook on or the only fire I made was a small cook fire which I extingised after cooking

2) I do not sit up untill 5am in the morning around a hearty fire chatting with my mates if I think I should not be there

3) when I do go to bed i make sure all my mess is cleared away and I don't leave bits of tin foil or other litter in or around the fire place

4) I make sure I have camped far enough away from houses and roads that I am not annoying to others or (in this case ) a police van can not drive to within walking distance of my camp

I have read a lot of peoples post on here over the years about the frustrations of not being able to wild camp easily in the UK, in those posts it is quite normal for members to mention there frustrations with other wild campers who spoil it for the rest of us by showing disregard to where they are by not doing simple respectful things like I mentioned above

Mods if this post is not appropriate or upsetting to people please remove it
.

 

[blackfeather]

I just wanted to add a little more fuel to this fire. basically a lot of police officers dont know the laws they are trying to enforce, and it seems like the (i thought i heard a murder) syndrome.. the trouble is just say for example the bushcrafter,in question knows the laws and the officer dont, the officer says that swiss army knife in your pocket is an offensive weapon. you are under arrest!! bla bla bla!!!if you politely tell the officer that its perfectly legal under 3 inches non locking etc, no officer is going to admit not knowing that, and here is where the problem starts!!! cos the officers pride will take over and his back will be up!!! so the situation is going to escalate!!! and you may get arrested just so he can save face!!! if you argue the point he puts it down as you are resisting arrest, and if you dont, argue it you still end up at the police station with a caution or even a court appearance and, you may end up getting a fine and a criminal record, the stick you were whittling may even press for compensation!! i think its down to there being too many laws for the officers to remember and they are only human i bet even a seasoned traffic would have trouble quoting all the traffic laws to the letter there is a big difference between a guy or gal out camping with a few of his or her mates and and a hoody with a stanley knife in his pocket around a town centre!!!
its a hard situation for both the police and the law abiding public.

 

[Bushwhacker]

How old are the people mentioned in the OP?

 

[treefrog]

You open your post with 'possession of offensive weapon' (which is an offence of intent, where the item could have an innocent purpose). If your 'mate' had said something to the officer to suggest the knife was for more than battening wood, she may not have had much of a choice in locking him up.
Otherwise possession of a bladed article in a public place would have been more suitable offence, to which 'having a good reason' would see your 'mate' staying out of trouble.
Did you have permission to be on the land? Did you take your own firewood (or wood for carving) or just cut it down there. Where the police responding to a complaint? I think there is more to the tale than you're posting here.

I can recall a tale from 2010. This was what was initially reported in the press http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...secuted-keeping-penknife-car-use-picnics.html
…and the story with a little more detail. http://www.thisisdevon.co.uk/Police...it-knife-man/story-11739409-detail/story.html

 

[spandit]

there was only a small group of us that consisted of six individuals who all had no previous spent convictions.

How many current convictions did you have?

As has been mentioned already, if I were to camp on ground where I did not have permission, I wouldn't be building a huge bonfire. That's the beauty of our meets - it's all allowed

 

[sandbender]

Does anyone not find it strange that someone would join a bushcrafting website to complain about the police?

Yes, quite odd.

 

[SiWhite]

I can help with a couple of points - I've 8 years as a frontline Police Constable;

1) The Officer was well within their rights to search alone, without another Officer to observe.
2) Your chum may have had 'reasonable excuse' for possession of an offensive weapon but now he has signed a Caution there is no going back.
3) If you'd had permission, kept a tidy camp and not attracted outside attention then none of this would have happenned...

 

[Hugo]

All I have to say about the police that I have had dealings with, and at my age of 60 years there have been quite a few, I have great respect for them and the job they do, flippant one line remarks are needless and uncalled for.
Interesting story.

 

[spandit]

All I have to say about the police that I have had dealings with, and at my age of 60 years there have been quite a few

This is a bit different from public nudity, though, Hugo...

 

[johnnythefox]

I just wanted to add a little more fuel to this fire. basically a lot of police officers dont know the laws they are trying to enforce, and it seems like the (i thought i heard a murder) syndrome.. the trouble is just say for example the bushcrafter,in question knows the laws and the officer dont, the officer says that swiss army knife in your pocket is an offensive weapon. you are under arrest!! bla bla bla!!!if you politely tell the officer that its perfectly legal under 3 inches non locking etc, no officer is going to admit not knowing that, and here is where the problem starts!!! cos the officers pride will take over and his back will be up!!! so the situation is going to escalate!!! and you may get arrested just so he can save face!!! if you argue the point he puts it down as you are resisting arrest, and if you dont, argue it you still end up at the police station with a caution or even a court appearance and, you may end up getting a fine and a criminal record, the stick you were whittling may even press for compensation!! i think its down to there being too many laws for the officers to remember and they are only human i bet even a seasoned traffic would have trouble quoting all the traffic laws to the letter there is a big difference between a guy or gal out camping with a few of his or her mates and and a hoody with a stanley knife in his pocket around a town centre!!!
its a hard situation for both the police and the law abiding public.

do you know thats the best explanation ever and so true,you reach a no win situation.
its happened to me at a few times.

 

[boatman]

Seems to be an awful lot of blame the victim going on. Start from the basic point that no offence was being committed, that he was innocent. Thus any action to make any kind of crime from this was nonsense. Sadly, the police force concerned will bluster rather than say that they got it wrong as in most cases.

Seems odd to me that if an officer genuinely thought that at least one member of a group she was suspicious of had an offensive weapon with suspected drug involvement that she wouldn't have radioed for back-up and all the rest of it. If she wasn't worried then fairly obviously to any reasonable person there was no reason for any action on her part. Ah!, I forgot self-justification, "Face", which seems a vital part of police actions at times.

No caution should have been accepted in any case. Remember, he was innocent.