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Government Critics to be Sent to Mental Asylums?

KC | 21.05.2009 14:24 | World

Government Critics to be Sent to Mental Asylums?
 http://www.wikio.co.uk/uk_politics/government/home_office/secretary_of_state_for_the_home_department/jacqui_smith

"May 20, 2009
Mr X, who had called Jacqui Smith a communist, was stunned to be told that the GP had received a letter from the highly secretive Fixated Threat Assessment Centre following instructions from the Home Secretary herself."

"The UK government has established a secretive new police unit a la George Orwell with the powers to detain anyone for any length of time without any due process.
The shadowy unit called the Fixated Threat Assessment Centre (FTAC) was covertly established in 2006. The unit includes the services of police psychiatrists. Why? For one very good reason, and one reason only: psychiatrists operate above the law. They can detain ANYONE AT ANY TIME AND FOR NO MORE REASON THAN THEIR STATED OPINION THAT THE PERSON MAY BE A DANGER TO THEMSELVES OR TO OTHERS.
Once forcibly detained by a psychiatrist a person can be legally locked away forever and subjected to despicable ‘treatments’ such as psychotropic drug regimes, lobotomies and electric shocking of the brain. They are not entitled to a trial of any sort, they need face no criminal charges.
A person incarcerated by a psychiatrist has no rights whatsoever. Even Stalin had to produce his prisoners in court eventually. The miserable occupants of Guantanamo retain the certainty that one day they will face justice, or at least that they will have their day in court; the occupants of psychiatric prisons have no such comfort.

It is a thin line that separates a rule of law democracy from a totalitarian dictatorship. The FTAC crosses that line. For many years our individual freedoms have been incrementally cut away. The FTAC rips the flesh off freedom and lays bare the bones of repression for all decent and honest people to see. The FTAC represents nothing less that the repeal of Habeas Corpus with its right of trial and its protection from arbitrary state detention.

A Writ of Habeas Corpus orders that a prisoner is to be brought before a court so that the court can then determine whether that person is serving a lawful sentence or should be released from custody. The prisoner, or someone acting on behalf of the prisoner if he/she is being held incommunicado can petition the court or an individual judge for a Writ of Habeas Corpus.
The justification for the extreme powers of FRAC is of course terrorism. Experience shows that the powers of the FTAC will be quickly exercised in a far wider sphere than even the most skeptical imagine. Once a law is enacted the very fact of its existence gives it respectability and thus acceptability.
For years society casually turned a blind eye to the total lack of Human Rights for anyone labeled ‘mentally ill’, never dreaming that the definition might one day be widened sufficiently to cover not only themselves, but everyone who may for any reason be deemed a threat by those in authority.
In the twenty-first century mental illness is presumed to be the normal circumstance and sanity deemed to exist only after ‘treatment’ by a psychiatrist.
We live in a nightmare world that is starting to exceed the imaginings of even George Orwell.
Fixated Threat Assessment Centre (FTAC) tasked to intimidate critics of Jacqui Smith?The UKColumn was shocked to learn that a member of the public, who wrote letters and emails calling the Home Secretary a communist and criticising her for creating a police state, has been summoned for an interview with his GP. The individual, who wishes to remain anonymous, informed the Column that he was recently surprised to receive a call from his GP asking him to attend the surgery.

Once in front of his doctor, Mr X was stunned to be told that the GP had received a letter from the highly secretive Fixated Threat Assessment Centre (FTAC) following instructions from the Home Secretary herself. Although embarrassed, the GP understood from the communication that he was required to interview Mr X to establish his ‘state of mind’.
The implications of this incident are extremely serious, as they suggest that anyone who dares to criticise the Home Secretary, or perhaps even the government itself, will be regarded as mentally ill. Clearly for Mr X, Smith’s actions were intended to be a warning and the first step in attempting to brand him mentally ill"

 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-457934/Revealed-Blairs-secret-stalker-squad.html

 http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article1847697.ece

 http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200607/cmhansrd/cm070625/text/70625w0068.htm
[ex]Since its creation in October 2006, FTAC has dealt with 168 cases. FTAC does not detain people in psychiatric hospitals. When it encounters an individual in need of mental health care it alerts their general practitioners and psychiatrists, who then provide appropriate help under existing legislation. FTAC may make use of police powers under section 136 of the Mental Health Act 1983 to take a person who appears to be suffering from mental disorder, and in immediate need of care or control, to a place of safety. When people are removed to hospital under section 136, they are examined by a registered medical practitioner and interviewed by an approved social worker, not associated with FTAC, in order to make any necessary arrangements for their treatment or care. To date, FTAC personnel have used this power on nine occasions.[/ex]

 http://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2007-06-25e.141343.h

KC

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Government Critics to be Sent to Mental Asylums?

21.05.2009 15:38

No

Nutter alert


error from an errorist

21.05.2009 20:16

it is simply untrue - criteria under the MHA 1983 (amended 2007), would indicate that three people needed to be involved (two doctors not wording together and an approved mental health practitioner (AMPH).

lhm


Yes.

21.05.2009 20:36

Whoever posted this isn't someone whose political opinions I'd agree with, but they make a perfectly valid point about something I knew nothing about so I'm grateful that they shared it here.

Look at the Liberty quote in the Times article:

“There is a grave danger of this being used to deal with people where there is insufficient evidence for a criminal prosecution. This blurs the line between medical decisions and police actions. If you are going to allow doctors to take people’s liberty away, they have to be independent. That credibility is undermined when the doctors are part of the same team as the police. This raises serious concerns. First that you have a unit that allows police investigation to lead directly to people being sectioned without any kind of criminal proceedings. Secondly, it is being done under the umbrella of anti-terrorism at a time when the Government is looking at ways to detain terrorists without putting them on trial.” - Gareth Crossman, Liberty

For a corrupt and self-obsessed politician to have any influence over whether someone who criticises her personally should be sectioned is dodgy as fuck. Now consider the Metropolitan Police definition of a fixated person in the same article - "Fixated individuals are those who are abnormally preoccupied with certain ideas or people." Certain ideas? Ideas like liberty, or peace or justice? The Met. could well consider anyone who is 'fixated' by the murders of Tomlinson or De Menezes worthy of internment.

This has already been used on one person who is an alleged terror suspect, and it would allow the police to hold anyone without trial or represention for six months in conditions far worse than any British prison, force-fed with drugs. In other words, it has already been misused. I personally don't think Jaqui Smith is a 'communist', I think she is a fascist pornocrat, but I don't like the idea of any who does think she is a communist being sectioned without trial.

Danny


Not a tin-foil hat issue!

21.05.2009 22:26

The descent into "Thought Crime" is already underway. Preventative arrests are actions against thought crimes. Psychiatry has long been an agent of social control. It is no surprise that the psychological "sciences" have been integral to the torture agenda against those who were renditioned in extraordinary ways. Now psychiatry has been more blatantly appropriated by the instruments of state control. This move is the next stage along the inexorably widening end of the wedge through which vacuum more insidious and odorous forms of imprisonment and suppression will be ushered in.

a single spark


Plod the pyscho.

22.05.2009 14:20

This will make it easier for them to ensure people who oppose the establishment can be "suicided". This practice has gone on in the mental wards for years anyway. Deaths covered up so readily and no questions asked. Inquests do not go into detail and often no jury present.

Does any body oversee this lot I wonder? Who do they report to? Does anyone have details of the guidelines they are supposed to work to? How do they recruit their psychiatrists? Do they have any public accountability/

This looks ripe for a good investigative journalist. Tony Gosling where are you?

In the meantime, how can they be monitored?

Jolly Roger


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Jackie Smith a communist?

23.05.2009 20:46

If you think that you probably do need specialist mental health treatment

communist


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This posting has been hidden because it breaches the Indymedia UK (IMC UK) Editorial Guidelines.

IMC UK is an interactive site offering inclusive participation. All postings to the open publishing newswire are the responsibility of the individual authors and not of IMC UK. Although IMC UK volunteers attempt to ensure accuracy of the newswire, they take no responsibility legal or otherwise for the contents of the open publishing site. Mention of external web sites or services is for information purposes only and constitutes neither an endorsement nor a recommendation.

Jackie Smith a communist?

23.05.2009 20:46

If you think that you probably do need specialist mental health treatment

communist


Hidden Comment

This posting has been hidden because it breaches the Indymedia UK (IMC UK) Editorial Guidelines.

IMC UK is an interactive site offering inclusive participation. All postings to the open publishing newswire are the responsibility of the individual authors and not of IMC UK. Although IMC UK volunteers attempt to ensure accuracy of the newswire, they take no responsibility legal or otherwise for the contents of the open publishing site. Mention of external web sites or services is for information purposes only and constitutes neither an endorsement nor a recommendation.

Jackie Smith a communist?

23.05.2009 20:47

If you think that you probably do need specialist mental health treatment

communist


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