Gwent police have issued a statement about their ludicrous and abusive arrest of Jennifer Swayne on Sunday.

Statement following a 53-year-old woman from Newport being arrested on suspicion of criminal damage and displaying threatening or abusive writing likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress.

But there was no reason for “suspicion of displaying threatening or abusive writing.” All they had to do was look.

I don’t think it’s normal police practice to arrest people for putting posters on lampposts. I think they give tickets or citations; I don’t think they haul people off to jail.

Superintendent Vicki Townsend said:

“We’ve received several reports in relation to posters containing offensive material appearing in Newport between October and January.

“Officers on patrol in Newport saw a woman spraying stickers to two lampposts.

“A 53-year-old woman from Newport was arrested on suspicion of criminal damage and displaying threatening or abusive writing likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress.”

I don’t believe that. I think the bit about suspicion of threatening or abusive writing is a stupid lie.

“The woman was arrested at 2.39pm on Sunday 23 January and was released from custody after interview at 3.23am on Monday 24 January.

Why? Why hold her for 11 hours and release her in the middle of the night? Why not book her and release her immediately? She wasn’t suspected of murder or rape or assault – why hold her until 3:30 in the morning? How fucking stupid are the Gwent police?

“While she was in custody, a mobile phone and stickers were seized as part of our enquiries.

“Following arrest, officers attended the women’s address and conducted a search after arrest. Further items, including stickers and posters, were also seized.

Why? They’d had time to look at the posters by then; why did they go looking for more innocuous posters? Why did they treat a smoky ashtray like a five-alarm fire?

“While [the woman was] in custody, a healthcare professional assessed the woman at 7.10pm and requested officers collect her medication from her address.

“A quantity of medication was brought into custody by officers at 10.23pm after attending her address.

“The healthcare professional was unable to prescribe it while in custody for safety reasons.”

She didn’t need to “prescribe” it, she needed to hand it over to its owner.

“The woman was released from custody in accordance with police guidelines and there was no legal reason to keep her in the custody unit after her interview.

“The custody sergeant spoke to the woman who did raise that her mobile phone had been taken and she was informed it had been seized as part of the investigation.”

“The investigation” of nothing. There was no crime so the cops had no business stealing her phone.

“Upon release, the woman was offered transport for both herself and her mobility scooter but declined and chose to make her own way home.”

I don’t believe that.

“We published a post on one of Twitter accounts on Friday 21 January, asking the public to not remove posters, including those containing offensive material, in the city after sharp objects had been found behind them.

“This public safety message was intended to make the public aware of the dangers of potentially removing a poster, after glass and pins had been stuck behind the posters.

“We would reiterate that if anyone finds such a poster that they leave it to the relevant authority to remove it safely rather than risk injury.”

I don’t believe that either. There’s apparently a malicious agent claiming there are posters with glass, pins, Novichok, nuclear bombs under posters,, but it’s a pack of lies.

Just disgusting.