Today, a peaceful and successful Oxfree action (recycling the rubbish deemed not worth selling any more by Oxfam) was halted when Oxfam staff (who for some reason didn't appreciate the recycling of the goods they had already deemed only good enough to be thrown away) called the police.
The cycle-cops upon seeing the warm coats, gloves, hats and other stuff being handed out for free to members of the public (which unfortunately consisted mainly of people without the means to afford these goods if sold by Oxfam let alone other non-"charitable" shops) demanded to know the identity of the people who were bravely attempting to help Oxfam live up to the Oxford City Council's recycling scheme ("We would encourage you to think about the waste you create and take responsibility for it") not to mention Oxfam's own recycling policy!.
Upon refusing to give a name for doing nothing illegal, a person at the stall was searched under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984, Section 1 (which isn't even the correct section - clearly all the exercise the cycle-cops are getting has not been helping their mental clarity) and forcibly (and illegally) had their name and details recorded. No arrests were deemed necessary - maybe they just wanted the name of someone to get good gloves to warm up those frozen cycling fingers.
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