Writing your own warrants, now? That kind of shit starts revolutions

As our freedom-loving cousins across the Atlantic can tell us, soldiers with the power to write their own warrants in persuance of the Stamp Act was one of the provocations that led to the American Revolution. Now, a similar power is being claimed by police, shutting down the Fitwatch website. According to the Graun:

The letter [to the ISP] stated that authority to close "the website and IP address" had been given by Will Hodgeson, an acting detective inspector at C011.

Right... so not from any kind of magistrate or court? Worse than that, the letter stated:

"The website is providing explicit advice to offenders following a major demonstration in central London.

"The demonstration was marred by violence and several subjects have already been arrested, with a major police operation under way to identify and arrest further offenders."

That's right; "offenders" - not suspects. Oh, for those halcyon days, when you could be caught dismembering a corpse and the police would say no more than you were 'helping them with their enquiries'.

Hat tip: Longrider