> I can see a flood of claims for wrongful arrest coming out of this
It's not as if that doesn't happen all the time already. My esteemed colleague reports that all the ethnic Asian Muslims she was at school with in west London have been picked up by the police at some point over the past couple of years. There has been no evidence against them and they have all been swiftly let go, and they've all been doing quite nicely out of the wrongful arrest settlements the Met have had to make so they find it at least slightly amusing. One of them is a lawyer who consistently refused to give his fingerprints when asked and was eventually arrested, though obviously they had to make something up, because there is no such offence as "refusing to give fingerprints".
because there is no such offence as "refusing to give fingerprints".
I won't be surprised if there was. I was stopped by the BT Police at Liverpool Street Station a couple of years ago. He asked to see in my bag. I said no. He said tough luck, under Section 44(2) of the Terrorism Act 2000 I am going to do it anyway. And that bit of the Act even says:
The officer does not have to have reasonable grounds to suspect the individual stopped or searched of carrying dangerous instruments or offensive weapons or of involvement in anticipated violence or terrorism.
It was about a year after the bombings (when I was also at Liverpool Street) and I would like to see someone get a bomb that was dangerous to anything more than a frog in my satchel. I would also suggest random bag searches are a pretty poor way to stop potential bombings.
However, my point was more that in the olden days the police had to have a good reason for searching you, fingerprinting you, etc whereas now (as evidenced by the ad campaign) everyone is a potential terrorist, all the time, and must be treated as such.
I don't think we are living in a police state either. However I can't see why we need new legislation or emergency powers. Maybe you right and they do actually prevent terrorism and are only used in specific circumstances. I'm not convinced though.
Things like randomly searching members of the public and publicity campaigns like this strike me as at best useless and waste of resources and at worst divisive and fearmongering.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2008-03-05 01:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-05 01:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-05 01:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-05 01:53 pm (UTC)It's not as if that doesn't happen all the time already. My esteemed colleague reports that all the ethnic Asian Muslims she was at school with in west London have been picked up by the police at some point over the past couple of years. There has been no evidence against them and they have all been swiftly let go, and they've all been doing quite nicely out of the wrongful arrest settlements the Met have had to make so they find it at least slightly amusing. One of them is a lawyer who consistently refused to give his fingerprints when asked and was eventually arrested, though obviously they had to make something up, because there is no such offence as "refusing to give fingerprints".
no subject
Date: 2008-03-05 02:26 pm (UTC)Oh, there's plenty of time left in the current Parliament to get it on the books.
no subject
Date: 2008-03-05 02:47 pm (UTC)I won't be surprised if there was. I was stopped by the BT Police at Liverpool Street Station a couple of years ago. He asked to see in my bag. I said no. He said tough luck, under Section 44(2) of the Terrorism Act 2000 I am going to do it anyway. And that bit of the Act even says:
no subject
Date: 2008-03-05 04:06 pm (UTC)However, my point was more that in the olden days the police had to have a good reason for searching you, fingerprinting you, etc whereas now (as evidenced by the ad campaign) everyone is a potential terrorist, all the time, and must be treated as such.
no subject
Date: 2008-03-05 07:40 pm (UTC)Things like randomly searching members of the public and publicity campaigns like this strike me as at best useless and waste of resources and at worst divisive and fearmongering.
no subject
Date: 2008-03-05 01:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-05 01:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-06 12:08 am (UTC)