Thursday, September 22, 2005
An Example Of Britain As Police State.
For anybody out there who is still in denial that Britain is fast becoming a police state, I point them to the Guardian, which carries this article by David Mery documenting what happened to him in a tube station in London.
"I am told that I am being stopped and searched because:
· they found my behaviour suspicious from direct observation and then from watching me on the CCTV system;
· I went into the station without looking at the police officers at the entrance or by the gates;
· two other men entered the station at about the same time as me;
· I am wearing a jacket "too warm for the season";
· I am carrying a bulky rucksack, and kept my rucksack with me at all times;
· I looked at people coming on the platform;
· I played with my phone and then took a paper from inside my jacket".
It would be bad enough if that was the extent of the action taken on the basis of the reasons the police gave this man, but the events which followed are a horrifying example of police powers at present, never mind the sort of powers Sir Ian Blair and other police chiefs are angling for in the near future.
"I am told that I am being stopped and searched because:
· they found my behaviour suspicious from direct observation and then from watching me on the CCTV system;
· I went into the station without looking at the police officers at the entrance or by the gates;
· two other men entered the station at about the same time as me;
· I am wearing a jacket "too warm for the season";
· I am carrying a bulky rucksack, and kept my rucksack with me at all times;
· I looked at people coming on the platform;
· I played with my phone and then took a paper from inside my jacket".
It would be bad enough if that was the extent of the action taken on the basis of the reasons the police gave this man, but the events which followed are a horrifying example of police powers at present, never mind the sort of powers Sir Ian Blair and other police chiefs are angling for in the near future.
© Colcam 2005-2007
