It's not the end for stop and search Fears were growing today that the latest attempts by Home Secretary Teresa May to put policing back on a more sensitive, acceptable footing may yet backfire. In the Commons last Thursday she announced that she is ready to bring the UK back into line with Europe by revising the government's guidelines on terror stops and …
...and self-back-slapping about defending civil liberties coupled with a disingenuous "Of COURSE we'd have done it if we hadn't been forced to..." is followed shortly thereafter by the admission that they're not getting rid after all. Bravo! *slow handclap* Contactpoint? Live, and no plans to scrap. Summary care records? Live, and no plans to scrap. S44? Live, and no plans to scrap.
I was stopped and searched recently...
The officer said it was because a section 60 was in force covering the borough of Hackney, I asked "oh is that the s60 used at demonstrations?" he answered "No".
After the search and ID check I asked another officer who had searched my friend "So this section 60? is that of the Criminal Justice Act?"
He said "Yeah that's the one" my officer was present so I cleared things up for him "this is the same section 60 used at demonstrations, BTW may I have a receipt?"
Always ask for a receipt.
In the spirit of making strong voiced protests over twitter, if it pleases my fellow El Reg Commentards, visit lunatic magnet yourfreedom.hmg.gov.uk and ask them to repeal all of the Terrorism Act 2000, and put a vote on this post when having done so. Up or down, your choice.
I listened to the shadow home sec the other day blathering on about how the police "NEED" s44 powers in order to protect us from terrorism, even though I am not aware of a single occasion where the use of s44 powers has prevented a terrorist incident. Are there any other countries that you wouldn't class as a police state where the police have such powers?
Likewise the period they can hold terror "suspects" without charge. Even in the US Joe Bob only has 96 hours to make his "suspect" squeal like a pig. So why do UK police need so long? Why do they claim they need even longer. Surely in saying they need so long to find any evidnence they are admitting that they are either incompetent or corrupt? Think about it they suspect somebody of planning mass murder and after 96 hours of questioning they can't present a single shred of evidence with which to charge them. It doesn't get much less comptetent than that.
"Even in the US Joe Bob only has 96 hours to make his "suspect" squeal like a pig"
Unless they declare him an enemy combatant, a flexible definition that can be applied on one man's say-so without any evidence or court involvement, and which cannot be appealed. Then you can toss him into solitary confinement in a military prison for six or seven years while you see if you can scrape up or fit up some evidence.
As a former police officer I always hated Section 44 searches. The indications were that our borough was not doing enough of these. There were always contradictory comms from the borough commander, first saying we shouldn't discriminate against a specific demographic but then after what I expect was a flurry of middle-class white people being bothered with section 44 searches they put out comms that our searches should be more "targeted".
The easier solution for me was to stick to Section 1 of PACE... as it actually forces you to give a remote reason why you're searching them.
Like so many government (of any hue) vanities, bad laws seem to persist in part simply because they already exist; "we have it so it must be necessary". Once it's on the statute books it hangs around like a bad smell until finally it's trumped by something worse in an attempt to 'fix' the problems it causes, No doubt the tories will unify the whole mess by coming up with something equally odious - with it's own attendant set of unintended(?) consequences - that chews up someone elses liberties, only those affected won't be natural tory fodder.
Meanwhile the police will carry on making their own stats look as good as possible while avoiding anything arduous or inefficient like investigating crimes that aren't the top of their political masters agenda.
interesting, have a look here:
http://www.met.police.uk/stopandsearch/what_is.htm
at the definition they give of s44...
Helicopters because they are obviously out to get everyone who disagrees with Them. They might do the establishment a favour if the establishment is nice to Them.
UK definition of "Them"? the Police.
I can't believe that this kid was hassled (again!) for taking photos of Charlie taking the salute from cadets. I was in that parade. Thousands of people were taking photos.
And contrary to official instructions, and protocol, most of those at the Garden Party afterwards were taking photos in Lizzies garden! No police harassment there.
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