who's been 'leading' the war against terror?
"inevitably we're told after the event that the offenders were either known to the police/security or that concerned acquaintances or even family had made reports which seem to have been ignored. So a combination of more funding and a redirection of funds away from mass surveillance might have borne some results."
Interesting, isn't it.
When I were a lad, many people's local copper lived at the end of the street, was known to the community, and people asked him for help and kept him in the picture if anything dodgy was going on locally.
How many police have that kind of community relationship today?
At the opposite end of the police hierarchy in recent years we've seen the Association of Chief Police Officers Ltd have a senior officer in charge of anti-terrorism. In one case that role appears to have included running a selection of undercover cops in legitimate peaceful protest organisations (e.g. Mark Kennedy/Stone), undercover operations which led to the arrest and trial of dozens of members of those organisations, and then the trials collapsing when the kennedy/stone came out and threatened to reveal more than he should. And it turns out Kennedy/Stone was far from the only one.
Readers might want to look up who at ACPO Ltd was in charge of those undercover operations. His name has been around a bit more recently in a different context - investigating News International for phone hacking, and declaring them innocent, until someone finally took the job a little bit more seriously.
The same name is also in the frame for unfortunate occurences relating to the police killings of JC de Menezes, Ian Tomlinson, and... well you get the gist.
But enough about Andy Hayman [1], for now.
As well as Hayman, the Met's heads of anti-terrorism have included Cressida Dick, in charge of counter-terrorism in the Met in 2011, and as of earlier this year, in overall charge of the Met. She was also quite close to the shooting of JC de Menezes.
Elsewhere there's the decades of police lies (and evidence tampering) about Hillsborough, and the lies and fake evidence re the Birmingham Six, and so on. Before we even start thinking about cases like Steven Lawerence.
There's plenty more where that comes from but you get the idea.
Might it not be nice if the public could actually trust the police, and if the various Home Secretaries over the years had done something about *that* as well as a clearly ineffective "war on terror"?
[Please take it as read that I condemn violence, terrorism, etc].
[1] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/phone-hacking/8640523/Andy-Hayman-The-good-the-bad-and-the-downright-thick.html
Biting the hand that feeds IT
