Police State

[thessalian]

Now that I'm home, I can rant about something a little more relevant: I got stopped and searched this morning.

Maybe a slightly dramatic way of putting it, but technically speaking true. See, as weaselbitch can apparently attest, the Tube station nearest our respective flats was crawling with police officers whose sole remit was to take the details and search the bags of anyone wanting to board the freakin' Tube. So yeah - some police bint went digging through my (large canvas) handbag while this other one spelled my surname wrong. (I didn't correct her - I was in a hurry and didn't see any point. Missed my train anyway.)

I have this issue where I'm just not believing that the police in this or any other country have the power to do this - to just randomly stop and search people with, as they'd quite freely admit, no reason bar a "just in case". They say that if one has nothing to hide, one has nothing to fear, but I'm not afraid. I'm angry. I feel violated and persecuted because someone used their position of authority to essentially bully me into letting them dig through my personal property on the grounds that I might conceivably want to blow up the Tube when all I wanted to do was go to work. I despise this sort of shit.

We've been in a state of emergency, or so dodgyhoodoo tells me, for seven years. Please tell me how this is any different from the point where Londoners were suspicious when the city wasn't having some terrorist try to blow it up once a year? What happened to the London I saw on 7th July 05? You know, when some bunch of fuckwits blew up bits of the Tube and the commentary was, "Well, you were a bit shit, weren't you, Mr Terrorists"? I ask again: what happened? Why are people so willing to give up their liberty and their privacy for the illusion of safety? Because let's face it, a determined terrorist is going to find a way no matter what people do.

And you know something else? The terrorists don't have to blow shit up anymore. They've already won. If I can't go my whole life without being randomly stopped and searched on average, everyday public transport? We're living in fear, and that's what terrorists tend to want from their targets. Way to go.

I'd say that I want to stab forty people at random? Except we don't say things like that now. People get fined in some towns for swearing in public places, arrested for wearing t-shirts with vulgar slogans, watched very closely if they happen to write anything violent (that they aren't getting paid millions upon millons of pounds for - figure that one out). You can't move for having a CCTV camera pointed at you. Big Brother is watching you, and acting like some maniacal Catholic school teacher-nun-thing when it sees what you're doing with the free will we supposedly all possess.

In short: Hey, world? I am not a fucking zoo animal, nor am I a criminal. Stop watching me like one.

Comments

[fearmeforiampink]

I'm also slightly worried whether it's going to spread. Given that we've now had bombs in Exeter of all places, can I expect random searches walking down the street here?

[dodgyhoodoo.livejournal.com]

(OK. I'm posting the same response to thessalian and weaselbitch, as it's equally applicable to both.)

According to Liberty:

"The power to stop and search under anti-terrorism powers should only be used when there is evidence of a specific terrorist threat. It should not be simply an addition to the day to day powers of officers policing protests."

And they are required to give you a copy of the search record. Looks like the local plod are playing fast and loose with the rules to be honest. But here's a thought: they're on CCTV doing random S&S and not providing chits, yes?

[neonchameleon.livejournal.com]

In which case turn the data protection act on both that CCTV camera and the police to get the records of what happened - and contact either Liberty, the CAB, or both as to how to procede from there. They broke the rules. It is recorded. Make a mess.

[jamileigh17.livejournal.com]

Utterfucking brilliant. Seriously. I'd probably be seriously rude to them if they tried that with me. "Excuse me, are you my mom? No? Then stay the hell away from my personal property unless you have either a search warrant or probable cause that you can back up in a court of law". Sure, I'd get in trouble, but it'd be worth it to waste their time further

[dodgyhoodoo.livejournal.com]

Here's the Act itself.

Check out S46, determining duration: "(2) The date or time specified under subsection (1)(b) must not occur after the end of the period of 28 days beginning with the day on which the authorisation is given."

So essentially they've been rolling a 28-day period this whole time?