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Police powers post July 2005

 
 
Mirror
18:46 / 23.09.05
This article was linked from slashdot today, and I was wondering if any of the London 'lithers have encountered or seen similar treatment?
 
 
STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK
18:56 / 23.09.05
I haven't, though I rarely use the Tube and don't have a laptop. It's quite a scary piece, though, and I'm intrigued and worried by it...

...anyone else?
 
 
grant
21:46 / 23.09.05
I'm not sure I see it as so, well, not alarming, but surprising.
 
 
Tryphena Absent
12:49 / 24.09.05
It's just more evidence of Police panicking. I don't like what they did, it's not practical and I'm particularly disgusted that they raided this poor man's flat and arrested him for no reason. At the least they should wipe the documents from their records but at the same time I wonder how they're meant to stop us from getting blown up and how else they're meant to create the kind of intelligence network that stops terrorist action if they don't do these things?
 
 
paranoidwriter waves hello
16:15 / 24.09.05
Quick question: are they legally entitled to take our DNA now as well as our fingerprints (RE: mouth swabs)? If so, I was not aware of this and it worries me. Also, does anybody know what happens if you refuse to give them your DNA?
 
 
Benny the Ball
20:28 / 24.09.05
Yeah, the mouth swabbing thing was odd, I was always under the impression that they weren't allowed to search the mouth at all, hence drug dealers hidding stuff in their mouths.
 
 
Nobody's girl
00:03 / 25.09.05
Police are allowed to take a mouth swab for DNA without your consent.
 
 
LykeX
01:23 / 25.09.05
My impression of the article is that the police fucked up, they knew it, and then tried to find something to justify what they had done.
For example, the thing about the wires. It's like they're trying to find an excuse for having arrested him, ignoring the actual facts.

To be fair, we only have his side of the story, but I'm inherently distrusting of the police and it does fit completely with their usual modus operandi.
 
 
Mirror
01:42 / 26.09.05
The most disturbing part from my perspective is the fact that they went through all of the motions of searching his flat and taking computer equipment, etc. despite the fact that basically nothing that he had on him at the time of his arrest should have given cause for such a severe intrusion of privacy.

Okay, fine, so the police messed up and were trying to come up with something to justify their actions. The problem is, there doesn't seem to be anything happening to rectify their error. Is it really the case that the British citizenry in general are willing to simply accept abuses of power like this one and Jean Charles de Menezes's murder? It seems like it's getting to the point where individuals can no longer rationalize the abuses as being somebody else's problem.
 
 
We're The Great Old Ones Now
09:01 / 26.09.05
I may have missed it, but are we to understand that the writer was walking while black? This grave sin has long been on the Met's priority list...
 
 
Tryphena Absent
11:18 / 26.09.05
nothing that he had on him at the time of his arrest should have given cause for such a severe intrusion of privacy.

Yes, this is the most disturbing thing for me as well. There's a complete lack of logic involved in the investigation, no reason to search his flat at all, which is why I presume it's born out of panic, just as the shooting was.

As for the DNA swabs, I think this would be a good idea if innocent until proven guilty actually meant something. At the moment I wouldn't be surprised if a policeman or woman looked at DNA evidence that clearly stated two people were completely unrelated in every sense and were so blinded by panic that they read a document as stating two people were the same person.
 
  
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