BBC NEWS | UK | Knife scanners to be used UK-wide
Conservative homeland security spokesman Patrick Mercer welcomed the move but said detecting potential bombers should be a top priority.
Homeland security???? When did I relocate to America?
🙁
Oh, and let’s have a think about the stats shall we. We’ve had, um, one major incident last year with bombers. There were 4 of them I believe (although I’m also slightly confused by the number of reports of a fifth bomber). They did kill and injure a large number of ppl, and I do accept and state that it was a deeply unpleasant thing to have happen, that we should try to avoid.
But how many ppl are robbed at knifepoint? Injured or killed by knives in a year? I’m going to hazard a guess that it’s more than the number killed in the July bombings. They recovered 68 knives by scanning 10,000 ppl. Hm, I’m not utterly convinced that scanning all those innocent ppl (they state that ppl are arrested when backing away from the scanner, which sort of implies that suspects aren’t scanned) is the way forward, but why is looking for bombers a priority?
Soundbite politics anyone?
Comments
4 responses to “BBC NEWS | UK | Knife scanners to be used UK-wide”
um, I have this vague idea that most explosive devices have some metal bits in them which further devalues the wannabe “homeland security” minister’s comment too. Hey ho. Guess there isn’t the shock value/knee jerk terror in one “youth” knifing another that there is in 50 or so honest working Londoners being killed in one go.
Did sort of conjour up an image of “Running man” style x-raying of all commuters for weapons though.
http://www.mobilegazette.com/uk-gsm-0604×01.htm
i live in Hackney, east London. And everyday, I get on the 30 bus. I see huge advertisements saying: “Knives. They’re not for stabbing.” And then the big yellow placards. “Help. Brutal mugging, stabbing, rape. Call xxxxxxx if you have information.” I’ve seen 6 of these in the past two weeks.
And suddenly, I feel really safe. In The States, I had a neighboor who used to “pick off pigeons” with his shotgun. And even though we lived in a posh area, we still heard gunshots – at least once a week. I can tell the difference between gunshots, fireworks and cars back-firing. I just shouldn’t know these things. My husband and I were laughing at the knife adverisements the other day. There was a campaign in The States before we left to dispose of guns “anonymously” at a local community centre.
But – “homeland security” and “subway scanners.” Suddenly I feel as if I’ve traded one beast only to enter into the transformation of a more sane beast into the one I left behind.
We just have to keep “googlebombing.” For example, if you write the word “failure” and make a hypertext link to http://www.whitehouse.gov/president/gwbbio.html. Then google searchers who search for failure will get George Bush. So, U.K. residents could do the same with Blair. All you have to do is make failure synonomous with Blair and goggle will do the rest.
Thanks for posting this Jax.
Or maybe Fascist?