On Channel 4 now.
You can’t protest in Parliament Square, near the Cenotaph, without police permission. See the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005. So you can get a criminal record for reading out the names of the dead from the Iraq war, mark 2.
Cimran Khan is (probably) on a database somewhere for taking a picture on his mobile phone of some British Transport Police.
Matthew Dodd is a trainspotter. He was given a full body search by the Network Transport police in a public place for taking photos on a train station. A friend of his had her purse nicked at the same station – no police in evidence at that point.
Mr Hitchen, the narrator has just stated that the paradox is that the more the police crack down on the innocence, the less effectual they are at dealing with crime. That doesn’t seem to be a paradox to me, it seems to be a natural consequence of a change in priorities from dealing with crime to controlling a population.
The Roberts in Fleetwood discovered that the police aren’t interested in dealing with petty crime like drug using and vandalism in a playground, but they’ll come to chat with you if you make homophobic phone calls (asking for Christian literature to be placed alongside literature promoting homosexuality on council property). Before anyone gets up in arms against the homophobic nature of this part of the programme, Peter Tatchell is of the opinion that he might not agree with the couple’s view on homosexuality, but he does think they have the right to express it.
Are the police only involving themselves out of political correctness? I think not. They are being involved to control political opinion.
I’m going to stop typing a commentary on this program now, but I will state that I am concerned about the way our society is going at the moment. I think it’s time to fight back, possibly long past time to fight back. There are a lot of big names that agree – Liberty is a good one. I’m not sure about political parties – I don’t trust the conservatives as far as I could collectively hurl them, and I’m not 100% convinced about the libdems. The Green Party is possibly a bit fringe and I’m not sure about their take on personal freedom either – anyone any more opinions?
Oh, had to add the bit about the DNA database. Did you know that all you have to do is get arrested to get onto it? And even if you are completely innocent and released without charge, once you’re on it, you don’t get off. There are 24,000 children on our dna database who have never been convicted, and the police don’t seem to want to remove their records. The largest dna database in the world isn’t in a communist state, or an obvious dictatorship, it’s right here in our democracy.
Technorati Tags: politics, personal freedom, Channel 4 Dispatches Cimran Khan, DNA database
Comments
14 responses to “Dispatches – stealing your freedom.”
Damn, meant to watch it, but sounds like it covered stuff I already knew about. Hope it gets a wide audience and people start to sit up and take notice.
I remember a couple of years ago someone on an HE list making a comment about us not living in a police state, after some comment either myself or a friend had made about the Stasi. Hmm, think they might well take a very different view now. Extremely worrying how quick the change has been.
Good article http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1717661,00.html
It didn’t teach me anything – I think I’d already heard of most of the incidents that were reported. Wonder what kind of reception it will get? If anybody who didn’t already know watched it that is 🙁
Alot of that here too. Although, I think we are the free-ist democracy left.
In 1985 I started to go to football matches. It was then, twenty years ago, that I realised we lived in a police state. The lack of civil liberties afforded to football fans then has, as far as I can tell, been rolled out to all parts of society since.
Hmmmm.. re the footballs fans though; my dad was a football journalist in those days, from when i was about 5 to when i was about 10. He regularly came home severely shaken by what he had seen and got caught up in, people throwing half melted chairs down into the press box being one incident i particularly remember. He gave up in the end because he didn’t think it was a safe place for a father to be going. There were ordinary people and there were hooligans; it was the hooligans he was scared by of course, but something had to be done to change how it was. Surely it is better now for what was changed, even if it was a very hard line they initially took?
Not that that detracts from the main thrust of the post, i’m sure it is all true. Not that i’d know, i’ve got my fingers in my ears and i’m going lalalalalalala
In Denmark you have to give your national identity code out for everything: library books, when you hire a video etc. I know that’s a silly comment, but I’m just climbing back in the saddle and I’m a bit rusty. I think what I mean to say is that, I think that the problem with some countries is that people just seem to accept the power of the police: all the police here carry guns. Okay, where are the stirrups..What I REALLY mean to say is: Don’t put up with it. Write to your mp, speak to people, join groups, get stuff printed in local newspapers. Tell your kids, involve everyone, call a meeting..I always brag about how English people like to put their foot down when the authorities go too far. I think the world’s gone a bit mad right now….who is behind all these silly rules?
Elderfairy, I have written to my MP. I blogged her response. It really isn’t worth the electrons to try it again I don’t think, though I might consider it.
I’m thinking that it’s time for something a little more um, active? Although I’ve no idea what. I thought this was impressive though.
Merry, depends whether you think treating the majority as criminals is a price worth paying. I’ve had my photograph taken (individually) with no justification, I have day-to-day items confiscated with no justification or return of items, I have not been allowed access to where my car is etc etc etc, I have been threatened with arrest for asking for a police officers ID number (the officers having illegally removed them from their shoulders). Personally I don’t think that is justifiable…..
I keep hoping (eternally optimistic twit that I am) that there will come a point of critical mass where by people will just rebel and break these stupid laws. At the back of my mind though is this niggling doubt, especially when it seems the vast majority of people don’t give a shit, or perhaps (if I’m feeling charitable)are just plain scared, which ultimately is the aim; control through fear.
Perhaps Jax, you could use your writing skills to pen this novel that Neil T thinks could break through to the masses….
No, i don’t think those things are acceptable, but then i don’t think that crowds of hooligans wrecking an event that should be family fodder was acceptable either.
You could, in that particular circumstance, say that the end justified the means in a sense, if you leave out the fact that the main reason it died out was probably that they hiked up ticket prices. Or if you leave out the slim possibility that people dying behind cages erected to pen them in eventually actually woke them up to themselves.
Obviously it is in my fairly distant memory, but certianly that particular incidence of violence and lawlessness in this countries past changed things for MY family. We eventually lost an income over it, though i did get my dad back for Saturday afternoons!
Not usre whether it comes down to not giving a shit either; mostly i find the people who are most rampantly vocal about it see a conspiracy in everything, the UKHE list being a prime example and i don’t really trust them much more than the government! And if i spent every hour trying to absorb the relaities of it i’d a) wreck my childrens lives by becoming even more paranoid than i already am, b) never have time for my children anyway and c) probably wouldn’t be all that much better off!
And i have very cold fingers and my spelling is even worse than normal!
Well I disagree about the end justifying the means. Removing the civil liberties of the majority to deal with the crimes of a minority is wrong and not the type of society I want to live in.
Don’t you worry at all about the freedoms that your children won’t have as adults?
Oh crikey. I have to admit that one of the reasons I am still hiding out here is because the last place I lived in England was so criminal and frightening I just needed an easy life for a bit. I actually marched up to the burgling gang of (very scarey) kids one day and said to them: “Please don’t rob my house.” How pathetic eh? I just felt that the fact that I had unsuccessful crowbar marks on my windows and that my alarm system was always being triggered at night while I slept alone with my kids in one barricaded room was a dangerous sign it was not safe. Have been harrasssed by the police myself too, at times, but found the phrase “Do you know who I am?” (Innocent) totally useless. Shall rant in my spleen blog later about my experience of crime and punishment in England. What I am trying to say is that there seem to be a lot of bullying wa***rs about. Violent bullying people who commit crimes against others or make laws up. It’s all over the place. The only answer seems to be to stand up for ourselves and keep the strong love vibes going in our hearts so we are not destroyed by the fear of it all. Protest is good, but I personally think that we all need to get very, very clever. Friends in high places stuff, infiltrating groups. No violence, just cunning. I’ve noticed the same cold gleam in the eyes of a police man telling me to move on as I have in the eyes of a mugger telling me to open my purse. Children should not be taught there are good and bad people, but that they should learn to trust their instincts more. Lets be honest: how many times a day do we ignore our gut instincts? Scuze my pontificatin’ Jax! x
I will not excuse your pontificating, I’m thoroughly enjoying it. 🙂