Riveting write up of one man's run in with the police in The Guardian this morning.
When they were through, the two explosive specialists walked out of the tube station smiling and commenting: "Nice laptop." The officers offered apologies on behalf of the Metropolitan police. Then they arrested me.
The individual involved apparently did nothing much different than most of us do every single day and cites the following as reasons for him being arrested:
they found my behaviour suspicious from direct observation and then from watching me on the CCTV system;I went into the station without looking at the police officers at the entrance or by the gates;two other men entered the station at about the same time as me;I am wearing a jacket "too warm for the season";I am carrying a bulky rucksack, and kept my rucksack with me at all times;I looked at people coming on the platform;I played with my phone and then took a paper from inside my jacket.Elsewhere The Guardian reports that Ian Blair has finally admitted that he "did not do enough" following the Stockwell shooting and considered resigning. Sadly he seems to be no longer considering it, instead focusing on the simply terrible idea of replacing armed officers with armed troops. Yep - soldiers on the tube - for our own safety:
"...bring staff directly in from the armed services, give them a certain amount of basic training and clear instructions as to their firearms duties
Those would be the same clear instructions that led to one innocent man being shot in the head then.
Blair also wants to give his men the power to dispense instant justice. That idea brought to mind images of Joe Dredd not only in the Londonist HQ but with Liberty too.
Keep going this way and we'll have a PSI division before the end of the year to tackle thought-crime and questions raised in parliament about the threat of the Dark Judges and exactly how you kill what doesss not live.....
