My arrest story

[Over The Hill]

I sincerely hope someone arrests you at gun-point, strips you, terrorises you, humiliates you and locks you up for 42 days without charge.

If I went around acting like a terrorist then that is what should happen. The bloke got arrested because he was acting like a terrorist.

The fact that the cop was a shoot is another issue which I sympathise with but fact is if you do what he did then it is right that you are pulled in to be checked out. He was acting in a way to trigger the arrest.

Again it gets back to the point of do you accept that a bomber gets through the net or do you accept that some people who act suspiciously are pulled in. You cant have it both ways.

 

[fossyant]

I think the OP's fault was to actually speak to an armed guard....I wouldn't, not even a PCSO on a bike..........and I'm white..etc..etc just a British person..I've never small talked a copper.........maybe that's why... just too friendly..don't...ignor them.......

Very shocked what happened - like I mentioned about 7 pages ago...but we all should just not talk to these folk.... no-one else does...

 

[Riding in Circles]

If I went around acting like a terrorist then that is what should happen. The bloke got arrested because he was acting like a terrorist.

In what way was he acting like a terrorist? Drinking pop in public? Having dark skin in a park?

 

[col]

Sascasm aside,if someone is treated in this way,no matter what their country of origin,then the police involved shouldnt be there,no matter what the reason of the stop.

 

[summerdays]

From the OP, I think his treatment was unfair (based on his version of the events), but that it perhaps shows that we need to think about how things can be misinterpretted when your mind-set is that you need to be constantly vigilant for a potential terrorist.

I was born in NI, but mostly grew up in England, with frequent trips back. I think it is different if you grow up in an enviroment such as NI, where your bag would be searched just to go into a shop. Or you couldn't park your car on the mainstreet in town without leaving someone sitting in it. Having your car searched just to get into the town. And the security at the airport both at Aldergrove and Heathrow was much greater than to fly anywhere else. Growing up in NI that was what normal life was like for my cousins all the time.

I also remember as a child being daft enough to ask a soldier who was standing by my grandparents farm gate, could I see how heavy his gun was - I was politely told NO.

 

[Flying_Monkey]

If I went around acting like a terrorist then that is what should happen. The bloke got arrested because he was acting like a terrorist.

So what do terrorists act like? He looked and acted exactly like many other people would have done, and are indeed entirely allowed to do in a democratic and accountable society - or have some people forgotten that this is what Britain is supposed to be in their enthusiasim for macho tactics?

However he looked 'foreign'. That was basically what this amounted to. None of the other things would have been 'suspicious' had that not been that case. We've been through exactly the same thing with Jean Charles de Menezes, in which all kinds of 'terrorist activity' were reported from changing modes of transport (gasp!), to running in an tube station (no!), to wearing a bulky coat (never!) and carrying a backpack (who on earth in their right mind would carry a back pack?).

Never mind that these were shown to be largely misidentifications and half-truths later, the situation is that if it's been decided that you look like a terrorist, your appearance and actions are then reinterpreted (at the time by the racist, twitchy officer) and then afterwards by tabloids or the kind of armchair know-nothings who inhabit web fora.

If you are a normal person going about your legal business, you don't know you are 'acting like a terrorist' until someone arrests you for it - and why would it occur to you? You are innocent. The only people who would be concerned about not being seen to 'act like a terrorist' would be:

1. terrorists; and
2. people who have so much bought into the state line on the need for repressive measures that they repress themselves in advance and become nice compliant little subjects. They then try to impose these new 'social values' on the rest of us and try to paint those who don't comply as latent terrorists or legitimately suspicious.

I don't see any of the former here - least of all pzychoman, who has posted here on all sorts of topics (particularly cycling and photography), but I can see several of the latter.

 

[Flying_Monkey]

Oh, and even MI5 are advising us to beware of stereotyping terrorists.

 

[Cycling Naturalist]

If you are a normal person going about your legal business, you don't know you are 'acting like a terrorist' until someone arrests you for it - and why would it occur to you? You are innocent. The only people who would be concerned about not being seen to 'act like a terrorist' would be:

1. terrorists; and
2. people who have so much bought into the state line on the need for repressive measures that they repress themselves in advance and become nice compliant little subjects. They then try to impose these new 'social values' on the rest of us and try to paint those who don't comply as latent terrorists or legitimately suspicious.

.

Very well put. I agree entirely.

 

[Disgruntled Goat]

A friend of mine visited Wimbledon for the tennis with his girlfriend. They decided to take a picnic - bread, cheese that kind of thing. He made the 'mistake' of packing a lock-knife (with roughly a four inch blade) in his rucsac along with the picnic - in order to cut the cheese. tomotoes etc.

On entering Wimbledon, his rucsac was searched and the knife was found. He explained why it was there and apologised, conceededing that it probably wasn't the wisest thing to do. He was happy to have the knife confiscated. But no. The police were called and he was arrested for having an offensive weapon. He was taken to the Police Station. This guy had never been in trouble with the law in his life, he was questioned, threatened and 'coerced' into accepting a caution.

He now risks losing his job/career/home if his City banker employers ever find out that he now has a criminal record.

If I were to put this on a 'well presented' web page would I be making it all up in order to push an 'agenda'?

Would I deserve to lose my livelihood for 'acting' like a knife-wealding thug?

Or is it a case of the powersthat be over-acting and abusing their power in a climate of fear, suspicion and paranoia?

 

[Disgruntled Goat]

Pzycoman,

You are being called a liar. Would you care to respond?

 

[Maz]

2. people who have so much bought into the state line on the need for repressive measures that they repress themselves in advance and become nice compliant little subjects.

I just thank the almighty that our government has thwarted countless terrorist attacks before they have had a chance to become a reality. I am eternally grateful!!

Of course, details are deliberately kept vague on such matters so as not to arouse too much interest. Naturally.

 

[Flying_Monkey]

I just thank the almighty that our government has thwarted countless terrorist attacks before they have had a chance to become a reality. I am eternally grateful!!

Of course, details are deliberately kept vague on such matters so as not to arouse too much interest. Naturally.

To be fair there are legal reasons as to why many of the actual attempts can't be reported by the press before trials are over. Unfortunately this has the side effect of making people doubt the reality of some very nasty attempts and a lot of journalists think it is counterproductive even to the government's own strategy and certainly to public knowledge.

However, the point for me is that we cannot give in to pernicious demands to give up the values we are supposed to be protecting in the name of defending them. This is not a 'war' or a wartime 'state of emergency' - and it is about time we stopped buying the rhetoric of the 'war on terror'. Terrorism is crime (sure, about as serious a crime as it is possibly to get in some particular cases) and it should be treated as the crime it is and not used to bolster other political agendas or be twisted to fit strategic objectives.

 

[Cycling Naturalist]

The police were called and he was arrested for having an offensive weapon. He was taken to the Police Station. This guy had never been in trouble with the law in his life, he was questioned, threatened and 'coerced' into accepting a caution.

For a start it's not an offensive weapon (they're things like flick knives) and secondly he had a reason for carrying it, which is a defence to having a lock knife in a public place. He should never have accepted the caution.

 

[Disgruntled Goat]

But when you have never been in trouble before and are being threatened with being charged and taken to court, it isn't always that easy to tell them to shove it is it?



My friend was upset, distressed and in a situation he had no experience of. He had planned on watching some tennis but ended up in a cell.

 

[Flying_Monkey]

But when you have never been in trouble before and are being threatened with being charged and taken to court, it isn't always that easy to tell them to shove it is it?

This is another key issue, and one that keeps coming up in the case of photographers being threatened in public by the variety of 'authorities' we now have on our streets: armed police, police, specials, PCSOs, private security employed by Councils or TCM or malls etc. In many cases, what they claim is simply not the case. But what are you going to do when confronted by a couple of under-educated gorillas* who are all dressed (and hyped) up? In many cases these days it is hard to know who you are dealing with and what they have the right to do or not do, it's even harder to know what is regarded as 'suspicious'. And there is unfortunately a big difference between knowing your rights and being able to enjoy them in practice.

*more the case with private security than any of the others...