Blog:An Arresting Image
From Bolton Interweb
Ben Dover, Crime Correspondent, 12th December 2009
Earlier this week an ITN film crew were stopped by police whilst filming in the City of London and told they were not allowed to film without a permit. They were following up on a story about a photographer searched after taking photos of churches. The ITN crew showed a press card and told the officer that there was no law to stop them filming and were allowed to continue. This isn't isolated, there is a video on You Tube of two PCSOs, one of them particularly obnoxious, harassing another film crew in London and another showing a police officer trying to prevent filming by claiming he was being intimidated by the camera, eventually it appears actually arresting the photographer. You will find other disturbing stories of police and PCSOs harassing, even arresting, journalists, tourists, and photographers for taking photos of Christmas lights and St Paul's Cathedral. All under Counter Terrorism laws. We've had enough of this stupidity. Councils using these laws to snoop on school applications, an elderly heckler at a Labour Party conference being pounced on a couple of years ago, and now tourists cannot take photos of Buckingham Palace.
Along with at least half the country I spent 25 years with the threat of the IRA blowing me up. We did bomb drills, got evacuated from time to time, learned to watch for suspect packages, but none us allowed ourselves to be terrorised into not going shopping or boarding a bus or drinking in a pub. That is why it failed. And it is why Islamic fundamentalists will fail here too. They blew up tube trains and a bus and next day we got on tube trains and buses and went back to work. There is a need for anti-terrorism laws but when they are abused by Government or police they are degraded and discredited - eventually we end up being terrorised by the anti-terrorism laws not the terrorists. The police need our support and have to maintain order by consent but instead they erode that support.
I was also amazed to learn that Stop and Search laws, also essential to fight crime on our streets, are also being abused by some police officers. Witnesses to stop and search operations have been handcuffed and arrested simply for watching the police and again this is not isolated. Others have been threatened and harassed. Accountability is at the heart of policing by consent and if the police want the support of those who pay their wages they must have nothing to hide when it comes to how they go about their duties. When the police show no respect to the public then they cannot expect any respect in return, and so a downward spiral starts. Undoubtedly the vast majority of police officers are decent folk who do a great job in difficult and sometimes life-threatening circumstances but a few too many of them show a disturbing lack of common sense and respect for the public at large. This has to be put right before it is too late and it is the senior officers who are to blame for not giving the right leadership and guidance. Perhaps we should consider the US system of electing police chiefs, the ultimate in accountability.
The really scary thing is that these are the thoughts of a well-educated, middle class, centre-right leaning, middle-aged citizen, and when you lose the confidence of people like me things are bad. Really bad.
© Evrose, 2010
