She suggests the police might try stopping and searching MPs.
]]>Naturally, the parliamentary community would complain of being victimised. MPs might find themselves six times more likely to be arrested than people from less fiddle-prone communities.
Ric – given the public opinion of “anti-social” behaviour you may well be risking your liberty if you ever came to the green and pleasant land. On the bright side, if you are remotely “reclusive” in Europe it seems you are now fair game for being labelled Maddie McCann’s abductor… (at least by the British press)
JO – good point. There is a threat to our liberties based on an irrational fear. What solutions are possible? Greater public education? Greater public understanding? Better science and logic classes at schools? Would they help? I have no idea. Is it not a case that simply highlighting the threat is in itself the solution? Are we being naive to assume people simply need to be made aware of the creeping police state to put an end to it? I certainly do not think “direct action” is the solution.
bomon – I sort of agree. The only issue I have is that by making the formal recording part of the process, both sides are given an automatic guarantee of its protection. Imagine the situation where Person X is stopped and questioned by the police but no record is made. At a later date Person X can claim they were mistreated and the officer refused to make a record, the police officer has nothing with which to defend himself from the allegation. Likewise, Police Officer Z may conduct un-neccessary, inappropriate stops but refuse to record them – when the “victim” complains the officer could simply deny it. While it is not perfect, making all incidents recordable begins the process of alleviating this.
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