Plod still doesn’t get it, apparently. The old Section 44 stop and search was deemed unlawful according to the European Court of Human Rights. Say what you like about the ECHR and its judgements – in this case, at least, the principle was right. The police should not be able to stop and search the citizenry on a whim. The police disagree.
Police have asked the government for a new counter-terrorism power to stop and search people without having to suspect them of involvement in crime, the Guardian has learned.
Well, they would, wouldn’t they? However, just because they want something it doesn’t mean that they should have it. We, the citizenry should have a reasonable expectation that we may go about our business unmolested by the boys and girls in storm-trooper black. I have no problem with stop and search where there is reasonable cause for suspicion – intelligence received, for example. I do not and never will accept that random searches of law-abiding people is proportionate or acceptable behaviour in a liberal democracy. The police exist to serve, not harass.
Senior officers have told the government the new law is needed to better protect the public against attempted attacks on large numbers of people…
Ah, yes, when you want to impose a police state, wheel out the old terror bogeyman. It always convinces the hard of thinking and politicians are notoriously hard of thinking; eyeing as they are, the latest headlines and those that might be written if they are perceived as being soft on crime and terror. So weak are they that they cannot have the courage of their convictions. Scrub that, they have no convictions and they have no courage.
…and are hopeful they can win ministers’ backing.
I do hope not. However, I’m not over hopeful.
And once again, I wonder when, exactly, our police forgot the Peelian principles.