We recently took the decision that the Convention should have a session on the Police. Many people in this country report a feeling that the police have become increasingly politicized and unaccountable. It’s not just high-profile cases like De Menezes and Damian Green that conjure the terrifying spectre of a police state; it’s the bullying and harrassment experienced by people exercisising their fundamental right to protest or simply going about their daily business.
Two articles today demonstrate precisely why we need a serious public debate on the powers of the police and how they can be brought under control. The first is by Convention Co-Director Henry Porter and appears in the Guardian online. Henry recounts some extraordinary examples of anti-terror powers being used by the police to harass people taking pictures in public places. The second, by Peter Hitchens, appears in the Daily Mail. Hitchens describes an encounter with jack-booted riot police as he passed a group of protestors yesterday outside the Israeli embassy on his way home from work. “It’s not debateable” they apparently barked at Hitchens as he pleaded to be allowed to walk by on the pavement undisturbed. Well, officers, I’m afraid that at this Convention it very much is.
An excellent decision by the organisers; the police are already way out of control and a debate of this nature is long overdue.
The police have abused their constitutional position quite deliberately in recent years. The most recent example, that of Damian Green’s arrest, was an outrageous attack on the rights of all of us.
We need to remind the police who it is that they serve and protect, and of their proper place in a parliamentary democracy.
We do not want the police’s unaccountable paramilitary thugs armed to their teeth with lethal weapons (but with only a stunted understanding of civil liberties) or their patronising, half-baked, semi-educated, quasi-social worker type lectures on how we should conduct our lawful activities.
Thanks copperbent, you’re right about the question of lethal weapons. I remember – it wasn’t so long ago – going to France and being shocked at seeing policemen with machine guns. Now they’re a regular feature over here.
Guy
Let’s keep things in perspective, around 5% or so of the whole police force are able to carry guns, at most, and a small minority of those will be able to actively carry around anything other than a handgun.
If we’re going to win these arguments we need to be rational, overstating the numbers…and indeed being cavalier with the realities. The number of officers willing to carry firearms is dropping, both in numbers and percentage of the force. Also there is not enough credit give to the system in this country that actively dissuades police firearm use through proper accountability of one’s actions should you actually fire your weapon while doing your job.
So yes, pick your fight where it’s relevant, but don’t go over-zealous