Could have been me

On 2005-09-22 23:44:00, Allan Engelhardt wrote in CYBAEA Journal:

There comes a point where the balance between maintaining essential civil liberties and ensuring that the police can effectively do their job moves too far away from liberty and too close to the authoritatian state. The United Kingdom crossed that line long ago, as David Mery writing in The Guardian found out:

This Reuters story was written while the police were detaining me in Southwark tube station and the bomb squad was checking my rucksack. When they were through, the two explosive specialists walked out of the tube station smiling and commenting: "Nice laptop." The officers offered apologies on behalf of the Metropolitan police. Then they arrested me.

[... long sorry story snipped ...]

Under current laws the police are not only entitled to keep my fingerprints and DNA samples, but according to my solicitor, they are also entitled to hold on to what they gather during their investigation: notepads of arresting officers, photographs, interviewing tapes and any other documents they entered in the police national computer (PNC). So even though the police consider me innocent there will remain some mention (what exactly?) in the PNC and, if they fully share their information with Interpol, in other police databases around the world as well. Isn't a state that keeps files on innocent persons a police state? This erosion of our fundamental liberties should be of concern to us all. All men are suspect, but some men are more suspect than others (with apologies to George Orwell).

Not exactly the Gunpowder Plot, but he still doesn't have his belongings. It could have been me. :-(

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Hat tip: Russel Beattie.

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