Nothing to hide, nothing to fear?

One of the local no2id sites has a link to a story in the Grauniad printed last September, by and about a French guy who was arrested by paranoid cops in a tube station because he was wearing a jacket "too warm for the season" (now where have we heard that before?) and carrying a rucksack. This led to the tube station being evacuated and part of the line being closed down. He was taken to a copshop, held overnight in a cell, fingerprinted and DNA'd, and had his flat ransacked by cops and his stuff nicked (sorry, 'held for further investigation'). He was eventually released with a sort of apology, so on the plus side he wasn't summarily executed, perhaps on account of having a white face, and was released the day after, rather than being held for up to a month without charge. However, he is now forever a suspect in the War Against Terror ^TM:

"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." ("Suspicious behaviour on the tube", Guardian online, 22/9/05)

This is a professional guy, able to call on the services of a solicitor and write a story for a national newspaper. What of the rest of us grunts who don't have access to Briefs and hacks? What would happen to us in a similar situation? What if you're Jane Bloggs, plasterer, or Tariq Ahmed, taxi driver, or Joe Punter, unemployed? Your life would be turned upside down because you looked a bit dodgy to the cops. As well as all your stuff being nicked and you being held without charge for as long as the cops want to, you'd at best be regarded with suspicion by all your neighbours after vanloads of white-overalled cops took your house apart in public, and at worst be subjected to vigilantism - just look what happens to suspected pedos, and the only thing worse than a pedo is a terrorist. You would almost certainly have to move out of the area, a non-trivial matter if you're a 'homeowner'. Your licence plate would be watched by the ubiquitous road cameras, your financial transactions monitored, and all your movements out of the country would be flagged so that foreign cops could keep an eye on you. You'd be surveilled to your grave, and indeed afterwards if you have family as they'd be under suspicion as well.

Nothing to hide, nothing to fear? Pull the other one! Not whilst the State gives carte blanche to the cops to act like Judge Dredd. Cops have always acted by the unwritten NOAIDLFUATWOIKYHIJ law (NAIDLYF for short) [1], but that was always unofficial 'police practice' - now NAIDLYF has the force of The Law, and there's fuck-all you can do about it. This is what NuLabor calls "striking a balance" (© New Labour 1997-whenever) between "freedom" and "security".

[1] Thank you, Steve Bell, as this law was first coined in his If... strips back in the 80s.