Fitting-up time
How long does it take the cops these days to fit up a suspect? Back in the old days they could pick a bunch of Irishmen (and occasionally Irishwomen) up off the street or bash their house doors down, give them some serious verbal and physical in the nick, and have them confessing to any old crime within a few days, after which the courts would lock 'em up for long enough so that, when they were released from "miscarriages of justice" (a nice euphemism for bent coppers framing innocent folk), the cops would have long since retired on fat pensions. Now, though, it looks like even banging someone up for a whole month without any sort of charge, or any access to Briefs, and with unlimited access to the suspect's whole electronic lives laid out in front of them, isn't enough to manage a clean fit-up and 'result'. No, now the cops are after an unlimited internment - sorry, "detention period" - so that they have "as long as it takes" to stitch someone up and get a result. Asked on the Radio 4 1 o'clock news today whether this meant that cops should be able to hold someone indefinitely, Ken Jones, the cop's capo dei tutti capi (aka Chief of ACPO), blustered indignantly about not wanting a UK version of Guantanamo, and produced the best laugh-out line of the week: "the police care as much about civil liberties as anyone else", which nearly made me pull the car over for safety reasons as tears were streaming from my eyes after that little gem. With lines like that, who needs satirists? Yet when asked what limit he'd be after, he basically said "as long as it takes", which is near as dammit unlimited detention without charge.
Of course, you'd expect this from cops, particularly the barkingly authoritarian ACPO. Basically, yer average cop wants to be able to do anything to anyone at any time anywhere for any reason, and to have complete access to all sources of information about anyone. Steve Bell's fine creation Chief Constable Badger Courage, modelled closely on real CCs such as James Anderton (remember him? God's Cop?), has it bang on - what the cops want is the No Argument I Don't Like Your Face, Up Against The Wall Or I'll Kick Your Head in, John law, and will moan like buggery about any and all "obstructions" put in their way (such as irritating and costly trial by jury) and "paperwork" they have to carry out. This is in the nature of cops everywhere, and you'd no more expect police to accept any limitations on their actions than you'd expect Ian Paisley to kiss the Pope's ring. What is more concerning is that the State and its current ruling regime are giving the cops everything they want and far, far more, rather than putting some brakes on now and then. There's a name for a State that does everything the cops and spooks want and strives for total information on, and control over, its citizens, and it accurately describes what we now have - a Police State.
Not that ACPO will get their unlimited detention, at least not yet - this smells of a classic kite-flying exercise, almost certainly coordinated on the sly with the Home Office, such that, when the regime proposes a 'moderate' 2-month period it'll seem to be a 'reasonable compromise' between the demands of the police and 'civil liberties'.
On the same day that ACPO was dropping this little bombshell, two guys who'd been held for 2 weeks without charge, on suspicion of being Asian and Moslem - sorry, "involvement in terror attacks" - were quietly released without charge, with seemingly the only reason they'd fallen under suspicion being that they'd been colleagues of the doctor who tried so amateurishly to blow up Glasgow Airport a couple of weeks back[2]. Think of it, and imagine yourself in their place - someone at work you vaguely know turns out to be a homicidal religious nutter, and the next thing you know you've been banged up without charge and the media are pouring over every detail of your life because you're the same colour and/or religion as him. For two weeks you're stuck in a cell whilst the cops work you over and you're put under trial by media. You've no contact with lawyers or friends or family and are completely on your own. Then after failing to fit you up on a conspiracy charge the cops just show you the door - no apology, no fanfare, probably not even the bus fare home. What would your life be like after that? What do you think your chances of keeping your job, or of getting another one if/when you're sacked, would be? How would you ever get rid of the stigma of being suspected of terrorism? That guy Lofti Raissi, who was held without charge for 5 months by the UK State pending extradition to the US to face charges of involvement in the 9/11 massacres and was eventually released when there was clearly fuck-all evidence against him, has never worked again as a pilot, and has had his life ruined [3].
Oh, and just because you may not be brown-skinned and/or Moslem don't think that this couldn't be you or someone you know. The 'enemy of the State' may be the green of Islam these days, but not so long ago it was the green of Irish Republicanism, and before that the Black of Anarchism and the Red of Socialism. As in Orwell's 1984, the enemy du jour can change in the blink of the State's eye...
[1] "Police defend longer terror limit", BBC News online, 15/7/07
[2] "Two bomb attack suspects released", BBC News online, 15/7/07
[3] "Algerian pilot demands public apology", BBC Today programme archive, 14/8/02
Of course, you'd expect this from cops, particularly the barkingly authoritarian ACPO. Basically, yer average cop wants to be able to do anything to anyone at any time anywhere for any reason, and to have complete access to all sources of information about anyone. Steve Bell's fine creation Chief Constable Badger Courage, modelled closely on real CCs such as James Anderton (remember him? God's Cop?), has it bang on - what the cops want is the No Argument I Don't Like Your Face, Up Against The Wall Or I'll Kick Your Head in, John law, and will moan like buggery about any and all "obstructions" put in their way (such as irritating and costly trial by jury) and "paperwork" they have to carry out. This is in the nature of cops everywhere, and you'd no more expect police to accept any limitations on their actions than you'd expect Ian Paisley to kiss the Pope's ring. What is more concerning is that the State and its current ruling regime are giving the cops everything they want and far, far more, rather than putting some brakes on now and then. There's a name for a State that does everything the cops and spooks want and strives for total information on, and control over, its citizens, and it accurately describes what we now have - a Police State.
Not that ACPO will get their unlimited detention, at least not yet - this smells of a classic kite-flying exercise, almost certainly coordinated on the sly with the Home Office, such that, when the regime proposes a 'moderate' 2-month period it'll seem to be a 'reasonable compromise' between the demands of the police and 'civil liberties'.
On the same day that ACPO was dropping this little bombshell, two guys who'd been held for 2 weeks without charge, on suspicion of being Asian and Moslem - sorry, "involvement in terror attacks" - were quietly released without charge, with seemingly the only reason they'd fallen under suspicion being that they'd been colleagues of the doctor who tried so amateurishly to blow up Glasgow Airport a couple of weeks back[2]. Think of it, and imagine yourself in their place - someone at work you vaguely know turns out to be a homicidal religious nutter, and the next thing you know you've been banged up without charge and the media are pouring over every detail of your life because you're the same colour and/or religion as him. For two weeks you're stuck in a cell whilst the cops work you over and you're put under trial by media. You've no contact with lawyers or friends or family and are completely on your own. Then after failing to fit you up on a conspiracy charge the cops just show you the door - no apology, no fanfare, probably not even the bus fare home. What would your life be like after that? What do you think your chances of keeping your job, or of getting another one if/when you're sacked, would be? How would you ever get rid of the stigma of being suspected of terrorism? That guy Lofti Raissi, who was held without charge for 5 months by the UK State pending extradition to the US to face charges of involvement in the 9/11 massacres and was eventually released when there was clearly fuck-all evidence against him, has never worked again as a pilot, and has had his life ruined [3].
Oh, and just because you may not be brown-skinned and/or Moslem don't think that this couldn't be you or someone you know. The 'enemy of the State' may be the green of Islam these days, but not so long ago it was the green of Irish Republicanism, and before that the Black of Anarchism and the Red of Socialism. As in Orwell's 1984, the enemy du jour can change in the blink of the State's eye...
[1] "Police defend longer terror limit", BBC News online, 15/7/07
[2] "Two bomb attack suspects released", BBC News online, 15/7/07
[3] "Algerian pilot demands public apology", BBC Today programme archive, 14/8/02
posted by Fred at 10:23 PM
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