At Least They Didn't Shoot Him...

Julian Sanchez | September 22, 2005

This unsettling account by a London blogger explains how he was stopped by police on the Underground for, apparently, having a backpack and wearing a coat they regarded as too bulky. They looked through his things, apologized for the inconvenience... and then arrested him. He was then held for about eight hours while they carted off all the computer equipment from his apartment. (HT)

Comments

|9.22.05 @ 11:20AM|#

My poor grandfather, known for wearing a jacket on 100+ degree days, wouldn't last a day if his local bus used the same standards as travel in London.

|9.22.05 @ 11:31AM|#

Remember that a "bulky jacket" could be one of those collapseable "Sierra Designs" rain jackets that are paper thin.

Phil|9.22.05 @ 11:35AM|#

It's so Orwellian, it boggles the mind. If he had done the opposite of most of those things -- i.e., made eye contact with the police, avoided looking at anyone else, and left his backpack unattended -- it would probably have appeared even more suspicious. Add in that taking pictures of things, looking at your phone, and looking at paper are all now considered "suspicious," and 1984 truly is here, 21 years too late.

|9.22.05 @ 11:47AM|#

Phil

Soon the standard will be "Breathing is considered suspicious behavior and probable cause for detention. After all, prior to detonation, the Underground/Bus bombers were all breathing."

|9.22.05 @ 11:53AM|#

I found it most ironic that they claimed keeping your bag with you at all times is suspicious. I thought leaving it unattended was suspicious?

|9.22.05 @ 11:55AM|#

Kafkaesque to say the least.

|9.22.05 @ 11:57AM|#

Dakota,

Whatever strikes their fancy is suspicious.

|9.22.05 @ 12:02PM|#

Wasn't it Ann Althouse who declared that anyone wearing a bulky jacket after the last shooting was obviously a terrorist. If I remember correctly, that was the silver lining in the last shooting.
The number of people who have said things since 9-11 that disqualifies them from being worth ever listening to again is staggering.

|9.22.05 @ 12:36PM|#

Standard fare for British security personnel as far as I'm concerned. My last visit to Heathrow was a one-hour stop on a flight to New York. During this stop, all of the passengers on my flight had to go through security screening even though everyone had obviously already been screened at a prior locale, and no one else could could've walked into the terminal area without being screened themselves. In addition, the screening was done prior to reaching the gate, so if some third party did have the intention of handing off a weapon or a bomb, and had somehow managed to smuggle it past security, they still could hand it off to a passenger.

To top it all off, an imbecile at the screening area decided to spend 15 minutes poring over my dad's nebulizer, which was in my backpack, even though it was so obviously a medical device. Once I got irate, the jackass decided to pore through the rest of my backpack's contents for good measure.

My second-to-last visit to Heathrow was relatively pleasant. I was just nearly prevented from leaving that loony country after someone decided that although my passport looked perfectly valid, the picture in it (taken no more than four years before) didn't really resemble me. After arguing for ten minutes, answering a bunch of questions, and showing my driver's license and college ID, I was allowed to go.

|9.22.05 @ 1:26PM|#

I would like to see an impartial account of what happened, i.e. an account not written by the guy who was stopped/detained by the cops. Not saying the police were doing the right thing here, but who knows. These are very scary times that we live in, and London has recently been on the "front lines".

|9.22.05 @ 2:08PM|#

There are posters on this forum who could explain why this is no cause for worry.

|9.22.05 @ 2:17PM|#

I think in the current climate, it is understandable that the police will have to adopt a low index of suspicion, and will 'pull-over' quite innocent individuals to be searched. If it happened to me I would be a bit cheesed-off but understanding, exactly as I would feel if I needed to undergo a pat-down or have my hand-luggage checked going through airport security.

The big issue is what happened next - arrest, held incommunicado for several hours, DNA taken and kept and, of course, all of this this faithfully recorded on the police national computer. He will have an interesting time when he next tries to visit the USA!! With luck he will be detained in the UK, otherwise, on arrival in the US, he may be diverted to a little corner of Cuba!

It is one thing to undergo the mild annoyance at a brief inconvenience - quite another to be forever logged as a suspected terrorist on internationally available police databases.

|9.22.05 @ 2:20PM|#

There are posters on this forum who could explain why this is no cause for worry.

|9.22.05 @ 2:27PM|#

I think in the current climate, it is understandable that the police will have to adopt a low index of suspicion, and will 'pull-over' quite innocent individuals to be searched. If it happened to me I would be a bit cheesed-off but understanding, exactly as I would feel if I needed to undergo a pat-down or have my hand-luggage checked going through airport security.

The big issue is what happened next - arrest, held incommunicado for several hours, DNA taken and kept and, of course, all of this this faithfully recorded on the police national computer. He will have an interesting time when he next tries to visit the USA!! With luck he will be detained in the UK, otherwise, on arrival in the US, he may be diverted to a little corner of Cuba!

It is one thing to undergo the mild annoyance at a brief inconvenience - quite another to be forever logged as a suspected terrorist on internationally available police databases.

|9.22.05 @ 2:46PM|#

I think in the current climate, it is understandable that the police will have to adopt a low index of suspicion, and will 'pull-over' quite innocent individuals to be searched. If it happened to me I would be a bit cheesed-off but understanding, exactly as I would feel if I needed to undergo a pat-down or have my hand-luggage checked going through airport security.

The big issue is what happened next - arrest, held incommunicado for several hours, DNA taken and kept and, of course, all of this this faithfully recorded on the police national computer. He will have an interesting time when he next tries to visit the USA!! With luck he will be detained in the UK, otherwise, on arrival in the US, he may be diverted to a little corner of Cuba!

It is one thing to undergo the mild annoyance at a brief inconvenience - quite another to be forever logged as a suspected terrorist on internationally available police databases.

|9.22.05 @ 2:53PM|#

Eric II,

We have always been at war with Eurasia.

|9.22.05 @ 2:57PM|#

I think in the current climate, it is understandable that the police will have to adopt a low index of suspicion, and will 'pull-over' quite innocent individuals to be searched. If it happened to me I would be a bit cheesed-off but understanding, exactly as I would feel if I needed to undergo a pat-down or have my hand-luggage checked going through airport security.

The big issue is what happened next - arrest, held incommunicado for several hours, DNA taken and kept and, of course, all of this this faithfully recorded on the police national computer. He will have an interesting time when he next tries to visit the USA!! With luck he will be detained in the UK, otherwise, on arrival in the US, he may be diverted to a little corner of Cuba!

It is one thing to undergo the mild annoyance at a brief inconvenience - quite another to be forever logged as a suspected terrorist on internationally available police databases.

|9.22.05 @ 3:02PM|#

I think in the current climate, it is understandable that the police will have to adopt a low index of suspicion, and will 'pull-over' quite innocent individuals to be searched. If it happened to me I would be a bit cheesed-off but understanding, exactly as I would feel if I needed to undergo a pat-down or have my hand-luggage checked going through airport security.

The real issue is all the consequences - arrest, held incommunicado for several hours, DNA taken and kept and, of course, all of this this faithfully recorded on the police national computer. He will have an interesting time when he next tries to visit the USA!! With luck he will be detained in the UK, otherwise, on arrival in the US, he may be diverted to a little corner of Cuba!

It is one thing to undergo the mild annoyance at a brief inconvenience - quite another to be forever logged as a suspected terrorist on internationally available police databases.

|9.22.05 @ 3:12PM|#

I think in the current climate, it is understandable that the police will have to adopt a low index of suspicion, and will 'pull-over' quite innocent individuals to be searched. If it happened to me I would be a bit cheesed-off but understanding, exactly as I would feel if I needed to undergo a pat-down or have my hand-luggage checked going through airport security.

The real issue is all the consequences - arrest, held incommunicado for several hours, DNA taken and kept and, of course, all of this this faithfully recorded on the police national computer. He will have an interesting time when he next tries to visit the USA!! With luck he will be detained in the UK, otherwise, on arrival in the US, he may be diverted to a little corner of Cuba!

It is one thing to undergo the mild annoyance at a brief inconvenience - quite another to be forever logged as a suspected terrorist on internationally available police databases.

|9.22.05 @ 3:13PM|#

I think in the current climate, it is understandable that the police will have to adopt a low index of suspicion, and will 'pull-over' quite innocent individuals to be searched. If it happened to me I would be a bit cheesed-off but understanding, exactly as I would feel if I needed to undergo a pat-down or have my hand-luggage checked going through airport security.

The real issue is all the consequences - arrest, held incommunicado for several hours, DNA taken and kept and, of course, all of this this faithfully recorded on the police national computer. He will have an interesting time when he next tries to visit the USA!! With luck he will be detained in the UK, otherwise, on arrival in the US, he may be diverted to a little corner of Cuba!

It is one thing to undergo the mild annoyance at a brief inconvenience - quite another to be forever logged as a suspected terrorist on internationally available police databases.

|9.22.05 @ 4:44PM|#

I guess that those who are considering emigrating to find more freedom than here in Jesusland can scratch Old Blighty off their lists of potential destinations.

|9.22.05 @ 5:16PM|#

Thoreau, I don't know if that was a double post or done by design, but if it was unplanned the irony of the placement is downright spooky. In fact, it makes me wonder if the server is starting to develop sentience.

|9.22.05 @ 5:53PM|#

I may be sentient, but I'm still fallible. Hence I let Shem's comment pass by my filters.

I better not let this one get out...

|9.22.05 @ 5:57PM|#

The one-eyed (or was he blind?) mullah who planned, instigated, and funded the 1993 bombing of the world trade center maintained that he was innocent as the driven snow too.

It is a dangerous world we live in. If a cop pulls you over for a traffic rules violation, take my advice: keep your hands in plain sight on the steering wheel, and as hard as it might be, be polite. Most cops are just people like you and me.

|9.22.05 @ 8:53PM|#

[quote]If a cop pulls you over for a traffic rules violation, take my advice: keep your hands in plain sight on the steering wheel, and as hard as it might be, be polite. Most cops are just people like you and me.[end quote]

Uhhh, where in the article does it mention that the man tried to resist or evade arrest or acted "suspiciously" in any form or manner?

They searched his backpack, couldn't find anything wrong - but decided to arrest him "just in case"?

Just so you know - slaves and prisoners are "safe and secure" too.

|9.23.05 @ 1:50AM|#

The real point I am making here is that we have the account written by the supposed victim himself. Not by some dispassionate unrelated reporter.

There is sometimes just reasoning employed by the police. Sometimes not, I admit, witness the Alberta police going after the reporter thing, but as I said, the cops are mostly just ordinary people trying to do a job that is 99% drudgery and 1% terror.

rampART radio|9.25.05 @ 7:18PM|#

You might be interested in the audio interview on rampART radio in which suspect terrorist David Mery talks about his experience at the hands of the cops and chats about the errosion of our civil liberties in this country...

You can download the MP3 from the rampART website or subscribe to the podcast.

http://rampartradio.co.nr