Saturday, June 10, 2006

A licence to do 'whatever is necessary' - but necessary for what???


Last night John Reid, the Home Secretary, said:

“The police are acting in the best interests of the whole community in order to protect the whole community and therefore deserve the support of the whole community in doing what is often a very dangerous job often involving difficult decisions.”

Well, that does rather depend on how you define 'the whole community' doesn't it?

Unless there are consequences for the police for the type of gross over-reactions to dodgy 'intelligence' illustrated by the shooting of the Brazilian electrician and this latest fiasco, then we can expect more of the same. 'The war on terror' has been hyped to such an extent that the police, it seems, can get away with pretty much anything to 'protect the whole community'

How many more innocent people can the police shoot and subject to gross intrusions into their personal lives and destruction of property in 'the interests of the whole community' before they are made accountable for their actions?

And we are STILL waiting for the report into the Stockwell Tube shooting that was scheduled for publication in April. There is clearly some fancy footwork going on behind the scenes on that one.

Some solid background on the latest police anti-terror overkill here in the Guardian

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