Thursday, June 18, 2009

Cops & Power


Police stop and search innocent people to balance race figures, terror watchdog says
White people are being unjustifiably stopped and searched to provide racial balance in police statistics, the antiterrorism watchdog said yesterday. Lord Carlile of Berriew, QC, described the searches in his annual report on the operation of counterterrorism legislation as “almost certainly” illegal. He said that he knew of cases where people were stopped by officers even though they did not fit any known terrorist profile. He accused the police of wasting time and money by carrying out “self-evidently unmerited searches”, which were also an invasion of civil liberties. The searches, for example, of blonde women who fit no terrorist profile came against a backdrop of complaints from rights groups that the number of black and Muslim people being stopped and searched by police was disproportionate.

TUMEKE! To make up the numbers to pretend they are not racist, UK cops have been stopping white people and putting them through ‘terrorist’ searches to pump up numbers to hide their original racial discrimination. Giving more power to the cops is always a questionable move: Police getting tasers, lowering the evidential threshold to declare you a gang member and freeze personal assets, the NZ Police taking your DNA on mere suspicion and new surveillance powers to film you secretly without judicial oversight are all examples of creeping Police powers in NZ at a time when the Independence Complaints process is only funded to independently investigate 30% of cases.

Police power without independent oversight is not security.

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