Inflation is running at twice the official rate

Bf109

!!!!!!? wrote: »

The law used to do this was introduced as an anti-terrorism law. The loss of civil liberties was sold to a gullible public as being necessary to stop those ill-defined psycho terrorists hiding behind every corner from supposedly killing all our kids or something.

Ermm.... RIPA is certainly not an anti-terrorism law. Dont know where the papers get that from.

RIPA is the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act and covers all investigations by all law enforcement agencies and prosecuting authorities. RIPA is (or rather should) be there to protect people from unwarranted intrusion into their private lives.

Now I'm not an expert on RIPA and it certainly seems a bit fishy to me that the council managed to get a directed surveillance authority on parents trying to send their kids to the right school, but RIPA is usually a pretty good safeguard against authorities conducting ad hoc surveillance on you without a good reason.

Trust me, there isnt a plain-clothes copper out there who doesnt think back to the good old days when they could do as they wanted without filling in loads of forms explaining why it was neccesary and proportionate etc..

neverdespairgirl

Bf109 wrote: »

Trust me, there isnt a plain-clothes copper out there who doesnt think back to the good old days when they could do as they wanted without filling in loads of forms explaining why it was neccesary and proportionate etc..

Ah, the good old days when you could just fit up some handy Irish bloke for a bombing or two, or the local weirdo for murder.

Bf109

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

Ah, the good old days when you could just fit up some handy Irish bloke for a bombing or two, or the local weirdo for murder.

Yes. Them days.

Much of this "red-tape and paperwork" that allegedly keeps the police from "doing their jobs" is absolutely neccesary to ensure that the police arent just fitting-up whoever is convinient at the time.

What frightens me about the current government is that they have this penchant for asking the police what they want and then giving it to them (unless its a payrise, of course). The end result of this of course is that we are increadingly becoming a police state.

jamescredmond

good post.

and it's easy to forget just how far forces went to close a case.

my daughter was incredulous whilst watching an episode of Ashes to Ashes:

'did they (the police) really behave like that?'

yep! definitely in my area. although I avoided being 'nicked' on the flimsiest of excuses, a fair no. of friends had their collars felt (wrong place, wrong time or guilty by association). racism was endemic. e.g. 'we got the black B****** into the cell and called for dave the dog-man. dave's alsatian loves a bit of black meat! at the end, this c**n was crying for his mum!'
I actually heard an officer say the above in the early 80's, when the police would call into our works office for a cup of tea late on a Sat. night.

no-one I ever met was in any doubt that the force would fit up an innocent person if it suited.

I used to wear a t-shirt emblazoned 'help your local police - beat yourself up', until a cop told me to take it off.

and for those daily mail readers who pine for their days when a cop could clip a teenager around the ear for being 'lippy': you probably choose to forget -or would rather not know- that 'clip' was a euphimism for 'smack in the teeth'.
I witnessed this myself a few times when the 'clip' was meted out to people for no other reason than they were drunk in the town centre.not disorderly.just drunk.

police violence.intimidation.fabricated evidence.miscarriages of justice.

ah, the good old days.