Britain already has more CCTV cameras than anywhere else in the world, and a four million strong DNA database that contains details of thousands of UK residents who have committed no crime. Should the state be granted its apparent desire to have access to every single phone call made, every last text message and email […]
Posts Tagged ‘Police’
Do the public want a privatised police?
Mar 7th, 2012 by Michael Meacher.The argument put forward by the West Midlands and Surrey forces in putting out a £1.5bn contract for greater private sector involvement in policing is that it would allow private companies to carry out routine and repetitive tasks at cheaper rates whilst allowing highly trained and professional police officers to concentrate more time on key […]
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Police state exposed over blacklisting
Mar 5th, 2012 by Michael Meacher.The exposure in yesterday’s Observer that the blacklisting of 3,200 construction workers via the building employers’ front body, the so-called Consulting Association which had previously been known about, was actively aided by the police and security services raises alarming questions about the rise of a police state in this country because this is only the […]
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Who will police the police?
Feb 3rd, 2012 by Michael Meacher.It’s not just the well-reported antics of Mark Kennedy that call in question the activities of undercover policing against political and protest groups. It’s the almost total lack of accountability about the clandestine operations of police spies over the last 40 years. The HMIC report on this episode draws attention to Kennedy’s failure to “follow […]
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Who polices the police?
Jul 19th, 2011 by Michael Meacher.Establishing an inquiry into setting up a new code of police-media ethics, as Theresa May proposed yesterday, whilst welcome, is not going to resolve the profound derelictions of duty recently exposed in police behaviour at the highest level: failing in the face of abundant evidence which they themselves held to re-open the hacking inquiry in […]
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Police collusion, government complacency almost as serious as NoW law-breaking
Jul 18th, 2011 by Michael Meacher.The police have a great deal to answer for over this media crisis and one resignation, however honourable, does not exculpate their collective liability. Three months ago the Guardian highlighted that “we now know that in dealing with the phone-hacking affair at the NoW, they (the Met) cut short their original inquiry, suppressed evidence, misled […]
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Different rules apply?
Jul 18th, 2011 by Jon Lansman.For the record, here’s the extract from Sir Paul Stephenson’s resignation statement which has enabled Yvette Cooper to pinpoint the critical question which now has to be asked about phone hacking — why different rules apply to the Met police commissioner and the prime minister over their respective phone hacking links:
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How far can we trust the police?
May 12th, 2011 by Michael Meacher.The evidence coming out of the Tomlinson trial is a serious challenge to police integrity. We now know that two days after Ian Tomlinson died, three Met constables admitted they had seen a colleague hit him with a baton and push him to the ground. Yet senior officers at City of London police failed to […]
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About those “peaceful” suffragettes
Mar 29th, 2011 by Owen Jones.Firstly, a defence of Ed Miliband. He has been savaged from both left and right for speaking at the TUC’s historic demonstration against the cuts on Saturday. Some activists booed him as he spoke, angered by any association between Labour and the anti-cuts movement. The criticisms from the right, meanwhile, have been largely predictable: in […]
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Gross police negligence or malpractice should be severely punished
Mar 29th, 2011 by Michael Meacher.Today is the start of the inquest into the death of Ian Tomlinson in the G20 protests last year. The kettling tactics used by the police to squeeze protestors against the tripling of student fees a few months ago could easily have caused further fatalities. Certainly they caused immense discomfort to young and old alike, […]
