Human Rights Act

Well there we go, good old Jack Straw...
...Just as ordinary members of the public (as opposed to career criminals) are beginning to realise that the Human Rights Act applies to all of us equally, and gives us all equal protection in law from an over-bearing and over-reaching government, and also from other government institutions and government provided services, and it allows us to challenge new laws which have been brought about in haste and without due thought....
...Just as people are beginning to realise that we can use the Human Rights Act to protect ourselves...
...Just as the tired arguments against having protection for the individual laid down in the law are beginning to die down...
then along comes Jack Straw, capitulating to the backwards looking, status-quo protecting, elite, rich owners and editors of the Daily Mail, and tells us all that it's a criminal's charter after all...

And then all the old tired arguments against people deserving protection from big government rear up again, and all the people who would have us without protection get brought onto the news to tell us what a terrible Act it is.

You'll only ever hear the rich and the elite arguing against protection for the ordinary person.
The rich can protect themselves and they don't get persecuted and hounded by government anyway... they control the government.

I really think that this Labour Government has finally lost all connection with the base that they represent. And I'm not just talking about their working class base, I'm talking about all the people who voted for them last time.

The exhausted government's collective mind is clouded by the persistent lobbying of vested interests and its own fear of losing the next election. They are too close to the rich elite... to the people who own the country.

I don't expect too much from my government these days...
well, I've given up hoping for real change anyway...
But what i would like is fair taxes, a fair, sustainable and real democracy, protection for the individual, and equal rights for all in the eyes of the law.

Isn't it strange how when a Torie MP gets his offices raided, then there's an almighty fuss and uproar... but where are those Torie MP's when the police carry out illegal stop and searches on ordinary members of the public everyday?

Let me tell you how my experience of a typical police stop and search encounter goes...
It goes like this:
A number of police constables pile out of a van onto the street in front of you...
Police: "right, where are you going, what are you doing?"
Me: "erm, I'm sorry, what do you mean?"
Police: "just tell us where are you going, what are you doing?"
Me: "well, I'm walking along the street"
Police: "what are you doing in this area?"
Me: "well, i live here... i live just round the corner"
Police: "what have you got in your pockets?"
Me: "erm, look, how can i help you?"
Police: "have you got anything on you that you shouldn't have?"
Me: "no... look, really, how can i help you?"

and so it goes, on until they decide to carry out a forced search on me, without following the legal procedures for a stop and search. To make a legal forced search, the police must have reasonable suspicion that you have carried out a specific crime and they must tel l you the reasons... it can't just be a case of them not liking the look of you!

When i was younger, in my early twenties, this was a typical encounter with the police...
they always acted illegally, and they seemed to have no idea that their duty was to uphold the law, not to break it.
They were the biggest thugs and law-breakers that i ever had contact with in my daily life.
I mean my friends and associates weren't angels, but they were not thug-like and they did not go around carrying random acts of illegal activities on innocent passers-by.

Apparently i looked like a drug user because i was 'gaunt', what ever that means... i got so fed up with the treatment that i ended up asking for the search reports and made an occasional ineffective complaint to the local police station.

These encounters happened when i was living in Central London, just walking around.. it wasn't when i was on a protest or any other unusual activity... just walking.
My mother asked me why it was me who was always getting stopped... as if it was my fault... well, it's not my fault i looked 'gaunt'!
Then when my mother got searched at customs once, she soon changed her tune! Suddenly it was all very ridiculous and unjustified!

Anyway, i am white and educated, so i can only imagine the hostility that black individuals who live in deprived neighbourhoods have to put up with daily.

The trouble is that on these encounters, the trust in the police is diminished each time, so that nobody wants to cooperate with them anymore.
I still resent a police uniform when i see one, even though i have now seen another side to the police and worked with them when i was working in the NHS.

It seems to me that the police have ceased to act for the community. They are an extension of the government's will. They appear not to be acting to protect the individual or the community, but they appear to be just trying to achieve targets and to carry out the government's will.

How loudly do you here the Conservative Party complaining about the illegal stop and searches that happen in our streets every day? When an uneducated person is stopped and searched, they do not have the means and the power to kick up such a fuss as the Conservatives did when one of their number got raided. So where are their protestations on these occasions?

Remember the chap who was arrested under anti-terror legislation when he dared to heckle at the labour party conference? Well, this is exactly what I'm getting at... they used use anti-terror legislation for heckling!!!
Where is the protection for the individual against the disproportionate actions of the police and the government? The problem is getting worse.. our liberties are being slowly but surely chipped away by an over-powerful executive.

At the time of that labour party conference, the whole of Brighton was shut down.
There was a road block into Brighton where the police could pull you over at any time just because you were black or they didn't like the look of you.

The whole of Brighton was declared a special zone by the chief constable which meant that anyone could be stopped and searched at any time and no reason was needed.

I resented this because i live here... i live here everyday... it is my community...
and just because the government demanded it, hundreds of police with automatic weapons were parachuted in to hassle the locals and disrupt our daily lives.

I know that the government needs protection, but when the police abuse and misuse their powers and no longer protect the individual or the community, then they will lose the respect of the general public.

We need Human rights legislation to protect our whole society, and to protect the police and the government from themselves. The rich elite are never interested in the rights of individuals, until suddenly one of their own gets his home and office searched.
Suddenly it is a big deal and the police need a search warrant to enter his premises.

Suddenly they are complaining of big government and an over-bearing executive. Conservative party, welcome to the real world. Suddenly individual rights are ever-so necessary. Well, for MP's they are anyway, but maybe their constituents don't really need or deserve them!