You cant picture this

[biggytitbo]

Hmmm, is this pic even related to the operation? Police raid at dawn while its still dark, it even says so in the article. I wouldn't be too surprised if the photo was from the Grauniad archive.

The photo is from the raid, there's another one here:

http://www.thecnj.co.uk/islington/2008/032808/news032808_03.html

600 riot police for 19 addresses, what's that 32 per address? I'm sure the crime in this area did need tackling but it seems this raid was as much for the cameras as anything. Get us used to it.

[its not cool to be weird]

The photo is from the raid, there's another one here:

http://www.thecnj.co.uk/islington/2008/032808/news032808_03.html

600 riot police for 19 addresses, what's that 32 per address? I'm sure the crime in this area did need tackling but it seems this raid was as much for the cameras as anything. Get us used to it.

I'm just re-reading Beevor's Berlin, The Downfall 1945 at the moment. Hugely depressing stuff. Its striking how much Nu Lab has in common with the Nazis. Can't wait til the Granita Trials get underway and the suicides start.

[biggytitbo]

I'm just re-reading Beevor's Berlin, The Downfall 1945 at the moment. Hugely depressing stuff. Its striking how much Nu Lab has in common with the Nazis. Can't wait til the Granita Trials get underway and the suicides start.

What's the granita trials?

[Baxter]

What's the granita trials?

BTB! I thought you loved wild half-informed conjecture, how can you not recognise that restaurant by name? well I suppose it is a   Desperados now.

[rudi]

I'm not sure how accurate equating erosion of civil liberties with left/right wings is; there are libertarians on both sides,surely?

The sheer aggression on the part of the pretend policeman was, to me, the most troubling aspect; the sheer disbelief that his actions could be questioned by a mere member of the public.

As for the raid: yeah, it does seem to have been set up as a photo-op. Why else do it in daylight?

[DocDaneeka]

As for the raid: yeah, it does seem to have been set up as a photo-op. Why else do it in daylight?

Because thats when all of those lovable algerian gangsters in the Finsbury Park and Blackstock road area are around. It's been known to be a dodgy area for stolen phones and the like for ages and there have been a few stabbings as well.

[Marv Orange]

Are you talking about the Youtube vid Biggytitbo posted.

Nope. Talking about the second one that baxter posted.

[Ginyard]

The Pre-raid let's-kosh-some-balls speech

[Godzilla Bankrolls]

600 riot police for 19 addresses, what's that 32 per address? I'm sure the crime in this area did need tackling but it seems this raid was as much for the cameras as anything. Get us used to it.

Get us used to it, or trying to send a message to both the criminals and the public that they're really cracking down on crime hotspots?

[terminallyrelaxed]

I spend a lot of my time hanging around public places with a big camera, taking pictures of crowds and architecture and so on - nothing in particular, basically. I've never been accosted by a diet policeman or any other kind of policeman. I don't look like a tourist. I have been asked by the Docklands rentacops not to use my tripod but thats an occupational hazard, its an insurance stipulation for a lot of public spaces in London.
I am however full-on Aryan blonde and blue eyed and clearly one of the golden horde that such oiks are employed to protect from brown foreigners, so its probably no surprise.

[biggytitbo]

Get us used to it, or trying to send a message to both the criminals and the public that they're really cracking down on crime hotspots?

Sorry, I didn't realise the police had become the army. A welcome development eh?

[Godzilla Bankrolls]

Are we supposed to send the army in to notorious crime hotspots? How else should the problem at Blackstock Road have been tackled, in your opinion?

[mr. nice guy]

That bloke filming has no reason to be filming other than to antagonise the police, which is in fact an offence.

Unless there had been complaints in his area of police harassing or assaulting people and he wanted some evidence, Rodney King style perhaps?

[its not cool to be weird]

Unless there had been complaints in his area of police harassing or assaulting people and he wanted some evidence, Rodney King style perhaps?

There is that possibility.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Antagonising the police? So you could be arrested for almost anything then? Whatever makes a Constable cross?

"would you be available to answer a few questions?

no

I arrest you for antagonising a police officer.

oh no"

[its not cool to be weird]

Antagonising the police? So you could be arrested for almost anything then? Whatever makes a Constable cross?

"would you be available to answer a few questions?

no

I arrest you for antagonising a police officer.

oh no"

Well yes. That's the big (potential) problem with police. You could be 'obstructing an officer in his duties', and I think its generally a bad idea to insult a copper or swear at them, however much you might want to.

I assume the rules are fairly specific though to avoid problems. If you were filming someone specifically and they asked you stop, and you refused, I suspect they would have right on their side in a court of law in getting you to stop.

Of course, more important than the reaction of the police in question is that of their supervisors, and potentially of the magistrate. Whilst they side with the public over the police there's no problem.

[biggytitbo]

Are we supposed to send the army in to notorious crime hotspots? How else should the problem at Blackstock Road have been tackled, in your opinion?

It's all about jacking up the rhetoric and the actions to fit this 'new normal' that we apparently have to accept. Well I don't accept the new normal. The new normal is armed men chasing down an innocent Brazilian electrician on the London underground, brutally exterminating him, then lying through their teeth about it afterwards. I don't want to see the militarization of the police, the ever more sweeping executive powers, the trampling over of basic stuff like habeas corpus and right to a trial. Do you think it's a healthy thing to have what is effectively an army marching about the streets to tackle what is domestic, fairly low level crime, however serious it was in this instance? They'd been investigating the gang for a year, surely it can't have been necessary to have 600 tooled up coppers to raid 19 premises?

[rudi]

Of course, more important than the reaction of the police in question is that of their supervisors, and potentially of the magistrate. Whilst they side with the public over the police there's no problem.

That's not true though, surely? You're still being arrested, stopped doing whatever it was you were choosing to do, removed from the site you chose to be at. You're arrested, locked up then let out "with a warning" at a time convenient to the policemen involved. Or, if you decide you don't want to be arrested for nothing, you can then be arrested for resisting arrest which'll get you handily fined and printed.

[its not cool to be weird]

That's not true though, surely? You're still being arrested, stopped doing whatever it was you were choosing to do, removed from the site you chose to be at. You're arrested, locked up then let out "with a warning" at a time convenient to the policemen involved. Or, if you decide you don't want to be arrested for nothing, you can then be arrested for resisting arrest which'll get you handily fined and printed.

I've no first hand experience fortunately. I suspect before you can be locked up there are forms that need to be filled in etc. Maybe if you can persuade someone senior that you are being persecuted then you might be in luck. Sadly I suspect they are likely to side with the copper, which is the very problem I was trying to identify. Basically I'm criticising the police but trying to be fair to them at the same time. Coppers who know what their role actually is, i.e. preventing and dealing with genuine crimes not persecuting and bullying the public, have my fullest respect.

[El Unicornio, mang]

I don't really get the point? A couple of coppers are videotaped not wanting to be filmed? Who cares? There's a million more important things to worry about than that.

[its not cool to be weird]

I don't really get the point? A couple of coppers are videotaped not wanting to be filmed? Who cares? There's a million more important things to worry about than that.

Such as?

There's not a thread limit you know.

[El Unicornio, mang]

Such as?

There's not a thread limit you know.

Deciding what I'm going to have for tea, for one.

[its not cool to be weird]

Deciding what I'm going to have for tea, for one.

Fine have your tea. I hope you enjoy it as the jack-books crunch over your skull.

[rudi]

Admittedly, that probably would take the gloss off most meals.

[Suttonpubcrawl]

Not if they were tiny little jackboots worn by a team of magic fairies who were using them to massage your scalp.

[El Unicornio, mang]

It's the only way I like to eat

[chocky909]

I don't really get the point? A couple of coppers are videotaped not wanting to be filmed? Who cares? There's a million more important things to worry about than that.

Well it's not about them not wanting to be filmed although I'm sure they probably don't like it. It's about them thinking that they have the right to aggressively question and/or stop people from filming or photographing in public spaces and is no doubt linked to the general government line of 'always be on the look out for suspicious behaviour - TERRORISTS!!!'. That some police or PCSOs have assumed that this 'vigilance' is currently enforcable by law is, in the short term humourous when posted on Youtube and the like, especially when they sheepishly back down once realising but, in the long term it's a snapshot of how we will ALL be prevented from doing many innocent activities in the future just because they have the 'potential' to be 'TERRORIST' related. That is of course if laws are changed or introduced and they almost certainly will be if things carry on the way they currently are headed. [puts tin foil on head]

[rudi]

This is a hoax/spoof though, surely?

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O61YfvPZGJs[/youtube]

[robs_bro]

NuLab are obsessed with extending their controls by employing citizens to officiate over each other, PCSOs being one, these motorway patrols being another

One of those cunts tried to ram me into the central reservation on the M3 a few months ago. Honestly.

I was driving to Winchester on a clear dry morning and I was in lane 3 doing about 90mph. He joined at about junction 6. I saw him before he saw me and, not recognising it for the cunt-transport that it was (i.e. assuming it might be a police vehicle) I sharply applied the brakes down to about 75mph.

He noticed me braking heavily and immediately veered across the not-busy motorway to occupy a position straddling the line between lanes 2 and 3, i.e. in a deliberate attempt to block my progress. He also was doing less than 70mph, maybe about 60-65mph.

There he remained for a hundred yards or so and I was becoming annoyed at this, because I know they have fuck-all powers to stop me, so I moved to lane 2 to get a look ahead of him (the motorway has a gentle curve to the left just here). He swerved fully into lane 2 to prevent me going up the inside.

I then moved back into lane 3 to go around him and he moved back to the lane-straddling position, now doing about 55-60mph. I began gesticulating, pointing to the side of the road in a "Get the fuck out of the way" fashion. He was looking straight at me in his side mirror but he smilingly refused.

I moved back into lane 2 for a quick look, he followed and zagain blocked me, at which point I was already changing down to 5th ready to boot it past him on the right. So as he gets into lane 2 I'm already flooring it and moving to lane 3. My car is ace on the motoroway, being a diesel, and quickly accelerates at that speed and in that gear.

So I'm now fully in lane 3 and going past him when he, with some malice, veers violently to the right, almost completely into lane 3, causing me to have to swerve out of the way to avoid a very dangerous 75mph collision (whilst still gunning it) and driving along the grassy bit next to the Armco down the central reservation. Luckily I didn't hit the Armco, didn't lose control, and didn't hit any dangerous debris or drains or kerbs that often populate the central reservation.

I got past him and he immediately pulled into lane 1 as if nothing had happened. I followed suit, and invited him to pull over for a chat. He declined. I drove on to my meeting.

What a cunt. What an absolute cunt. He could have killed me.

I reported him to the Hampshire Constabulary but fuck all came of it.

I truly hate those bastards and will now deliberately speed past them just to wind them up. You can tell them from rozzers by the red writing, lowdown near the centre of the rear bumper.

Has anyone else had (or heard of) similar experiences of these wankstains or is it just me?

[Mr Qunt]

Jesus robs bro, I would have absoultely shat myself if that happened to me... When you reported him, did you manage to get his license plate number? I realise that at speeds of 70+mph a pen and paper is not necessarily handy, but I definitely would have tried.

I go to university in Southampton, so I drive on the M3 a few times a year. There are no speed traps or anything (that I can see) on it so most people on the fast lane are usually doing at least a hundred. Maybe that's why the motorway patrols can be quite over-zealous and nasty? God knows, but that one was a complete cunt. What's the extent of their powers anyway?