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Originally Posted by me283
I really don't think we should be quoting the European Human Rights legislation here. Week in and week out, one hears and reads of examples of this pathetic legislature allowing the so called "human rights" of particular groups or individuals to trample on the lives of others, who presumably have less "human rights". And please don't blame sensationalist journalism here.
As with the SUS law in the 70s, quoting an area of policing from the 80s is equally defunct. Why not quote the police efforts to recruit more officers from ethnic minorities during the 90s and 2000s? After all it's more recent and hence more relevant... but then it doesn't really fit your argument, does it?
But it's the last point that interests me most: you talk about "reasonable suspicion", yet that is what this is all about. It has not been declared that EVERY Muslim will be stopped, questioned and searched whenever they leave home. It seems clear to me that what is being said is that people may be detained and questioned more often, and that there is a strong chance that there will be a larger proportion of Muslims among this element. But I think you will find that for someone to be detained and questioned, there will need to be suspicion in the first place. So, you are happy for a "suspect" to have their phone tapped (currently illegal under normal circumstances I believe), but not for them to be questioned (currently legal I believe)?
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1. So do you seriously think we shouldn't be signed up to and abide by internationally agreed Human Rights treaties. And yes, sorry, I do blame sensational, not forgetting right wing, journalism.
2. The SUS laws are totally relevant because the tactics being suggested are exactly the same. The recruitment of more ethnic minorities to the Police is not particularly relevant as this exercise hasn't exactly been covered in glory, numbers remain dispropritionately low and many forces acknowledge they are institutionally racist (which makes policing by consent in ethnic communities more difficult; application of stop and search will aggravate this and, as a result there will be less, not more, communication between the police and the people they serve and less useful information being passed on to them regarding criminal activity generally.) If policing does not have the support and consent of the community, it is doomed to fail.
3. If we're talking reasonable suspicion as grounds for stop and search then I'm at a loss as to why innocent Muslims would be targeted. If there are reasonable suspicions of terrorist activity I would not expect your average Plod to be doing a stop and search. It's an extraordinarily blunt and ineffective tool.
Leaving the obvious discrimination issues aside, history tells us this tactic WILL NOT WORK.
Of course if you want to damage community relations and prevent the forestalling and detection of crime, do bat on.
I've had enough of this. Bat on. Graham for President.