Stopped and Searched 2

I blogged (Stopped and Searched) earlier this week, and today’s post is to clarify a few points that might have been vague on my earlier post.

I believe in personal freedom (it is one of the reasons I became a naturalised British) it is a freedom I paid dearly for and there is no price too high I will pay to preserve and protect it.

I think that the police have a job to do and unlike some might think, they do listen to us the public and hear what we have to say. Like most services feedback is important to them, as they strive to always deliver a better service. They are also the executor and not the legislator so pointing the figure at them will not resolve any legislative issues. Therefore, we need to point the figure at those we send to parliament to represent us and our interests. Those who in our name have put in place the intrusive rules and laws that we dislike so much. If we (the people) think that our national security can be achieved more effectively and efficiently without the laws as they are currently, then we need to communicate that feeling to our representatives so they can legislate laws we (the public) can comfortably live with and still be safe and protected.

The beliefs that the police should be able to sift the population and don’t stop “the sort of people who would NEVER be engaged in illegal activity”, as someone suggested, is called profiling. But we did not like it when only young black men (based on profiling) were continuously stopped and searched for knives and weapons, or when only Asian men were regularly stopped under the Anti- Terrorism Act. So what is the solution? How can we please the majority since it is impossible to please everyone? How can we profile without offending one group or miss the exceptions that don’t fit that profile? How can we be so diverse and tolerant yet so limited at the same time?

I know it is irritating and time consuming to be stopped for 10-15 minute on your way to work, but that is the law as it is now. And maybe we are unfairly blaming the police while all they are doing is implementing laws that our “elected” representatives has approved on our behalf. Perhaps it is time to amend and/or change the current laws and put in place laws and rules we the public feel safe and comfortable with.

We must in our dismay with things as they are now, remember that our front line service men and women are demoralised enough with all the nonsense this government keeps throwing at them and they can do with some compassion from us the public.