Tony’s trying to save our ickle Island by changing the maximum time you can be held by the Police, before they have to charge you, from 14 to 90 days on terrorist related charges.
I’m not sure why he is only pressing for this on Terrorist related offences. According to the police it takes time to analyse the contents of a hard disk which is one of the main selling points, but surely that must apply to a paedophile or fraudster, phisher, hacker or any one of a number of other criminal offences that could be committed.
At the moment, it sounds like the best way to commit a crime in the UK is to a) Use a computer to hold your records. b) Buy a few prepay mobile phone sims c) Hold your written records in a language that isn’t English d) Make sure you appear in lots and lots of CCTV cameras. The police will be so stumped that they wont be able to gather enough evidence within 14 days to charge you and you’ll go free.
What bothers me even more than the Tories not supporting it (agreeing with Tories makes me feel dirty), is that we all seem to have conveniently forgotten about internment in Northern Ireland, one of the best recruiting tools the paramilitaries ever got handed on a plate.
Maybe I’ve been watching too many police shows on TV, but by time it comes to actually arresting someone, shouldn’t you already have a pretty good body of evidence that links them to the crime?
No 90 days for you! 28 days makes me uncomfortable enough even though I am willing to accept time to collate evidence etc has increased with technology.
Maybe I am still just not getting the fundamental point of why are they arresting people without evidence to charge them with something in the first place?
In the U.K., I think, it has long been legal to arrest someone on suspicion of future acts, and lots of commonplace laws refer to this. You often hear of “with intent” as a rider on criminal charges, such as “loitering with intent to cause criminal damage” and “possession with intent to supply.”
I’m pretty sure the U.S. does too when it comes to drugs and terrorism. If you look like you’re going to do either, you’re going to jail, and the way they will get you is to arrest you for spitting on the sidewalk and keep you in jail for a month fishing for the real charge.
