UK: Jails Inside Malls, Supermarkets for Short-Term Confinement, DNA Collection
March 15th, 2007Via: Times Online:
Short-term “jails†are planned for supermarkets and town centres to deal with yobs and shoplifters under Home Office proposals to ease the burden on police. Discussions have already started about building a “retail jail†inside the Selfridges store in Oxford Street, London.
Suspects would be held for up to four hours in a small room with a clear plastic front so they were visible to custody officers at all times during their detention.
Ministers are also proposing a huge expansion of police powers to take fingerprints, DNA and other samples from offenders and store them on national databases. People caught speeding, failing to wear a seat belt, allowing their dog to foul the footpath and dropping litter could be forced to give fingerprints or DNA to police for checking against other databases.
The Home Office proposals for a network of “short-term holding facilities†in shopping malls and high streets aim to help police to process high-volume crimes such as shoplifting. The move to speed up the handling of suspects and save money was outlined in a consultation paper on rules to govern how suspects are treated by police.
The paper also suggests another radical change to existing rules by allowing police to question suspects after they have been charged.
The proposal for short-term holding facilities is intended to facilitate cases where suspects’ identity cannot readily be confirmed.
“A potential solution in dealing with high-volume offending is to enable the police to make use of short-term holding facilities located in shopping centres and town centres,†the paper said.
The facilities would be secure but would not be the same as standard cell design, it added.
“Persons detained would be subject to detention to a maximum period of four hours to enable fingerprinting, photographing and DNA sampling,†the paper, Modernising Police Powers, said.
“The aim would be to locate the short-term holding facility in busy areas to allow quick access and processing of suspects to enable the officer to resume operational duties as quickly as possible,†it added.
As well as its plan for Selfridges, the Metropolitan Police is understood to be interested in placing units in other stores and is planning custody units in every London borough.
Hang the politician with that ideea for treason !
I guess They had a plan for the unneccessary real estate construction after all.
If I haven’t been cunningly murdered, I can’t wait to see what all the unneccessary buildings will be housing come Jan. 1, 2015.
p.s.
Is the UK some sort of open-air laboratory for experiments in totalitarianism??
Even I can’t believe how extreme this stuff is getting in the UK.
>>>open-air laboratory for experiments in totalitarianism??
Interesting idea. Indeed, maybe the point is to determine what people will tolerate, see where the limits are??? Then other states can look at UK’s “lab notes” and replicate the experiment.
From Protest to Resistance:
My mom is flying down to DC to March on the Pentagon this Saturday.
“40 year anniversary of march on Pentagon for Vietnam war. The message of the 1967 march was “From Protest to Resistance,” and marked a turning point in the development of a countrywide mass movement. ”
http://answer.pephost.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=8107
Kevin, do you think there is any other alternative to direct resistance by the masses to let them know where ‘the limits are’?
George,
Say a knife wielding psychopath was in your house. Would you wave a Peace sign at him, and try to see his inner goodness before he murders you and your family?
Protests/marches are a complete waste of time. Cheney appreciates your mother’s activism. He makes money from it; all the flying around, buses, rental cars, etc. Open air rock concerts aren’t any good for stopping evil.
The best way to hurt this system is to live on as little money as possible. In a system that relies on people going further into debt, refusing to go into debt and taking money out of circulation does great harm to this thing. It’s pretty much impossible to live on no money at all, under the current system. But it’s very possible to live well on just a little money, and doing so is good practice for what’s coming.
Waving signs… You’d accomplish more by sleeping in. Sleeping in doesn’t pay Cheney by burning gas. If you’re going to burn gas, burn it on activities involved with building top soil and self sustaining biological systems.
Ah yes, more fresh Orwellian horrors from that most enthsiastic embracer of modern fascism, the UK.
Yep, the UK is a testbed for all forthcoming horrors. Reading about it is one thing, but actually living in the place and taking a drive through the country is something else. CCTVs are everywhere, and I mean everywhere. In every shop, garage, street corner, motorway bridge… The contrast with continental Europe is vast – I have yet to see a single CCTV camera anywhere in the Austrian Tyrol where I´m staying at the moment. It feels so free driving around here – that´s why I made the trip, actually. It´s all about enjoying the last vestiges of European liberty and staying away from fascist zone airports. However, we are probably only a catalyst event away from the UK´s Orwellian crap being dumped on the rest of the EU.
Cyringfreeman, how about Ireland, is it as bad as Britain in this respect? It’s been a while since I crossed the pond, but I don’t remember it being anything in the UK like what I’m reading about these days. The movie Green Street Hooligans suggested that some people are CCTV “adaptive” –are they?
George,
Flying -freaking flying – out to protest the activities of the U.S. oil protection service? OMG that is bodacious fool-assery at its finest!
Inside Fascism’s favorite laboratory, the UK, a freedom-murdering monster is stealthily being created:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article1512089.ece
Hermesten – Ireland is much better than the UK for the libertarian. Small government for a start, and an unobtrusive bureaucracy that pretends to be serious but half the time is down the pub having a sneaky Guinness.
CCTV adaptive? I’m not familiar with the term but if it means the Brits take it without complaint, then yes, the vast majority do because they’re too comfy to care about loss of liberty.