Just been pulled over by police Anti-terror

Cobol74

Cobol74

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OK I had a light out (must only just have gone and I did not notice under the street lighting) but I was driving up the A27 and going over the Hamble bridge and there was about 20 Police there, with all sorts of Police equipment and vans, I was directed into a coned-off area where there were two other cars pulled in. They seemed to be occupied by what I would describe as young people 18 - 23 years old on the street talking to the Police. My Policeman told me that I had been pulled under the prevention of terrorism act (bloody hell are we all going to die?) and he wanted to serach my car, also I had the head light out. So I let him search the car but he asked me a couple of strange questions to do with my place of birth and my ethnicity (this is not normal). And he asked me where I was going, this is all a bit strange AFAIK, BTW I told him straight "I going up the pub" which is where I was going to drop off some XMAS cards. He seemed happy and helped me change my bulb (I had a spare in the car but he leant me his torch - I think that I took him aback by changing it straight away!) My policy is always be as helpful and polite to the police (even when I was done for speeding once) as I possibly can be. He seemed to have his scarcasm control set to minimum.

Well, the point of the post, do people think that they were using this important piece of legislation just to do a drink driving and stolen goods 'fishing' trip? Does it matter?
 
Hmmmm....Not sure how effective random searches are in combating terrorism. Unless it wasnt' really random, do you fit some kind of profile?

I'm really not sure if I would have given consent to search my car (of course to challenge that would be a huge inconvenience). Does the terrorism act you speak of allow law enforcement to search vehicles without probable cause?
 
White middle aged male, in a big Pug estate, child seat in the car - can't think of anything - good question though. Non local number plate (Gloucestershire rather than Hants) I suppose may have made a difference - possibly.
 
Firecat said:
Hmmmm....Not sure how effective random searches are in combating terrorism. Unless it wasnt' really random, do you fit some kind of profile?

I'm really not sure if I would have given consent to search my car (of course to challenge that would be a huge inconvenience). Does the terrorism act you speak of allow law enforcement to search vehicles without probable cause?
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Profiling really does not apply any longer. An increasingly big portion of these folks are now white, black, Hispanic, even Asian. Quite a few of them are being paid, but most are just converted Muslims who are playing along with their "teachings" and they will kill you just as quickly as Osama would.

My sources for that info are two Secret Service agent friends of mine and another guy who I have known since High School who works daily on anti-terrorism jointly for both the US DHS and the British Gov't.
 
Scott said:
Profiling really does not apply any longer. An increasingly big portion of these folks are now white, black, Hispanic, even Asian. Quite a few of them are being paid, but most are just converted Muslims who are playing along with their "teachings" and they will kill you just as quickly as Osama would.
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You're right. Two notable examples are the shoe bomber (Reid) and the dirty bomb suspect (Padilla).
 
I don't support pulling people over to toss their car on the grounds that they are traveling a public road. What happened to presumption of innocence? I know you arent in the USA, but that stuff is happening here too .... :(
 
I dunno whata I woulda done. I feel a strong urge to say that I woulda told them to fuck off, but then again, I have nothing to hide and I don't mind being cooperative. It's a hard one and would probably come down to how they treated me.
 
Well I felt rather strange I must say, I was doing my very best to co-operate (who knows someones life may be at stake somewhere) but it really really went against the grain - that is why I'd thought I'd share. If this is just being used to ferret out drunk drivers I would be very very unhappy, as this is not the purpose of the legislation. Interesting views above thanx all.
 
I've never had my car searched before, but my answer would be no. If I get stopped for speeding or whatever I'm willing to except my guilt and be on with it no ill will, but if a cop tries to go fishing for more crap by searching my car he or she is going to encounter a good bit of resistance just because I can. Being nice and allowing this kind of stuff to just happen is why it happens, if you don't stand up for yourself and your rights who will?
 
^ Yes my natural reaction too, but we have had terrorist attacks here since the early 70s and many people have been killed so the atmosphere is perhaps a bit different.

CVG Yes he really did lend me his torch, are not your Police so accommodating? Or are you referring to the fact that I am using English rather than American English and you somehow find that amusing? I think that you will find most people on the Forum understand it.
 
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Well as far I understand the police have always been able to pull you over on the public road if they have resonable suspension, or for instance your head light is out :)
and they could always search your car if they asked permission.
The fact he specifically mentioned the anti terror laws says that something specific was going on, especially if they had all that equipment there. Might have just been a training excerise.
You had the right attitude though, treat the police as human beings and they will pretty much always be nice back. The amount of things me and my mates have been let off because were polite never ceases to amaze me.

Did they pull any other cars over while you were there?

I do think these new laws are a crock of shit considering the amount of bombings we used to have in the good old days of the IRA. But I haven't seen any abuse of power and my police mates haven't mentioned anything about it really.
 
ruuman Yes, they seemed to be targeting youngsters two other motors were pulled over and all the occupants were out on the pavement and they all were under 23 years old. I agree that they stopped me simply because of the headlight.
 
Yeah I'm sure it was just the light, but quoting the act is weird, don't suppose the other two cars were the same colour or make as your car?
 
Reminds me of an incident this summer when I was interrogated by the PM's security detail. Turns out he was staying in the same hotel as me...a friend and I stopped off at his floor, out of curiosity - elevator doors open near the top floor, me and chum get off, the room in front of us is open, as well as the other three rooms next to it. About 5 suits look up, approach and surround us, and ask what the hell we're doing here. I said we're lost. They ask for ID. We hand it over. They run it through their little PDA's, radio their friends, then let us go. Now we're probably on a black list somewhere of potential troublemakers....
 
ruuman No don't think that a Vauxhall Nova and a Peugeot 306 have much in common, the other two cars stopped.

klutch My bet is that that the fact you turned up there has been logged some where and so long as you don't turn up somewhere else 'sensitive' you'll be fine - may find information passed back to Canada tho'.
 
Cobol74 said:
White middle aged male, in a big Pug estate, child seat in the car - can't think of anything - good question though. Non local number plate (Gloucestershire rather than Hants) I suppose may have made a difference - possibly.
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I think this is vital information in the global hunt for terrorists. We are no longen looking for arabs with turbans and AKs, we should hunt down middle aged white men in estates - the brand of your car don't mark you as a terrorist - throwing child seats on Blair.
 
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