A law the Stasi would have loved: Serious Organised Crime and Police Act

A law the Stasi would have loved

Henry Porter

Sunday November 6, 2005

The Serious Organised Crime and Police Act is the most pernicious piece of legislation yet introduced by this government

The Observer

Before too many tears are shed over David Blunkett's departure, we should not forget that, as Home Secretary, he was the author of a vast extension to police powers, some of which have yet to come into force. After 1 January, there will be almost no offence where the police cannot make an arrest and insist on taking DNA and photographs.

That is the legacy of the man who slunk from office after a second scandal. I feel a little sympathy for the faults that made him commit those mistakes, but none for the disdain for individual rights displayed in the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act, a piece of legislation that will profoundly alter the relationship between the police and the public.

The attack on liberty from Blunkett and Mr Blair has been so broad that it has been difficult to keep track of the measures being pushed through parliament. The proposals come thick and fast. They are widely drafted and often disguised in a bill which appears to address one or other of the public's major fears about terrorism and organised or violent crime.

As any Home Office lawyer could have predicted, the measures in the act that gained most attention were the establishment of a Serious Organised Crime Agency and the proposal that demonstrations should not be allowed within one kilometre of parliament. For the British people to be denied access to their own parliament seemed odious enough, but beneath the surface of this act lurks a greater change which has nothing to do with either organised crime or security.

More at:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,2763,1635521,00.html