Stop & Search under Terrorism Act 2000 ruled Unlawful.

Gillan and Quinton -v- The United Kingdom - ECHR - 12-Jan-10 - Lech Garlicki, President, Nicolas Bratza, Giovanni Bonello, Ljiljana Mijovic, Päivi Hirvelä, Ledi Bianku, Nebojša Vucinic - Human Rights - Police
The claimants had been stopped by the police using powers in the 2000 Act. They were going to a demonstration outside an arms convention. There was no reason given for any suspicion that the searches were needed.
Held: "the concept of “private life” is a broad term not susceptible to exhaustive definition. It covers the physical and psychological integrity of a person. The notion of personal autonomy is an important principle underlying the interpretation of its guarantees" The powers given to the police were too wide, provided inadequate protection against abuse, and violated the claimants' article 8 rights.
The legislation envisaged authorisations for periods of 28 days over limited areas. Instead they had been renewed without interruption for the whole area, and the number of searches had risen to 117,000 a year, and "the possibility of bringing proceedings in the County Court to determine whether the power had been properly and lawfully used was a wholly inadequate safeguard against misuse and arbitrariness. The ex post facto review of the exercise of the power by the County Court in any individual's case did not rectify the lack of legal certainty associated with the power."
The powers to stop and search a person and his belongings were coercive. This was a public action and liable to cause humiliation.
There was no need for anyone to consider the search necessary, but only that it was expedient. There was a clear risk of the searches being arbitrary, and black and asian persons were subjected to these searches disproportionately, and of the power being used to interfere with the exercise of article 10 rights:"while arrests for other crimes had followed searches under section 44, none of the many thousands of searches had ever related to a terrorism offence; . . examples of poor and unnecessary use of section 44 abounded, there being evidence of cases where the person stopped was so obviously far from any known terrorism profile that, realistically, there was not the slightest possibility of him/her being a terrorist, and no other feature to justify the stop."
Terrorism Act 2000 s. 44 European Convention on Human Rights s. 5 s. 8 s. 10
Cases Cited: Gillan and Another, Regina (on the Application of) -v- Commissioner of the Police for the Metropolis and Another Admn 31-Oct-03; Gillan and Quinton, Regina (on the Application of) -v- Commissioner of Police for the Metropolis & Another CA 29-Jul-04; Gillan, Regina (on the Application of) -v- Commissioner of Police for the Metropolis and Another HL 08-Mar-06; Gillan and Quinton -v- The United Kingdom ECHR 10-Jun-08;
[2010] ECHR 28 4158/05 12-Jan-10 Bailii [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] 15-Jan-10 Times [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

About damned time too - now they need to rule on Kettling

Badger wrote:About damned time too - now they need to rule on Kettling

Anyone taking them to court about it?

I've heard rumblings, but mainly from hippies with no real coherent thought processes

Badger wrote:I've heard rumblings, but mainly from hippies with no real coherent thought processes

They'll need to be pulling out their fingers.
All of the courts are very strict on time limits. When were your hippies kettled?

My Hippies?

The folk I know where kettled at G20, when Ian Thomlinson was killed by the police

Badger wrote:My Hippies?

The folk I know where kettled at G20, when Ian Thomlinson was killed by the police

Was he killed in a kettle?
His nearest & dearest might be the best placed to take action on that score.

No, he was beaten to the ground because he walked past a Storm Tooper Officer of the Law too slowly as he walked home.



The press demonised him a an alcoholic and at the protest rally to commemorate and protest his death another upstanding Officer of the Law beat a woman to the ground for being shouty and waving a juice box

Scum. Nuff said, I think

I remember when we were encouraged to think of the Police as our friends...

Hmm not sure I want my child to be treated like THAT

It does seem that both the police and the public have forgotten that policing only works by consent...
If anyone ever actually bothers to organise a protest, then they are going to be in big trouble.

I suspect that that will be happening fairly soon after the 20th October...

Badger wrote:I suspect that that will be happening fairly soon after the 20th October...

Remind me what happens then.

David and Gideons spending review (and my Birthday)

Rumour has it that is when they will announce the real major spending cuts to public services, around 83 Billion by all accounts.

That will just be a riot, not an organised protest... (and I think you missed the inference in the "organised" earlier).

Hairyloon wrote:(and I think you missed the inference in the "organised" earlier).

You can't miss an inference, only make one. It would have been an implication.

How many of us would do the job of the Police, after all this is only one function of their role in society, aren't they the first people we call when somebody breaks into our home, or steals something, or decides to cause violence at us...

Are all of the Police bad?
Do all hippies weave yoghurt?
Do all green people hug trees?

My comment, taken out of the context I made it in....

and as someone who has used the services of the Police in the situations you describe, no I was not very happy with them then, either.

And I have been subjected to treatment totally out of order, when I was doing NOTHING wrong, provocative, or in any way shape or form un lawful.

As I say I USED to feel the Police were my friends. No more.

Sorry I shall remove the quote...

Thank you Spar

No worries, didn't want to cause upset, just look at things from another angle...

sparhawk wrote:Are all of the Police bad?

Of course not, but there are enough to be noticed.
Also notable are the efforts the police go to to make sure that those bad apples are weeded out and appropriately dealt with.
Unfortunately, these are notable by their absence.