Archive for March 4th, 2009

News: Use a camera = You are a terroist

March 4th, 2009

Quite a scary story via BoingBoing about a Manchester man (Stephen Clarke) who was accused of taking pictures (using his mobile phone) of sewer-gratings in Manchester and was arrested. Police didn’t actually find any photos of sewer-gratings on his phone, nor are pictures of sewer gratings hard to find.

After he was held by police “on suspicion of planning an act of terror” for two days, had his home searched, his phone searched (let’s hope he had “real names” for all his contacts and no aliases listed and no text messages such as “Ok, let’s do that!” which could be mis-interpreted), his computer searched – they did release him: but have kept his DNA and fingerprints on file.

To think, under current anti-terrorism laws he could have been held without charge for 28 days (the government wants to extend this to 42 days) and with new laws criminalising photographers, it means that any body carrying a camera could be accused of terrorism..

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