Terrorist thwarted from blowing up Merchant Square, Paddington Basin

Here's a disgraceful story of how an Italian student was last month interrogated and eventually arrested by a couple of play-policemen (PCSOs) who were trying to check if she was up to no good:

Italian student tells of arrest while filming for fun - The Guardian

What brings this into Granny's orbit was that the events happened in Merchant Square, Paddington Basin, one of the jewels in the crown of the British Waterways property portfolio.  

The video is  bad publicity for both British Waterways and European Land, the developers of the site, as well as King Sturge, the agents charged with attracting tenants to what might turn out to be a white elephant of a development. It suggests that the site is not an ideal place to relax.

These two PCSOs in this video are like the Pet Shop Boys, in that only one of them speaks.  He chews gum and puts his hands in his breast pockets - always a sign of cocky arrogance in any public official - while the other one maintains his silence and looks away - or possibly he was looking for accomplices to the terrorist student. 

So it was a bit rich of the 'Neil Tennant' officer to accuse the student of cockiness herself.  I'm not surprised she was unresponsive to him.

I said earlier that these men arrested her.  They didn't do the actual arresting, but Neil Tennant summoned a squad of proper policemen.  They then wrestled her to the ground, bruised her, arrested her (presumably taking her DNA) and imprisoned her for five hours, only releasing her once she agreed to accept an £80 fine for "harassment, alarm and distress in a public place."

This is a modern version of that scene in Wind in the Willows where Mr Toad is hauled up before the Beak, and given an extra fine jailed for the crime of 'cheeking the police'.

For me, Granny Buttons is about pictures as much as words. But generally the pictures come first.  What I see inspires my writing.  So you probably already know I'm right behind the 'I'm a photographer, not a terrorist' campaign.

When Granny was at Paddington Basin, last Christmas, I wandered around the site at night myself with my camera and tripod, and experienced no problems. But then, when I see policemen and security guards I tend immediately to go up to them and bombard them with information about myself.  I talk continuously, and I even proffer my Granny Buttons cards and tell them to look me up on the web.  They always get bored and go away very quickly.

But I found this video depressing.  It shows how laws that seem important to big Parliamentarians end up being abused by the little men empowered to enforce them. 

The man in this video says he's stopping the student under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, and then when she asks why he thinks she's a terrorist he says 'I never said that'.   But what is the Act for, if not to act on suspicions that someone could be a terrorist?

I think this trainee should be publicly identified and given the chance to blush and say "Yes, I admit, I fouled that one up."  He could redeem himself yet.

Next month there's a mass photo gathering in Trafalgar Square to protest about this trend. Should be fun.

Meanwhile, here's an excellent terrorist's scouting video of Merchant Square, Paddington Basin, that the gum-chewing policeman somehow failed to prevent being made. Lots of bomb targets here to choose from.

Comments

[Brian]

Take a look at this video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKl2sEN4yNM&feature=PlayList&p=956E8F44E2050D4C&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=3

[iain smith]

been reading a lot about this recently.To me it is another good reason not to go to London.Apart from the very important violation of the freedoms of this country it is a blatant waste of police manpower.6 Policemen and two pretend policemen to arrest 1 girl,how many would be required to arrest a real threat to the peace?