Is Britain now a Police State?

[streetsinger]

you must be the most taped man in britain streetsinger.cctv knows if you play good or bad.

CCTV, like anything cat, works for and against us. I don't have a problem with it 'cause I don't break the law. It's not illegal to play music on the street, but if the authorities want to move you, they use the obstruction law. I have only been prosecuted three times in forty years so I can't be that bad. Check out The Street singer on myspace and you can make up your own mind about my music.

[smellycat]

who,s law are you following.?we are being browbeaten into a trap.

[smellycat]

i bet you sing ,back in the ussr you don,t know how lucky you are.........just an educated guess.in a war of propaganda we live in.

[Lily]

I'm sure Trevs never sang in Russia cat

[smellycat]

propaganda can take many forms and many ways and dirrections.

[Steveg]

Britain is not a police state, nothing like one, if you want to see a police state go to China. I have been playing music on the streets for over forty years and have yet to meet a bad policeman. If anything I would say that this country could be a bit harsher and maybe bring back corporal punishment for violent crime. There is more freedom in Britain than anywhere else in the world, that's why people are queuing up and falling over each other to come here.

Not met a bad policeman - some of the people peacfully demonstrating at the G20 summit last year met some bad ones. One poor man just walking home with his hands in his pockets got assaulted by the police and later died.

Then there are many reports of people being harrassed now for taking photographs of buildings and streets scenes in case they are terrorists:-

The picture that could land you in jail: How police in Big Brother Britain treat you like a terrorist for taking holiday snaps

Read more: The picture that could land you in jail: How police in Big Brother Britain treat you like a terrorist for taking holiday snaps | Mail Online

Here are a few more Big Brother Britain stories

A Russian journalist believes the level of surveillance is worse in ‘Big Brother Britain’ than it was in Russia during the Soviet era.

Read more: Russian journalist blasts 'Big Brother Britain' and says it's WORSE than the old Soviet Union | Mail Online


Britain has one and a half times as many surveillance cameras as communist China, despite having a fraction of its population, shocking figures revealed yesterday.

Read more: Shock as figures reveal Britain has one CCTV camera for every 14 people - more than China | Mail Online

Personal information detailing the lives of every person in Britain will be handed over to Town Hall bureaucrats in a new lurch towards the 'snooper state'.

Under controversial plans unveiled yesterday, all public bodies will be able to request private details held by every Government department, agency or council.

The data will be transferred around the country in bulk, effectively creating giant databases of information.

Read more: New giant database will store private details of EVERY person in 'Big Brother' Britain | Mail Online

[streetsinger]

I was speaking of how it is for me Steveg, as for demos, my experience of them are that it is normally six of one and half a dozen of the other. In the pole tax demonstration, I was working in a friends music shop and we had to stand in the doorway with wooden clubs to dissuade looters. It wasn't the police that were the problem it was the protesters, one music shop lost all it's stock. Also, if you call a man a pig, don't be surprised if he acts like one. As for there being an inordinate amount of cameras that doesn't bother me, hopefully it will dissuade the criminals. It is sad that the man died, but there were, probably, also a lot of injured policemen. Demonstrating can be a dangerous endeavour and if you can't take the heat maybe you should stay out of the kitchen.

[Lily]

Demonstrating can be a dangerous endeavour and if you can't take the heat maybe you should stay out of the kitchen.

But the man who died Trev, was ( as I understand it ) not demonstrating. He was walking away from it and was hit from behind. Hitting someone from behind hardly suggests that the said police officer was in any danger from this man.

I can't be sure if he was part of the demonstration initially or if he just got caught up in it. Anyone confirm which of those is correct ?

[streetsinger]

But the man who died Trev, was ( as I understand it ) not demonstrating. He was walking away from it and was hit from behind.

I can't be sure if he was part of the demonstration initially or if he just got caught up in it. Anyone confirm which of those is correct ?

I'm not saying there are no bad policemen Lily, I'm sure there are, I just haven't met one in forty years of straddling the legal fence, so they must be the exception rather than the rule. and as for CCTV, people have been calling for more police on the streets so they can deter crime, well when criminals see CCTV cameras it deters them. It has been said that because of CCTV, crime has now moved to the residential areas that are free of it, so maybe we should have more of them in the residential areas as well. Hopefully the incident of the man being abused was captured on CCTV

[Lily]

Hopefully the incident of the man being abused was captured on CCTV

Can't be sure if it was on CCTV Trev, can't confirm that for definate but I do know it was captured on many mobile phone camera's and the footage was shown on many news channels. Not sure whats happened about it though since first hearing about it.