Civil Rights and Security Issues
Civil rights and security issues are major concerns thanks to the perceived increase in terrorist activities. Recent changes in the law have given the authorities extra powers but have also taken away certain civil and human rights from the public.
11 September 2001
Most of the governments around the world have increased their security measure since the 9/11 atrocities, and rightly so. But many people think that these security measures will do nothing to stop further terrorist activities if they were to happen again on this scale. Instead, the increased security measures have been perceived by many as a step back when it comes curtailing the human and civil rights of citizens.The Land of the Free
Since 9/11, security measures in America have taken, what some might call, a drastic turn for the worst. The authorities in America now have the right to arrest, torture and hold suspected “enemies of America” indefinitely in prison camps. The authorities can also deny these alleged enemies any rights or guarantees of protection contained in the Bill of Rights. Arrest and incarceration without trial can apply to anyone who disagrees with the American government and this is a breach of the right to freedom of speech.Terrorism and the UK
At the moment the authorities in the UK can hold terrorist suspects without charge for 28 days. Some senior police authorities have stated that they would like an indefinite incarceration period. However, there have been calls by the government and the police to increase this limit to 90 days. Members of Parliament have rejected the 90 day increase a number of times and in 2005 it was then Prime Minister Tony Blair's first defeat in the House of Commons.Stop and Search
When the Terrorism Act 2000 was passed it gave the police extra powers when it came to the stop and search process. Under section 44 the police can stop and search anyone without the need for reasonable suspicion if they are within a designated area. At the moment the whole of greater London has been designated as a section 44 stop and search area. Since the introduction of section 44 in London there has been a 37% increase in the number of stop and search procedures.The Right to Privacy
The UK government has plans for a database that will hold records of every telephone call, email and text made in Britain. These records will be held on a government database and can be accessed by authorities such as the police. At the moment the new Communications Data Bill is due to be proposed in 2009. There has been major opposition to this new database with many comparisons to George Orwell’s 1984 novel. There have also been protests regarding the infringements of civil and human rights of British citizens if this database is implemented.National Identity Cards
The new British Identity cards have also been the cause of some controversy. The ID cards, which are due to be issued to British citizens in 2009, contain a chip holding biometric and identity data. Biometric data will include fingerprints and this information will be held on a national identity register. These identity cards have already been rolled out to foreign nationals living in the UK. In its first ten years this identity card scheme will cost £4.7 billion, although this figure does not include the cost of implementing equipment to scan the cards.Surveillance Society
Britain has become a surveillance society and at the moment there are 4.2 million CCTV cameras in the UK. This works out at one camera for every 14 people in Britain. Statistics show that every person in Britain can be caught up 300 times per day on a CCTV camera. A recent report by the human right’s organisation Privacy International states that the UK has the worst record of any western democracy of protecting the privacy of individuals.Many people will argue the case that if a citizen has nothing to hide there should not be a problem with any government security measures. However, the implementation of these measures can be seen as increased governmental control over the public. These security measures do infringe on civil and human rights, and in many cases the government has given the public no choice in the matter. There is no doubt that security had to be substantially increased to reflect the increased threat of terrorism, but at what cost to human and civil rights?
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What are a person's rights when asked to give a statement as a witness at a police station.
I had to give a statement as I was witness to a death.
I did give the statement on my own in the interview room.But when it was read out in the coroners court, some of the wording was not how I would have wanted it; even though I asked that particular sentence to be changed at the time.
Noola - 16-Sep-18 @ 6:07 AM
Kila - Your Question:
My friend is being harrassed and has been for years off gmp. They have a chronic history of brutality involving firearms towards my friend.her children also.with no further action on many occassions. She has ptsd now. Shes also needed an op to correct damage to her arm from police. She now suicidal after they called again at 1.20 last night for nothing.please help us
Our Response:
Tell her to speak to Citizen's Advice, they'll be able to help her with either a claim to the IPCC or direct her to someone who can help with a compensation claim if she has a valid case.
CivilRightsMovement - 19-May-17 @ 11:44 AM
My friend is being harrassed and has been for years off gmp. They have a chronic history of brutality involving firearms towards my friend..her children also...with no further action on many occassions. She has ptsd now. Shes also needed an op to correct damage to her arm from police. She now suicidal after they called again at 1.20 last night for nothing...please help us
Kila - 18-May-17 @ 8:00 AM
Dear Tara I agreed with you they diagnosed me the police because i am saying that we are being followed every where we go in the shops by security and members of staff and now my job is telling me i cant work with people with mental health problems how could this be when i don't have any mental health issues they are lying people who are destroying us and not protecting us
Trinitidbone - 20-Mar-17 @ 1:31 PM
Jadeno - Your Question:
I live in an apartment and due to my post going missing I have reported the person on two occasions do I have a legal right to say who handles my post. As the person involved claims he is helping the postman after I have asked him to stop twice.
Our Response:
It might be worth speaking to your landlord (or management company if you own) and asking if you can have lockable postboxes for each apartment.
CivilRightsMovement - 27-Feb-17 @ 12:49 PM
I live in an apartment and due to my post going missing I have reported the person on two occasions do I have a legal right to say who handles my post. As the person involved claims he is helping the postman after I have asked him to stop twice.
Jadeno - 25-Feb-17 @ 9:52 AM
Metropolitan Police Croydon it's a state in state they work after their own Law they doing what they want they are CORUPPT and all the LA and other agencies who must to keep the population safe cover them.
My daughter was abused by her father he wanted to violate her and Metropolitan Police didn't investigate the case. Because they don't investigate the case they take my daughter right to the medical assistance. In last two years my daughter isn't allowed to be in contact with a specialist and now she has a POST TRAUMATIC STRESS DISCORDER.
Also they took her right to have a solicitor or an advocate.
The same thing they doing and with other two persons.
They telling me about evidence
Which evidence if they don't recorded the cases in the NATIONAL COMPUTER SISTEM like in the LAW :all the allegations about abuse became directly subject to criminal conduct under the National Crime RecordingStandard. "
The Metropolitan Police look like a band serial killers, acting under oath against the population. Garbage are not always in dumpster they are alive and walk among us.
They must be eradicated if not we become a nation of corrupt criminals pedophiles
Mimi - 21-Sep-16 @ 10:03 AM
When will all the abuse from the police stop. They are meant to be there to uphold the laws of the land and protect the innocent not punish them for being honest and law abiding.When did the police decide to become the abusers and not the protectors?????????
The media are more honest and trustworthy than the police and have always tried to report the truth but the police force do the opposite.
What sort of world are we all trying to survive in where the police are actually the ones destroying even the most basic of human rights??????.
When did it became acceptable and legal for a police officer A PCSO to be precise to force you to let them enter a single female's home and say that because they have reported disability hate crime that they must be mental because their lack of intelligence means that anyone with an invisible incurable terminal illness who owns their own home is mental and literally torture them to death because of their pure arrogance and stupidity.
Anyone wish to change this system and make the world better for future generations then please reply and quickly.
Strength in numbers is the only way to get legal justice and make the force change their prejudice against anyone who they chose for no reason other than their own ignorance.
Please don't let this continue and all stand together as one and no longer be just lone voices.
We all have human rights.
Tara - 25-Aug-16 @ 12:47 AM
All the below comments are valid as when you have an illness that is physical only and are constantly being told by your victim support officer to report the abuse and finally do. Once only. Then the local police station decide that to report a crime once they have heard your illmeans that they can turn up unannounced at a single adult females home with a so called mental health assessor and insist that an appointment letter that was not sent was and force their way into your privately owned property and say your mental because you have an extremely rare illness and have reported a local nutter for shouting at me in my bed in my bedroom window and excused the local insane drug and alcohol addict as just being nice and as people now know I'm ill it's okay and a highly successful and externally well educated individual is mental as their brains cannot and refuse to accept my illness and it's extreme severity.
Anyone who believes that the human and equalities laws are not applicable and should never be given to anyone with any illness then move to my area and see for yourself.West Wales and Dyfed Powys police have a five year case file to answer too. One station specifically.The police ignorance is disgusting with regards to physical illness.They should be ashamed and disgusted by their actions. To call a terminal illness patient mental for no reason other than being a single female is horrific but FACT. I do have written evidence and a long case file to prove my abuse by one specific station. All avenues have been exhausted and been told tough it's my fault for having a terminal illness and reporting disability hate crime.
Tara - 25-Aug-16 @ 12:29 AM
Mart - Your Question:
All very good advice. But what if like my wife and I were refused our rights to report a crime by a solicitors to the police. We were refused at a Police Station, by 2 officers, to report the crime of Fraud. We have a station log that states policing of solicitors is not a police duty, that duty rests with the Law Society and SRA. We have a Police investigation statement 4 months later, after reporting this to the IPCC, that states this is correct advice. The Law Society and SRA say it is not their duty to investigate solicitors or prosecute for crimes, their duty is to correct misconduct only. The PCC says he has no duty to chalenge the police. The IPCC say they cannot investigate unless the Police ask them to. Our MP says the police have apologised for the wrong advice and that is the end of this matter. Yet neither he nor the police can provide any such apology given some 8 months after.So I am sorry to say that despite all these laws Police are above the rule of law, when the IPCC, PCC, MP, Chief Constable, SRA, Legal Services Board, and Law Society, all have been contacted and I have written refusal from them all to provide for investigating solicitors for the crime of fraud.It is fraud as he is not a valid solicitor, he served 2 custodial sentences for stealing and fraud which neither the Law society nor the SRA knew about until I was in court and he admitted such to the judge. I later found out he was only a qualified Legal Executive. Then he was charging all his clients Grade 'A' fees when at best a Grade 'C'. Then he was charging all his staff fees, including trainees at Grade 'A' fees. So Police and Solicitors are above the rule of law, when you are not provided protection by those in trust to provide. I have the statements that are damning this is the reality, including MoU's where they all have agreement to provide protection of solicitors.
Our Response:
Can the Law Society not investigate this as a case for misconduct though?
CivilRightsMovement - 17-Aug-16 @ 9:59 AM
All very good advice. But what if like my wife and I were refused our rights to report a crime by a solicitors to the police. We were refused at a Police Station, by 2 officers, to report the crime of Fraud. We have a station log that states policing of solicitors is not a police duty, that duty rests with the Law Society and SRA. We have a Police investigation statement 4 months later, after reporting this to the IPCC, that states this is correct advice. The Law Society and SRA say it is not their duty to investigate solicitors or prosecute for crimes, their duty is to correct misconduct only. The PCC says he has no duty to chalenge the police. The IPCC say they cannot investigate unless the Police ask them to. Our MP says the police have apologised for the wrong advice and that is the end of this matter. Yet neither he nor the police can provide any such apology given some 8 months after.
So I am sorry to say that despite all these laws Police are above the rule of law, when the IPCC, PCC, MP, Chief Constable, SRA, Legal Services Board, and Law Society, all have been contacted and I have written refusal from them all to provide for investigating solicitors for the crime of fraud.
It is fraud as he is not a valid solicitor, he served 2 custodial sentences for stealing and fraud which neither the Law society nor the SRA knew about until I was in court and he admitted such to the judge. I later found out he was only a qualified Legal Executive. Then he was charging all his clients Grade 'A' fees when at best a Grade 'C'. Then he was charging all his staff fees, including trainees at Grade 'A' fees.
So Police and Solicitors are above the rule of law, when you are not provided protection by those in trust to provide. I have the statements that are damning this is the reality, including MoU's where they all have agreement to provide protection of solicitors.
Mart - 16-Aug-16 @ 7:17 AM
@Manny. There doesn't seem to be any documentation about the limits of a 'pat down' search. We suggest you write to the airport security management and ask for a policy. this is what the government says about body searches but it's quite vague. A specialist solicitor may also be able to help. Sorry we couldn't give a more useful answer.
CivilRightsMovement - 18-Feb-15 @ 12:50 PM
Can you advise me please.
My 16 year old daughter flew for the first time on sunday from Liverpool airport.
At security she was patted down by a female security guard. She was asked for her age and if she was travelling alone.
The female guard searched thoroughly and then told my daughter that she was going to put her hand INSIDE her bra as part of the search.
Surely that is not right. I have never seen it during my time gong through customs, and does that not class as sexual assault?
Manny - 17-Feb-15 @ 10:29 AM
@simmo. Ask for an interview with the police officers in charge of checking the curfew is adhered to. Mention that you are really pleased with the way your son has behaved and that you slept through. Ask them is there some other way these checks can be carried out. Also ask them to call your home phone if there is no answer from the doorbell etc - it's inconvenient for you but at least he can get through the curfew period without any questions.
CivilRightsMovement - 16-Oct-14 @ 12:29 PM
My son is on police bail and under a curfew from 9pm until 6am.The police are coming frequently to the door at all sorts of hours.We are all tired as we get up for work and cannot sleep in case we miss their visit.The other night a policeman knocked at the door and nobody heard them, although we were all there.Will my son be in trouble for this he has been on these bail conditions for 3 months now and has always complied and was in fact in bed when they attended on the night in question.
simmo - 14-Oct-14 @ 11:29 AM
My 13 year old son was been accused of touching a girl in his school by a friend of hers in a message to my daughter on Facebook so my daughter told this girl id be reporting them to the school, i reported it to the school' also that this girl was bullying my son and her friend's.. But the school got lots of statements from this bully and her mates saying my son had touched them all inappropriately ? Seem,s my son and his mates were poking each other and other students in Class and laughing. So the school excluded my son for 3 days for unacceptable behaviour and said the bully had 7 witness ? I tried to sortthis out at the meeting in the school' but as far as the school were concerned my son was guilty ?? They ignored that my son was been called Jimmy Savel by these girls and boys before the allegations'. This girl had punched my son in the side of his face in school so i called the police and told them i wanted to press charges against her' but the police officer ended up condoning this girl punching my son saying it was because he had sexually assaulted her ?? Also this police officer has changed the allegations of inappropriate behaviour tosexual assault and has got statements from girls saying my son had touched them in the private area's with penciland hand ? . My son was joking around with his mates in class poking each other' he could not have been running around the class sexually assaulting all these students. My child is innocent' he has been traumatised by all of this, i feared so much for his safety i put him into another school'.Now i find out this police officer i got involved has put down on my son's police record that my son has sexually assaulted these bullys ?? How can i clear my child's name as this happened a year ago and is destroying my family' especially my childs future ? What can i do ? This police officer has destroyed my sons life :(
luy - 10-Aug-14 @ 10:31 PM
I was stopped today by two officers and within 2mins another two officers pulling over
I made my journey back from my mother in laws house and had pulled outside my house when this whole drama took place
They gave no reasoning to me for the whole questioning apart from saying your vechicle was sspotted On a site of a crime
When i asked what crime they said they could not say
I had my 6year old crying his eyes out, as he thought these officers were going to arrest me
They didnt care less that the child was crying
one of them asked my child if he had been arrested
At this point of the time i felt on edge and again asked them what they were looking for as they had no reasoning for the stop nor the right to speak to my child
I will be taking this further as i am sick to the stomach
Please can anyone tell me what i can do to find out whyi was stopped and what gives them the right to speak to my 6 year old
aryan - 7-May-14 @ 2:02 AM
8 years ago my vehicle number plates were cloned and used in a robbery thats what i was told when stopped by the police, i had to prove where i was, at melton mowbray cattle market where im every tuesday standing a pitch. since then at different times and different levels i have had police intimidation, im lost and feel helpless ive done nothing wrong. please can you help or advise.im feel lost .regards gary burrows
na - 7-Dec-13 @ 2:33 PM
Interesting and useful website. But would be even more useful and helpful if it were brought up to date. And I agree with the The Lawyer. Don't give em your personal details if they have no reasonable excuse for believing you have broken the law. And don't fall for the old you're making me suspicious by not giving me your details
Of course if you are alone and no witnesses are present to back you up later they can and I am positive they
do make up a bogus claim to arrest you and generally run a lawn mower through your civil rights.
wildy - 21-Jul-13 @ 8:26 AM
