Met deploys new hi-tech gun scanner in London raid

The Register ^ | 23 Oct 2004 | John Lettice

[af_vet_rr]

The Metropolitan Police's hi tech weapons scanner had an early outing in the London Borough of Lewisham last night, as the culmination of a week-long series of anti gun crime operations in the Borough. Friday's swoop also identified a radical new use for the Millenium Dome, although the scanner itself seems not to have detected any guns.

A BBC report tells us that police boarded 20 police vans and two London buses at the Dome, then swooped on a pub, a barber's shop and a take-away. Although the BBC says 700 officers were involved, The Register's abacus suggests that total capacity of the vehicles mentioned would be more in the region of 400, depending on how sociable the officers may have been feeling. But there may well have been a total of 700 involved.

A street was cordoned off, and the occupants of the premises were made to walk past the scanner, which found no guns. 14 people were however arrested for other reasons.

[af_vet_rr]

Very interesting...if you'll recall, some police departments in the US wanted to use similar devices (albeit operating in the thermal spectrum) to peak inside of houses, while driving by, to see if people were doing anything suspicious (i.e. too much of a heat source, somebody maybe growing pot in their closet, etc.).

How long before they are scanning everybody like this in various places in the US, to "make us safer"?

[Piquaboy]

I thought guns were a no no in England.

[sourcery]

How long before tiny, indetectable MEMS devices pervade the world, keeping everyone and everything under total surveillance, reporting back to Uncle Sam, Al Qaeda, Beijing, WalMart, Bill Gates and anyone else who wants to snoop (including your own spouse)? See David Brin's The Transparent Society.

[Boundless]

> I thought guns were a no no in England.

Only for victims and the otherwise law-abiding.
Everyone else gets a pass.

[joesnuffy]

Another problem is who's in charge....and who gets to define what 'crime' is...

Giving sweeping powers to GW Bush will not have the same effects on main stream Americans
as giving these same powers to those who loathe main stream Americans and America..

John Kerry Hillary Clinton Geroge Soros

[FreedomCalls]

You have no 4th Amendment rights in the UK. The police can search you or your property anytime they want for any reason or for no reason. Anything they find can be used as evidence in a court trial. No "probable cause" is needed.

You have no 5th Amendment rights in the UK. The police can ask you at any time to account for your location or your activities and if you fail to provide an answer, the fact that you failed to give up that information can be used against you in a court. In effect your silence is proof that you are hiding something and are therefore guilty.

And Jimmy Carter thinks we didn't need an American Revolution.

[Piquaboy]

Sorta like Washington D.C. Huh?

[jordan8]

What happens when they turn these scanners on habib wearing IslamoBritons? And you know cops are going to use this technology to scope out (to use a phrase) babes. How will women feel about the possibility?

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

Will it detect pocket change or belt buckles? Can it tell the difference?

[OldSgt.]

These tools are in use, just not very wide spread yet, major departments have them. Normally deployed to hostage scenes or barricaded situations.

Your tax dollars at work, soon to be more common, ensuring the public safety. See definitions section, Code of Federal Regulations, for definition of "Public".

[af_vet_rr]

Sorta like Washington D.C. Huh?

Or the airports, or various large sporting events. It's just a matter of time before this kind of stuff is employed by local police departments in everyday situations. There are plenty of things they can say to justify it, that many Americans would accept without challenging it.

[ApplegateRanch]

And Jimmy Carter thinks we didn't need an American Revolution.

Or, in the case of a rape, EVERY male of police specified ages living within a police specified area, MUST submit a DNA sample to be compared to samples recovered from the victim or scene. Do not try to refuse.

[FreedomCalls]

Or, in the case of a rape, EVERY male of police specified ages living within a police specified area, MUST submit a DNA sample to be compared to samples recovered from the victim or scene.

I remember when they first did that in Narborough in Leicestershire -- over 5000 boys and men aged 13 to 30 were sampled. It was incredible.