Welcome to Scotland the Police State

If you chose to go for "independence"...... (Nice sell..... It is dominion status really though ain't it) then you can chose your own government. Would you really want the SNP spoofers to be at the heart of it?


PS. mr Pud can make the call on its relevance to this forum.nit references the fitba heavily but is a social thing tae.

By Kevin McKenna.



Scotland's SNP government has adopted a curious approach to showcasing the nation's qualities ahead of the independence referendum. You certainly can't accuse them of purveying a rose-tinted image of auld Scotia. For it seems that the country has, at some point in the last seven years, turned into the most illegal small country in the world and the SNP appear to be revelling in it.

For no apparent reason that I can recall, the SNP in 2007 committed itself to providing the country with an extra 1,000 police officers. There didn't appear to have been any great popular clamour for this remarkable and expensive job creation scheme for the plods. I don't remember any cataclysmic increases in violent crime across the country, certainly nothing which a disciplined, properly focused force operating under good leadership couldn't cope with. Since then, we have discovered that our police force has been anything but disciplined, focused or properly led and for this the rest of us have had to pay a mighty price in money and civil liberties.

Last March, the numbers of police officers in Scotland reached a record high of 17,496, according to Scotland's chief statistician, and the nationalists crowed that another election promise had been met and just in time for the birth of the new single police force. Huzzah! The problem, though, with providing this small and reasonably well-behaved wee country with an extra 1,000 polis is this: how do we keep them all occupied week in, week out? Easy-peasy… we simply criminalise lots of law-abiding people. And if we don't actually criminalise them, well… we can just treat them like criminals instead.

Thus was the Offensive Behaviour at Football Matches legislation introduced in 2012, which sought to target young, working-class men from Glasgow's poorest districts for espousing tribal sentiments in support of Celtic or Rangers. Hundreds of previously law-abiding men have been subject to Stasi tactics by the police and dragged through the courts for singing age-old songs about the war in Ireland. Others have been kettled and intimidated by foul-mouthed cops for daring to march together peacefully to a game.

Last week, we discovered what the second part of the SNP's hitherto covert criminalise the punters strategy looked like. Between April and December last year, the police conducted almost 520,000 stop-and-search procedures on members of the Scottish public, almost 2,000 a day and twice as many as are carried out by London's Metropolitan police.

The Scottish police claimed that this strategy of suspecting just about everyone of being a criminal was a success because nearly 20% resulted in a positive result. The previous week, we had discovered that Scots police were much more likely to go after people using mobile phones in their cars than those who had committed a sexual assault. Compared to modern, lawless Scotland, Snake Plissken had it easy in Escape From New York.

It's all nonsense, because the crime figures are provided by the Scottish police and thus must be treated in the same manner as you would an economic progress report from North Korea. Increasingly, the Scottish police are themselves operating above the law with the impunity of a general's private army in a banana republic. And it also seems Kenny MacAskill, the cabinet secretary for justice, without telling anyone, has transferred his powers as justice secretary to the unelected Stephen House, Scotland's new chief of police.

In the last five years or so, we have learned that several hundred police officers actually have serious criminal records or been accused of serious criminal offences. Among the allegations are rape, sex attacks, violence, wife beating, theft, fire attacks, abduction, stalking, football disorder, racism and data breaches.

Meanwhile, despite almost 150 police officers being reported to prosecutors for alleged corruption, only six have been convicted. The alleged corruption included serious assault, bribery, blackmail and gangland activity. Unlawful access to secret files and lying in statements (an old police favourite) were the least of it. Strathclyde police, Scotland's biggest force, refused to provide figures on the pretext of cost. At this rate, the public will soon be given stop-and-search powers over the cops. God knows what would come tumbling out of their high-vis tunics.

Last week, according to the Independent, we learned that secret groups of Freemasons have been used by organised crime gangs for years to corrupt the criminal justice system. This echoes a chilling declaration by Strathclyde's deputy chief constable recently that 27 organised crime gangs were attempting to infiltrate the force by planting recruits in the ranks and grooming others. Yet, in Scotland the government has always resisted calls for membership of secret societies to be deemed unacceptable for all serving police officers and judges.

The abuse of their powers by the police is part of a wider picture of police corruption and lawlessness throughout the UK, which had remained unchecked despite nasty little episodes such as the Met's Flying Squad porn baron scandal of the mid-70s. The thuggery displayed by police officers during the miners' strike in 1984 at places such as Orgreave and Polkemmet was virtually sanctioned by Margaret Thatcher as she vowed to destroy those whom she called "the enemy within". The Birmingham Six, the Hillsborough cover-up and the Stephen Lawrence inquiry all pointed to a force that had been allowed far too much respect by government and judiciary.

In Scotland, a supposedly enlightened, progressive and democratic administration has made the police virtually untouchable and handed the force wide-ranging and discretionary powers over the people. Yet all the evidence and anecdotal experience points to an organisation that has itself turned feral and is almost beyond state control. MacAskill, now in reality acting merely as bag carrier to House, should be brought to account for allowing this to happen on his watch. An independent review of the customs, practices and recruitment policies of the police must be undertaken before the people say enough is enough and sort it out themselves.

In the meantime, let's put all talk about membership of the EU aside. For, at this rate, if Scotland does gain its independence in September we will merely become the newest member of the confederation of independent police states.[/QUOTE]

 

There is something in those criticisms.

Although there is a lot to be said for the criticisms of extending such extensive and arbitrary powers to the Feds.

 

It's tied up with it all the same.

I think he should have referenced that an independent* Scotland doesn't have to be an SNP dominated thing.

I'm personally wary of treading too far down that road. That's the bidniss of the Scotch. But obviously I'm vested in the SNP backed legislation that affords the cops the opportunity to criminalise things like thought.

 

I can't agree. If they wanted to eradicate sectarianism, they could have done it very easily by affecting existing laws against those who were in breach of them.

They haven't banned words or phrases either.

 

I don't know. I imagine lots of good press.

Thousand so of new police on the streets, now able to take on the scourge of scotch society. What's not to like?

Instead get tonnes of **** press for introducing **** legislation that in no way addresses the problem it was introduced to combat. It doesn't even mention it.

You mention the Scotch government being right to address sectarianism. Then address it. 1916 has the square route of **** all to do with sectarianism. It's a myth perpetuated by the lazy and ignorant.

It's all a pretence for some other agenda.

 

You seem that is just it. You couldn't think of anything sectarian, so you had to reach for something else and landed on a politic that some folk just don't like.

I understand and agree that it is a political move. But not one to address Sectarianism. It's galling to me when folk say things like "we needed something" or "it's not perfect but....." It's bollocks. If they wanted to address sectarianism it would have been a lot easier than this.

And as you say, they want to eradicate it.... Or rather be seen to be trying. Throwing money into a black hole criminalising the working classes and giving plod a few more quid in his sky rocket.

 

It has been used regularly to try and prosecute people singing the roll of honour.That has nothing whatsoever to do with sectarianism.

I has thought the Act was introduced specifically for Celtic fans because Celtic fans couldn't be prosecuted under existing legislation. In fact that is exactly what they said it was for. There was a reticence to prosecute crime because only supporters of one club weren't committing any. The answer was to criminalise the Celtic support. That way you can attack everyone for anything.

I'm not that fussed on what the average fan in England thinks. They aren't my benchmark for anything. I was drinking with a friend one day who told me that he didn't like Scotch Football because it was all about religion. At that second Spurs scored on the telly and he jumped out of his seat roaring "Yiiiiido".

Do I think you agree with the Act? No. I do think that you believe it is there to do what they are telling you it is for.

I think it pretty clear that isn't happening.