CHRISLEYDON.COM

What a busy week I’ve had, a busier one still is about to happen.

So this week I’ve helped some year 11s at a school with their Graduation and Yearbook DVD, popped down to London, invested in a Skypephone and been detained under Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000.

What was that last one? I was detained under the Terrorism Act 2000? Well yes it’s true. On Wednesday afternoon at about 12:09 PM (GMT) I was detained and searched under Section 44 of the Terrorism Act of 2000 on suspicion of carrying items that might be harmful to the state. Of course I wasn’t, but they suspected that I was. Half an hour I spent outside of Paddington tube station, trying to get to Baker Street, answering pointless questions whilst the plod was assessing my status as a threat to the state. In the end I was let go with no charges held, but that’s not the point. I was stopped, harassed and mate late for doing bugger all. Section 44 of the Terrorism act of 2000 allows the police to stop ANY member of the public for anything they want, as long as they are “acting in a suspicious manner”.

No doubt that I’ll end up in a spot of bother for writing this article but the police weren’t just doing there job, they were victimising. In the half hour that I was there I was the only White British citizen that they stopped. Everyone else detained was of a different ethnicity; I guess I was the token white guy that they had to stop that day.

Section 44 of the Terrorism Act of 2000 is a way for the police to whatever the hell they feel like, you can be stopped for any reason and if you refuse you’re arrested for disobeying police orders and under suspicion of terrorism. You are stopped for going about your daily business, terrorist or not; I wouldn’t mind but how many people have they actually stopped from committing acts of Terrorism under this legislation? It was effective in 2005 and we still had the July 7th bombings, it didn’t stop that.

I clearly wasn’t doing anything wrong, had I refused being stopped and searched I would have been arrested. This is an invasion of my privacy. Some of you will ask that if I haven’t got anything to hide then why should I be worried? My answer to that is that I haven’t got anything to hide, so why abuse my rights? If you haven’t got anything to hide then how much do you earn a year? How old are you? Where do you live? Come on, tell me, you have nothing to hide and nothing to be worried about, you’re not doing anything wrong!

Chris Leydon