It was very good of Tom Harris MP to keep Stop and Search in the news last week - here, here, here, here, here, and here for example.
What the Rail Minister was doing though was supporting the British Transport Police's policy of implementing the draconian Terrorism Act powers in Scotland.
None of what Harris has put out has answered the central points though - that stop and search achieves nothing, it is an erosion of basic liberties to stop people without having any suspicion against them, and that more than just being a waste of police time, it is harming relations between communities and police.
You cannot blame Kenny MacAskill for raising this issue. It is a problem, and rather than undermining the police as Harris claims, his viewpoint will actually strengthen them. I also note that the BTP and Harris are also still persisting in their claim that there has not been a single complaint about S&S when with my own ears last month heard the BTP area commander in Glasgow refer to one.
Their defence is that it gives public reassurance that something is being done, while also provides some level of security. I've previously pointed out that even in the extremely unlikely event of a BTP officer stopping and searching someone with a bomb, they would be powerless to stop him detonating it.
So people that quote Benjamin Franklin saying "Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety", are misplaced when it comes to stop and search - this taking of our liberties doesn't even provide us with one iota of temporary safety, and in fact does the opposite.
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