If a circle doesn’t go into a square, do you keep hitting it with a hammer until the square turns circle shaped? BBC:
Gordon Brown is considering doubling to 56 days the period terrorism suspects can be detained without charge. He is expected to try to extend the 28-day limit, when he unveils his strategy on counter-terrorism.
A few weeks ago a few people commented on how Brown’s language had changed in contrast to Blair’s - namely that the words ‘war on terror’ were no longer being used and that the religion of the chaps who left bombs around London and threw themselves into Glasgow airport was also not mentioned. It was dealt with as a criminal act and not a ideological war, and it was a conscious effort in response to complaints from the Muslim community that the wider group is often made to feel responsible through the language used when talking about extremists.
Brown and Smith were applauded for their approach at the time, but the changes have been entirely cosmetic. Brown is still allowing policemen - who believe the solution to the problem is locking people up without charge for as long as possible - dictate government policy. If we allowed these wannabe-internmentists guide the rest of the criminal justice system, where would we be? Without jury trials because they’re inconvenient to sentencing? Should we allow hearsay evidence?
As Tim says, the complicated rhetoric used by the Government to justify the review suggests they can’t think of a good enough reason for how-ever-many-days-they-want-now (I suspect they picked a number out of the air). Anything more than a couple of weeks can be damaging enough to a person, but 58-days is like a unpaid holiday in hell. If you were arrested and detained for that long, do you think they’d have you back at your job? There would always be the possibility that, well, if the police could have held you for longer they may have found something - and there’s no smoke without fire.
If they want to deal with this problem - and stop young guys from being radicalised - then it needs to dealt with it head on. Crazy legislation like this, which ends up affecting only young Asian males and doesn’t help defending Britain against the charge that We Hate Muslims, needs to be nipped in the bud.
More here.
