Friday, March 10, 2006

Petty officialdom of the week

"Winner of sperm and egg race" on baby's t-shirt warrants police visit. Some googling to confirm the story reveals the Brighton police to have at least some history of bothering people for being 'offensive':

Eighty-year-old John Catt served with the RAF in the Second World War. Last September, he was stopped by police in Brighton for wearing an "offensive" T-shirt, which suggested that Bush and Blair be tried for war crimes. He was arrested under the Terrorism Act and handcuffed, with his arms held behind his back. The official record of the arrest says the "purpose" of searching him was "terrorism" and the "grounds for intervention" were "carrying placard and T-shirt with anti-Blair info" (sic).

3 Comments:

  • At 10:43 am , Blogger Chris Palmer said...

    There are far too many PC PC's nowadays.

     
  • At 10:59 am , Blogger Paul Leake said...

    I'm left wondering if the police had in mind any specific law that may or may not be breached?

    While I don't think it would be out of line for your Friendly Beat Bobby to let you know that you've offended someone, and that you might want to consider changing the display, to come back for Second Helpings seems over the top if it isn't likely to breach the law.

     
  • At 11:01 am , Blogger Liberal Neil said...

    Yet another example of idiotic nanny-statism. Do we really want to live ina country where no-one is allowed to do or say anything that a police officer thinks might cause mild offence to someone?

    Have police officers in Brighton really got so little real crime to worry about that they have time to waste on this rubbish.

     

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