Hi Trevor, In Observatory, as you may have noticed we have a serious problems that need to be solved:
- relating to Drug dealing - public disorder - a few murders We most certainly do not live in an impending or de facto police state. if we did , the problems in Observatory could be solved overnight in a totalitarian manner and I am not in favour of extra legal or totalitarian methods and I gather from your post, neither are you. Having lived as a black person in a police state, i do not want to go back to those days. Provided that the police act within the ambit of the law, I certainly would and I believe all of us should support all their actions to solve OUR problems. My belief is that they are trying to do their job. If we believe they are behaving outside the ambit of the law, we should report it as you have done and wait for an explanation. All police whether junior or senior, stupid or intelligent are administrators of the law. It is in our interests as a community to constructively address any shortcomings because in the long run, they remain the only viable solution in maintaining a law abiding suburb fro both residents and businesses. If indeed they are not allowed to conduct searches, then we certainly need to take some steps to make sure what there legal powers are to help us combat drug dealing for example. I look forward to what the official explanation from Supt van der Riel is, so we can learn from their alleged mistakes and educate the junior officers if required. On Mar 19, 2:30 am, Trevor Hughes <[email protected]> wrote: > I have just been subjected to police harassment. > > Time was just before three am > > I had just left Tagores (with 2 friends) and was proceeding up Trill > Road to Lower Main Road when a Police minivan arrived on the scene > with a number of police officers who informed me they wished to search > me. I politely (keeping my cool at all times) refused and quoted the > constitution that protects against arbitrary searches. I was harassed > by at least three officers (seemingly very junior) and threatened with > a visit to the police station should I fail to com;ly. I asked why > they wished to search me to which I was told I was s suspicious > person. > > In the mean time my two friends were submitted to the same treatment > and seemingly were searched in a very unthorough and basically > unprofessional and useless manner. > > I was repeatedly told I would be searched at the police station if I > did not cooperate and was never told why they wished to search me > (other than being suspicious) . I was also told repeatedly that I was > wasting their time. I approached the driver of the minivan and asked > why they wanted to search me and he replied "Did you not hear what the > officers said" I replied that they had no reason to reasonably search > me and that it was my right guaranteed by the constitution not to be > arbitrarily searched. I was repeatedly threatened with a search at the > police station and accused of wasting their time. > > Now while they were a bunch of stupid fools they obviously were not > THAT stupid becasue after refusing to be searched for the umpteenth > time and asking if I was to be arrested they all piled into their > vehicle and drove off. Perfect;ly justifying my position. > > I did not even get a chance to take names or registration number of > the vehicle as they gave up on their silly quest long before I could > even ask. > > You can rest assured that I will be taking this matter up to the > highest authority - starting with Superintendent Van der Riel who I > will call personally tomorrow, > > Protecting you and I from the impending Police State. (in same cases de facto) > > Trevor Hughes -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Observatory Neighbourhood watch" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/obsnw?hl=en To unsubscribe from this group, send email to obsnw+unsubscribegooglegroups.com or reply to this email with the words "REMOVE ME" as the subject.
