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| Heisman-winning son fills imprisoned father with pride When Alabama running back Mark Ingram won the Heisman Trophy nearly two weeks ago, he delivered one of the most heartfelt acceptance speeches ... rssfeeds.usatoday.com |
Marina Hyde: Olympic policing plan is taking a liberty It is extremely important that Colin Moynihan's police powers scheme gets nowhere near the statute bookWhen the people who understood such things bid for the 2012 Olympics, they promised many benefits. A games would regenerate east London. It would result in the capital getting a first-rate public transport system. It would provide countless jobs. And it would be excellent cover for increasing police powers and extending the tentacles of the state.Hang on, forgive me. Having checked GrATE ReASonS TO haVE OLimpIX, the list on the B-side of the envelope on which Tessa Jowell and Ken Livingstone originally budgeted the event at £37.50 (bunting excluded), I see that the fourth justification is mysteriously omitted. Happily, though, it appears to be something of a surprise windfall, as this week Colin Moynihan announced plans to expand police powers to allow raids on the athletes' village, ostensibly to combat doping.The British Olympic Association chairman has evidently decided Britain's bursting statute book is not sufficiently equipped to deal with a two-week sporting event. Fortunately for Moynihan, he moonlights as a Tory peer, so he can use the powers vested in him by this other hat to introduce a Lords bill to remedy the oversight.As I say, this is fortunate for his lordship, but it does feel rather less fortunate for British citizens. It's not just that the plan will be an ostentatiously ineffective deterrent – expert opinion holds that drug cheats tend to stay in privately rented accommodation – nor the vagueness about how Moynihan intends to criminalise substances which may be banned but in almost all cases are legal. It is simply unacceptable to change the law of the land to enforce the internal rules of a competition.Amusingly, Moynihan explains: "I do not believe the bill will be contentious." Alas, a call to Liberty finds Shami Chakrabarti in deliciously withering disagreement, as well as somewhat mystified that Moynihan is selling the idea on the basis that it will bring us into line with countries like Italy (there were raids on the athletes' village at the Turin winter games), as though Italy's policing arrangements were some sort of aspirational template for the rest of the world.For all the brewing outrage, though, none of this is much of a surprise when you consider the Olympic form book. It is remarkable how frequently a fortnight-long competition has been used to justify increasing police powers. In the run-up to the Los Angeles games in 1984, the 1916 anti-syndicalism act was reinstated, permitting police to arrest and jail anyone who so much as dressed in a manner which indicated gang affiliation, a blitz of sweeps that contributed to the bitter resentment which eventually erupted into the LA civil unrest of 1992. In 2004, for the Athens games, Greece overrode its own constitution to import paramilitary police from other countries.As for Beijing, how we scorned the myriad clampdowns that attended China's games, such as the "protest parks" in which people had to apply for permits to protest – permits which were never granted. Yet last year, supposedly to preserve the official sponsors' monopoly, both the Met and Olympic officials were empowered by law to enter private homes and seize political posters during the 2012 games. Meanwhile, the Met blithely announced that they hoped to co-opt all the capital's 500,000 CCTV cameras instead of the 10,000 they use normally. "Tracking technology is being developed," it was declared of the use of identity recognition to monitor crowds. "A spectator will be tracked from the venue to his or her home with [their Olympic] tickets."Clearly, the London Games will be used as a cover under which to introduce hugely troubling curbs on individual liberty that may endure long after the event, and anyone who doubts it is directed to a leaked 2007 communique from the Home Office to Downing Street, which proposed, inter alia, wider use of the DNA database, the scanning of mail, and monitoring of individuals via their Oyster cards. It concluded that "increasing [public] support could be possible through the piloting of certain approaches in high-profile ways such as the London Olympics".All modern Olympic games already feel as if they take place under temporary martial law, so when Moynihan declares of his plan that "it is important that it should be on the statute book", we should beg his lordship's pardon. It is extremely important that it gets nowhere near the statute book. The use of a sporting event to justify significant increases in police powers would be unjustifiable at the best of times. Coming at the end of a decade in which British liberties have been systematically eroded, it should be actively resisted.PoliceOlympic games 2012Marina Hydeguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Togo Prime Minister rules out return to Africa cup Togo's Prime Minister has denied that his government asked for the national football team to be reinstated in the Africa Cup of Nations. feeds.timesonline.co.uk |
George Gillett Jr: Liverpool's problems are only a blip George Gillett Jr has described Liverpool's torrid season as nothing more than a "blip". feeds.timesonline.co.uk |
Rawlings-Blake calls for reviving Baltimore's slots parlor Baltimore’s next mayor wants to see movement on a long-delayed slots parlor near M&T Bank Stadium. feeds.bizjournals.com |