Jon Snow: Sign of the times?
From tonight’s Snowmail:
A day in the life of London, maybe even a commonplace day in the life of a Muslim. I am cycling back from Channel 4 at ten thirty seven this morning past the back of Horse guards parade in line of sight of the back of number 10 Downing Street - suddenly on the edge of the park I notice armed police, four of them, their guns raised surrounding a tall Muslim man with a dark beard.
He is smartly dressed and has a brand new silver coloured camera bag on the ground at his feet. The voices are raised with the guns, in the time that I take to pass the guns lower, the bag is searched, the incident passes, no one seems to notice. Up on the mall a small knot of tourists are looking from a distance. One now normal unreported, maybe unreportable incident and a searing experience for one innocent Muslim man. Which isn’t to say that the level of anxiety and tension which prompts such a scene isn’t all too understandable.
I am white, crazy-looking on a bike, with a shoulder bag across my back, yet I am not stopped in line of sight of number 10: here lies tonight’s central dilemma - do only bag carrying bearded Muslims need to worry about passing public buildings? Soon they will begin to keep away from them and what is shared, what is all of ours, will become places they no longer come to. Not just the pubs where they never might have drank anyway, but now the places that are central to our democracy and our identity…
Posted on July 27th, 2005 at 6:40 pm
| See also • The Curmudgeon: Who Devour Widows’ Houses • Putting two and two together • 42 days: stick a fork in it… |
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Put a rucksack on this guy!
Jon Snow:”I am white, crazy-looking on a bike, with a shoulder bag across my back, yet I am not stopped in line of sight of number 10″.
Hmm, try again: “I am a famous TV personality on a bike, with a shoulder bag across my back, yet I am not stopped in line of sight of number 10 where I may be about to interview leading politicians”
Yes, that’s better.
Mind you, I’m sure that we can all agree that it would have been better for the country had it been Mr Snow whom the police had shot rather than the poor Brazilian chap.
Two questions:
1)Should I shave my beard when I go to Lonodn next week?
2)Does anyone else think some kind of angry underground movement is going to arise from this?
Matt:
1) Yes. Creepy pencil moustaches are hot right now.
2) Possible isn’t it? The chances of the man Jon Snow speaks of going out and becoming a suicide bomber are probably low but he’s going to think twice about helping the police in future.
And he’s told his mates, who’ve told their’s, and so on. Maybe the story’s snowballed and is now that they punched him and kicked him or pinned him to the ground or mistreated his Koran while searching him.
Police relations with Muslims will leak away one mistake at a time.
Possibly, but it isn’t necessarily a mistake to search an innocent man. I really don’t see how the police can avoid racial profiling in the circumstances, anyway, without going through some ridiculous contortions to fiddle the stats (like searching 19 white people for every Asian stopped, for example). Isn’t this now just a fact of life? We don’t have to like it, but there are plenty of distasteful things in the world that we can’t wish away with happy thoughts.
Andrew, I agree. With pictures of Asian bombers on the news of course more Asian men are going to be stopped. I’m not suggesting we can put the world to rights with a kind word.
But this guy wasn’t just searched - he had four guns pointed at him a week after police shot an innocent bloke eight times. Stories like these will circulate and be embellished until they become dangerous folklore.
We’ll probably never know the full story but are ordinary London bobbies packing heat right now? If not where did these four armed coppers come from? It doesn’t sound like four armed policemen just stumbled across a suspicious-looking Asian man.
These issues probably need a bit more transparency if we’re going to avoid another Stockwell. Maybe the Met should publish their rules of engagement or a list of just what to do if you hear someone shouting, “Police! Don’t move!”
I see. The problem with publishing the rules of engagement is that it gives the ‘enemy’ (not sure of the right terminology to use, so apologies if that sounds clumsy) an advantage. On balance though, I’d go with you - publish and be damned. The oft-quoted metal detectors on the tubes meaning that suicide bombers blow up in the queues, rather than the trains, seems like a similar idea - an adaptation of tactics in response to our countermeasures.
Racial profiling does appear to be unfortunately unnecessary, but I think we have to know the terms of this policy otherwise it surely becomes a licence to kill. Where is the line between “suspicious” and “potential suicide bomber”? Would be good to know what not to do, although being a white female I think I’m probably safe.
Also, am I the only on worried that this could lead to a rise in dead men’s triggers - i.e. triggers that go off when they are released?
Also, am I the only on worried that this could lead to a rise in dead men’s triggers - i.e. triggers that go off when they are released?
Why go to all that bother when you could try suicide by cop?