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John P Reid, london - I like the way you pick on the precision of the word 'arrest' to minimise Ralph's point, yet also showing you know something about the public statements surrounding that incident. Strange then that you don't mention any details - bit embaressing for Nu Liebor?

For anyone who does want to look up that outrageous example of use of S44 Terrorism Act:
In 2005 Walter Wolfgang, then 82, was physically manhandled out of the Labour Party Conference after shouting 'nonsense' at Jack Straw's speech. The police were called and detained him under S44. Later, after media reporting, Nu Liebor hastily invited him back to the conference, accompanied by much spin in an attempt to recover from revealing their true nature. John Reid and Tony Bliar in particular talked up how Nu Liebor didn't do this sort of thing, shortly after actually doing it.

- Derek, London, UK

You need to watch the Youtube video of the Palestine suicide bomber who is only 13 who was stopped by the Israelis soldiers as he had a suicide bomb belt (luckily he surrendered)

If 6-year olds don't get searched and if I were a terrorist, then I would be using 6-year olds to carry out suicide missions! Well done to the police for causing uncertainties for the terrorists.

- Ed, London

Something we are not being told in this story.
Are we to believe there was NO probable cause whatsoever?

- Trunk, US

This incident does not surprise me in the least. The police use "Anti Terror" to:

A/ Balance their racial search policies
B/ Gather DNA
C/ Control political opposition
(and along way behind)
D/ Gather intelligence and control crime

I know I've been there, armed response, major roads blocked on Friday evening, the lot. All for nothing!!!. They had no reason to stop me what so ever!!!!

- Steve, London

so? geezer prrobably gave the filth some attitude.
whaddya expect?

- Stuart, kingston

let them surch u, if u got nothin to hide why make a song and dance about it.

- Jan Pieters, london

Wake up people, our rights are being eroded infront of our eyes.

We put up with the IRA for decades.

Are you people really scared of terrorism and support the war on terror?... a never ending war!

How convenient for our government.

- Damien, London, England

I belive it is absurd, and highly inappropriate, for any law official or security to search such young children whom are in no way acting suspious or out of the ordinary.

I belive that the officers whom do such searches are no more than child molesters.. the law was amied at terrorist not children of the land..

- Sir, Arthur, some where USA

Im more interested to know whether it was these two males officers that searched the young girls. In fact did they search the persons or just their bags?
Didnt think an officer from the opposite sex can search anyone. Surely it would have to be a female officer searching the 6 and 11yrs old girls!?

Maybe it would be best for the Met and IPCC to fully investigate the facts before condemning these officers.

- Steve, Medway,England

Terrorists and other criminals have often used childrens clothes, prams and toys to conceal weapons and prohibited articles.
Islamist terrorists have used children as walking bombs, fact not fiction.
I'm afraid that there is nothing in the legislation that stops children from being searched, and in some circumstances it will be justified.
Don't blame Police, blame Islamist extremists.

However, the powers to stop and search conferred by S44 Terrorism Act 2000 are granted only to UNIFORMED constables. Plain clothes officers cannot use this legislation to stop and search (unlike searches under PACE, which all require the existence of reasonable suspicion not required by TA 2000).

- Keith Lonsdale, Doncaster

Police State????
Don't make me laugh. the police in this country aren't allowed to do anything without being criticised and having enquiries.
Criminals do not play by normal morality rules while the police have their hands tied behind their backs by all the bleeding hearts.
Pathetic.

- Dave, london. England

I'm surprised they stopped there to be honest. Why not carry out intimate examinations of babies in prams in case explosives are hidden inside the child's nappy? Catch terrorists and child abusers at the same time. Since lots of people posting here seem to be in favour of stop and search would they all please confirm that they have already submitted their DNA to the DNA database, have made all of their emails, letters, bank, credit card & supermarket loyalty statements, internet browsing history available to their local police/council/GP/social service dept and installed monitored CCTV in every room of their homes in order to demonstrate their innocence. Yes, I do mean every room - you have nothing to hide right? What do you mean privacy? Only innocent people are permitted privacy and in case you hadn't noticed there are none of them left in the UK anymore.

- Louisa Herbs, Cardiff, Wales

Reuben...I'm a happy member of the 3rd world.
Zanu PF is more preferable to David CaMoron & his cronies.
Stop blaming Gordon Brown for your weak meek British delusions of granduer being seen for what they really are.

- Daniel, London

Just one more thing. Adults sometimes use children to commit thie crimes...

- Peter Seekings-Foster, Mildenhall, Suffolk.

Children should not be searched.Period!. I don't understand why these so called Police don't search all these thugs and criminals ruling the streets of London?? So called Police is just flexing their muscle on children!!! very impressive! I'm so amazed.

- Zak, London

Idle & corrupt police force! Labour party police state

- Ralph, Hampshire

Typical corrupt and idle police. Lazy, incompetent and good for nothing. Scared to approach yobs but ok with taking unnecessary action on an easy target.

- A Waller, London

It's all down to the circumstances. Huff and puff as they might, the 'shocked and horrified' brigade can't get around the fact that bad guys abuse children EVERYWHERE when they use some kids as couriers and as hand-offs for their illicit possessions. The bad guys relish the embarrassment this causes as it helps to protect their own use of kids.

Absolutely right that those doing the security checks should be able to justify their actions (people simply not liking it is NOT evidence that it was unnecessary), so a report should be generated each time and be available for official scrutiny. I don't particularly like the idea that plain clothes officers can do these checks though - that sounds like something that other, less savoury characters could use to their advantage.

...and btw, in the States they DO pat down kids. I have driven past a line of kids up against a wall while officers were piling up clearly seen weapons and other possessions on the ground behind them. Kinda puts it in perspective.

- Rogan, Irving

What do you expect when you live in a police state.

- James Town, Braintree UK

Sad thing is drug dealers now routinely use kids as young as 7, 8, to carry around and hold their 'stash' in the streets. Younger and younger kids are roped into the gang drug culture. Worse, when they are picked for the job, they see it as an honour, that they've been recognised as smart and an up and coming guy. Fact of life - young kids nearly always bike or walk around with the drugs when a dealer cuts a street deal. They even hide the drugs and sometimes guns in their homes. The kids are ensnared into early crimelife because they know the police can't search the underage.

- Jennifer (Ex Social Worker), London

The police have been out of control for years without any one questioning them

They are now no more than a legal bunch of hooligans, a standing army that has created a police state nation

Police SERVICE not police FORCE

- Lb, London

Welcome to the Police state!

- Lucy, camden

Lots of high morale judgements regarding children. Wasn't the boy Scout Movement founded as a result of Baden Powells experiences in the Boer Wars where children carried Messages and supplies? The various resistances in WWII similar actions were common.
The difference is today there is a current fashion that the techniques used by Britain/west around the world have been used in UK/US. Subjective profiling rules.
Another paradox is that if a man touched a six year old child that was not his his life is over the sex register and press are enveloping. If this is done by a policeman? were the officers men??
Life is not isolated boxes but inter dependent circumstances and actions. One thing is clear to have ones cake and eat it is a very difficult thing to acheive. Is Britan fightening it's self into a perpetual state of paranoia, state control.

- Robert, Victoria Australia

Sad but reflection of the times we live in. Just imagine if the Police had discovered explosives in their search. What would we be writing about?
Unfortunately, the terrorists have shown time and time again that they have no regard for life and will use a child for a suicide bomber just as quickly they use a woman or man. For myself, I have no problem being stopped and search. It's an unfortunate price we have to pay for our combined security.

- Steve, bromley

Get used to it folks. The big brother state. This country is slipping

- Tom, siho

Just say no!

Refuse to be searched, and if asked why, refer then to the statement on the front inner cover of your passport!

- Manny Goldstein, London, England

Sidney Marks and Hansel's complaints raise a very good point. If you are "wronged" by a police officer, you can identify them by their number and make a complaint about them. (I know there are issues about number wearing, but that's a different issue.)

If you are "wronged" by airport security staff you can't identify them (you are accused of "gathering intelligence") and there is no independent body to make a complaint to. This to me is a far bigger issue than what often amounts to institutional stupidity (to coin a phrase!) by your average plod.

- Comrade Mugabe, New Harare, London

I am amazed at both the police action and comments from the readers. You brits are so ready to give up your and your children rights because you are scared... Yet you are all ready to trounce on alleged rights abuses in US... Let me tell you this kind of police action would not be tolerated in US, nor defended by the public...
But then again.. US was formed on principle of individual rights and without fear of authority as a direct reaction to how people lived in England ...

- American, Dallas, USA

Hansel, you chose to take yourself and family onto an aircraft, for which being subjected to security checks is part of the terms and conditions you agree to when you purchase a ticket and check in.

That is a long way from people, let alone children, seemingly, being stopped in the street at random to be searched under terrorism powers when that is very unlikely to be th emotive behind the search.

- Escobar-Alop-Lop, Camden County

I was stopped last week at Stansted Airport by very officious officials who said the machine had shown up traces of explosives on my bag. Since I had not struck a match nor attended a fireworks display, I burst out laughing. This did not go down too well.
I am a frail, white-haired, white man of 70. All my hand luggage was opened and inspected and it was full of gifts for my friends and grandchildren.
Then they passed the bag thru the detector empty, and said it was a mistake by an over-sensitive machine. THEN, and this is the biggest waste of time, a "full report" had to be painstakingly filled out.
No apology for the mistake, and no kind words. These people are living in cloud cuckoo land, their importance has gone to their heads.
A crippled lady friend of mine, aged 92, was forced to remove the brace from her leg.

- Sidney Marks, London, UK

If they were head-bangers I'm afraid I can quite understand why the police might think it necessary to do so. As others here have pointed out, fanatics are quite happy to sacrifice children to "the cause", holy war, or whatever.

- Croyboy, Croydon

Investigation by the IPCC? The Innocent Plod's Clearance Club? When will people realise the powers we have allowed the New Stasi?

- Shadowfax, Hammersmith

What are we saying here.That the police should not be allowed to search whom they want to.If the police want to stop me and my family they are welcome its the price that we must pay to protect everyone once you make a no go area the the terrorist will soon exploit it.They do not work by fair play.

- David Smith, Croydon

That Terrorists might use a child as cover, unthinkable! why Ms Chakarabati will be on Newsnight this very night, to lecture us on what a barbaric people we are, to even think such a thing.But hold on a minute isn't that exactly what terrorists do or have I committed a hate crime by even thinking that?

- Frank, Dorchester Dorset

Ralph, the old bloke at the labour party coinference wasn't arrested ,the police explained to him he couldn't re-enter the conference after security evicted him as it was upto them, they took his name and gave him a form to account for their actions

- John P Reid, london

If drug dealers weren't using small children to ferry their drugs about there would be no need for the police to stop and search them.

- Romy Farnham, Ealing, UK

Personally knowing the man who was arrested there was no good reason for this arrest. The youngest lady in question was tramautised for a while afterwards.

Search a man by all means but searching children in that manner is plain wrong.

- Dave, London

Sadly, Islamic and other fanatics have used children to carry weapons and even used them as human bombs. The question here is whether the Police had reaonable cause. Please let's not jump to conclusions. And Reuben Camara: there are plenty of real banana republic police states in the Wworld: perhaps you should go and live for a while in Burma or Cuba and then you might appreciate the real freedoms that we have in this Country.

- Alan, London

Let the police do their work without second-guessing them all the time!

- Steve Green, London

"I have nothing to hide so I have nothing to fear".

Oh really?

- Aylyn, Orihuela Costa, Spain

If my son had been stopped with me and searched I would have defended myself and my son. The Police need to concentrate on criminals. By way a good friend of mine is a police officer and he is absolutely mortified about this.

- Sara G, Twickenham

We should all now refuse to co-operate with the state security aparatus until it realises that we are not the property of the state and we are not "terrorists". The terrorists are running the government and security services; they are not six-year-old kids.

- Neil, London, London UK

I'm sorry but my 2 year old was searched by secuirty at Heathrow airport last week. He was frisked and was scared. What is so different about that to this.

The police may have suspected that drugs had been hidden on the child, in the same way terrorists often use kids to hide bombs and bomb parts. I don't think they would have done this without good reason.

- Hansel, London

Yes this is "shocking" but we don't know the full circumstances of this case. We shouldn't rush to introduce a "blanket ban" on such searches, otherwise potential terrorists would be even more likely to hide materials/information/evidence on their children. People capable of killing thousands of innocent people are certainly capable of hiding something in their own child's clothing. If there was a genuine suspicion here (and not just some random, groundless search), then it's certainly justifiable - lets not condemn until we know the circumstances.

- James Lll, UK

The police have been using Section 44 indiscriminately for years, such as the arrest of a elderly protester at a Labour Party conference who was most obviously not a terrorist. However, children are often used by terrorists to carry key equipment or devices to avoid detection. Difficult one without knowing the circumstances when the Woolwich/Plumstead area houses scores of thousands of muslims.

- Ralph, London, England

If the police thought they had to search these people, possibly for explosives, they were right to stop & search them. Homicide bombers have no problem in using children.

We live in sad times.

- Alex Simmonds, Glastonbury, England

I was threatened with removal from a DLR train and arrest at Canning Town Station yesterday morning by a DLR employee for not stepping back from the platform edge when ordered. I was one of the few people on the platform not wearing a suit and on my way to the arms fair. At least the DLR uniform doesn't yet include semi-automatic weapons like the officers on the platform to greet travellers at City Airport on Monday morning. It is an abuse of genuine powers.

- Michelle@Shed22.Org.Uk, London

WHAT DO YOU EXPECT IN A THIRD WORLD BANANA REPUBLIC POLICE STATE?

- Reuben Camara, Morecambe Compound, EUSSR

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