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it's not just rail enthusiasts who are persecuted by police

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yorkie

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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1829289,00.html


Two wheels: good. Two legs: terrorist suspect
By David Lister, Scotland Correspondent

WITH her year-round tan, long blonde hair and designer clothes, Sally Cameron does not look like a threat to national security.
But the 34-year-old property developer has joined the ranks of Britain’s most unlikely terrorist suspects after being held for hours for trespassing on a cycle path.

Ms Cameron was being hailed yesterday as Scotland’s answer to Walter Wolfgang, the 82-year-old heckler manhandled out of the Labour Party conference last month. She was arrested under the Terrorism Act for walking along a cycle path in the harbour area of Dundee.

Yesterday, after receiving a letter from the Tayside procurator fiscal’s office informing her that she would not be prosecuted, Ms Cameron said: “It is utterly ridiculous that such an inoffensive person as myself should be subject to such heavy-handed treatment.”

She was walking from her office in Dundee to her home in the suburb of Broughty Ferry when she was arrested under new anti-terrorist legislation and held for four hours.

She said: “I’ve been walking to work every morning for months and months to keep fit. One day, I was told by a guard on the gate that I couldn’t use the route any more because it was solely a cycle path and he said, if I was caught doing it again, I’d be arrested.

“The next thing I knew, the harbour master had driven up behind me with a megaphone, saying, ‘You’re trespassing, please turn back’. It was totally ridiculous. I started laughing and kept on walking. Cyclists going past were also laughing.

“But then two police cars roared up beside me and cut me off, like a scene from Starsky and Hutch, and officers told me I was being arrested under the Terrorism Act. The harbour master was waffling on and (saying that), because of September 11, I would be arrested and charged.”

Ms Cameron, who said that at one stage one of the officers asked her to stop laughing, described the incident as “like a scene from the movie Erin Brockovich, with all the dock workers cheering me and telling me to give them hell”. She said: “I was told that the cycle path was for cyclists only, as if walkers and not cyclists were the only ones likely to plant bombs. There are no signs anywhere saying there are to be no pedestrians.

“They took me to the police station and held me for several hours before charging me and releasing me.”

She said that she was particularly galled by the letter from the procurator fiscal’s office, which said that she would not be prosecuted even though “the evidence is sufficient to justify bringing you before the court on this criminal charge”.

Keith Berry, the harbour master at Forth Ports Dundee, said yesterday that Ms Cameron had been seen as a “security risk”. Speaking about the incident, which took place in May, he said: “We contacted the police in regards to this matter because the woman was in a secure area which forbids people walking. It was seen as a security risk. We were following guidelines in requirement with the port security plan set up by the Government.”

A spokesman for Forth Ports said: “We will robustly prosecute anyone who breaches these new security measures because they have been introduced by the Government and we are obliged to enforce them.”

This can happen to anyone.

As for the jobsworths using the September 11 excuse, they can piss off as far as I'm concerned. What has someone walking along a path in Scotland got to do with plane hijackings in America? It's just an excuse to be heavy-handed against people.

Meawhile criminal gangs are getting away with murder....

Fact is, the authorities now go for easy targets. That means walkers, or rail enthusiasts, or just anyone. But don't expect vandals, graffiti artists or burglars to be dealt with!
 
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Ben

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i could understand if this had of been at a major port such as Dover but a smal port like this is just stupid

this is getting bloody stupid
 

Techniquest

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Absolutely absurd.

Should we expect police barracading the footpath and canal that runs near the back of Old Oak Common? I bloody hope not!

Society gone mad. Well, rather authorities gone mad with 'power'. :roll:
 

Jim

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I am surprised the Railways haven't been shut down & who know's what might happen when you buy a toy - will you be a terrorist? This is mad!!!
 

Simming

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****, better not do ANYTHING in public anymore, seeing as its could be a possible security risk, and get arrested for it.
 

Coxster

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Could you get arrested for talking about the subject on a public forum? :lol:
 

Chris

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i imagine this woman was trying to walk rather than use some form of transport as the govt is always encouraging us to do, but no, she has to have a bike to avoid any hassle, walking isn't good enough.

It is so stupid , New York and Washington are a bit different to Dundee, though it does have its fair share of concrete towers! ;)
 

devon_metro

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She got arrested for trespassing on a cycle path?? :shock: How can you 'trespass' on a cycle path anyway? :? If the government had their way walking would be a crime :lol:
 

Tom B

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Completely and utterly stupid. And there are still some people who support draconian laws?
 

yorkie

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I think they're trying to say a cyclist can't be a terrorist, but a walker can.
:?

Presumably because if you're cycling they think you can't be carrying a bomb... except you could actually as you could still cycle wearing a backpack. :roll:
 

Tom B

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The Today Programme covered this with usual John Humphrys sacrcasm - about 6:12 if you want to listen again.
 

evil_hippo

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This deserves a hearty "I told you so".

We said that the terrorism act woudl be an excuse to arrest everyone on the police's whim, whether or not they are doing anythign criminal.

What has heppend? Just that.
 
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I hope you've heard about the latest New Labour initiative - the 'breathing tax'.

I think, getting to the matter at hand, that we have the serious problem in this nation of the police (in particular Tony's namesake at the top of the Met, Sir Ian) dictating powers to the Government (see Terrorism Bill debate). Someone needs to tell that numpty Bliar it should be the other way round!

Still, nice compo package I'd imagine for Ms. Cameron.
 

metrocammel

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Yes this is stupid, what on earth had she done wrong?!, I never knew it was an offence to walk on a cyle way, OK a motorway, but not a cyle-way!!
So I presume this means I cant stick my "Make Pendolinos History" posters on the pendolinos, in case they think I plan to literallly make them history!!!! (well it would be OK if someone dropped a bomb on Longsight when everyones gone home!!)

JAMES.
 
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