Tweet of the Day - 28 Oct 2010

The infamous Section 44 powers that were supposedly intended to deal with terrorism suspects, but have instead become an excuse for police to stop anyone and behave like the East German Stasi, came in under Labour.

There have been numerous instances of photographers and others going about their normal activities in non-sensitive, everyday locations, yet being stopped and treated in a completely disproportionate manner using this power as the justification.

Well, now we can see just how effective all of that has been, thanks to this neat summary in a tweet by Channel 4's Krishnan Guru-Murthy:

"Out of 101248 police stops under Section 44 anti-terror powers there were 0 terror arrests."

Zero terror arrests! He then goes on:

"But 506 'non-terror' arrests. success?"

(That's half a percent of 'em)

<sarcasm mode on> Well, that makes it all right then! <sarcasm mode off>