Indigo Jo Blogs

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Stopped for looking at Muslim websites

by · 8th July, 2007

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This afternoon I had my third encounter with the police under the present anti-terrorism régime. However, it’s the first time that suspicion has been raised about me personally.

Kingston has an Apple Store, which like other such shops, has a room full of Macs which offer free internet access. When I’m near an Apple Store, I always go in to check my email and my blog, so as to approve any legitimate comments and delete any spam. Others go in for similar email-related purposes and to engage in long chats over various chat systems in various languages. The staff must know me: I go in there often, visit the same websites, stay about 15 minutes (less than I do in Regent Street, because Kingston is near my home and I’ve no need to stay an hour) and go.

Today, as I was closing up (and leaving my blog open, to drum up a bit of publicity), two policemen came up to me and asked me if I’d come out for a chat. They told me that someone had raised concerns about me, that they were there for anti-terrorism purposes, that there was concern about people accessing extremist websites which they were sure I could understand in the current climate. They asked for ID, which I duly provided, and asked me if they knew me, to which I replied that they might, as a few years ago I had complained (to the local MP, who I believe also raised it with the local Safer Neighbourhood scheme) about idiots on mopeds using a nearby subway as a cut-through and about youths loitering in there which does not really give much of a sense of assurance. We had a bit of a talk about what I do on my website, what a blog is (he had never heard of them) and the fact that I used their machines to approve legitimate comments, so as not to hold up discussion, and get rid of spam. The other cop talked to his colleagues over his radio and gathered that I was not under any suspicion, and eventually I was let go.

The two cops weren’t discourteous at all, but I was rather annoyed that suspicion was raised about my using Apple Store Macs to read websites which are not extremist, in the sense of advocating terrorism, at all. My hunch is that it was either the way I dealt with the staff as I walked in that raised suspicion, or else someone was annoyed with my manner and complained out of spite. Any time I walk into that shop, I have shop staff coming up to ask me if I need any help, which (like most people who go in, I’m sure) I didn’t. I had just come in to use the Macs. They knew that, and since I’ve been in there many, many times, I’m sure they knew that. I actually don’t like it when staff do that - it’s annoying, as it is when I’m in a restaurant and the staff come over to ask me what I want any time I raise my eyes from my reading material. My way of dealing with it is to say “no thanks” and walk past without looking at them.

I’m sure this annoys them, and I’m sure that having to question every customer that comes in does as well. However, if they really wanted to know if I was looking at extremist websites, they could have come onto the computer used, after any time I’d been in the shop, and looked at the Safari web browser history, rather than bother the police. I wonder if I’d been treated as courteously, or been let go after 5 minutes, if I’d been Asian-looking or had one or other of the names which untold thousands of Muslims, including a few terrorists, have.

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