A Distressing Follow-Up

Do you remember Old Ken’s “Limehouse Ramble” from just over a year ago? [See http://www.nicebirdrox.com/blogarchive/2006_01_01_archive.html] Well, here’s a disturbing follow-up to it. I quote here from Jess Hamzelou’s “Student arrested over Canary Wharf photos” in the newspaper London Student (30 October 2006):

“A Greenwich University students is registering a complaint with the IPCC after a humiliating encounter with the police as a result of taking photographs at Canary Wharf.

“Karman Tariq, 20, was fingerprinted, asked to provide a DNA sample and subjected to six hours of questioning at Limehouse police station after being arrested on suspicion of terrorist activity.

“On 9 October, Tariq was taking photographs of Canary Wharf as part of an art project for his architecture degree, entitled ‘Floating Cities.’ As the area was relatively quite, he asked two security guards when it would be busier, providing a better photo opportunity. Tariq then showed the guards his university badge, camera, photos and the contents of his bag, and they advised him to come back later.

“However, things started to go downhill for the student when minutes later the guards returned to question him about his university identification, and inspected him with the aid of a sniffer dog. He was later approached by police, who said they’d had reports he had been acting suspiciously. As passers-by began to gather and watch, Tariq was escorted to a police car, where he was arrested by seven [!!!] plain-clothes officers.

“Tariq, dressed in traditional Islamic dress, believed he was singled out for being a young, Pakistani Muslim. ‘It was quite obvious it was because I was dressed in this way that hey thought I was a terrorist,’ he said. ‘I think the public suspicion of Muslims has worsened since July 7.’”

Amen to that, I’m afraid to say. As you’ll recall, there was never any question of Old Ken being arrested for taking photos at Canary Wharf - - just the prospect of being told to stop. I even got in a (rather questionable) verbal sparring match with the guard over his right to stop me from taking photos; certainly, there were no plain-clothes officers arresting me or six hours in detention. Sad times indeed!