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Police fine passenger 80 pounds for insulting metal detector
No comments · Posted by Splasho in Uncategorized
My friend Phil and I were going through a metal detector on the way out of Highbury & Islington tube on Friday evening around 8.30pm, on our way to a gig. Phil, who has a degree in physics, said to me in a low voice that the metal detector was a “piece of shit that wouldn’t stop anyone”. Obviously, someone was listening, as all of a sudden, half a dozen policemen jumped on him and hustled him over to the corner of the tube station, where he was detained for about 20 minutes for the grave crime of swearing in public, and fined £80 for the privilege. For swearing! On the tube! If it’s such a crime, then I owe them about a million pounds, as swearing on and at the tube is the only way to deal with the pain of having to travel on the dratted thing every day.
I don’t especially mind the fact that someone is fined for swearing in public. But what annoys me about this is I know that a thousand other swearing people walked past without them batting an eyelid. It was only when someone criticised their work that they got into trouble.
[Via BoingBoing]
Update:
The Register says:
Over, then, to the Crown Prosecution Service’s ever-helpful guidance section. “There must be a person within the sight or hearing of the suspect who is likely to be caused harassment, alarm or distress by the conduct in question. A police officer may be such a person, but remember that this is a question of fact to be decided in each case by the magistrates. In determining this, the magistrates may take into account the familiarity which police officers have with the words and conduct typically seen in incidents of disorderly conduct.”
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