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"War On Terror" Board Game Confiscated In UK
An anonymous reader writes "The board game The War On Terror is a satirical game in which George Bush's 'Axis of Evil' is reduced to a spinner in the middle of the board, which determines which player is designated a terrorist state. That person then has to wear a balaclava (included in the box set) with the word 'Evil' stitched onto it. Kent police said they had confiscated the game because the balaclava 'could be used to conceal someone's identity or could be used in the course of a criminal act.' Balaclavas are freely sold all over the place in the area." Schneier has blogged this stupidity, of course.
This was a raid (of uncertain provenance) on a protest outside a power station. The other items seized are "knives, chisels and bolt cutters". It seems to me that the police took the balaclava under the quite reasonable assumption that someone was going to put it on and break into the station using some of the tools. That it was part of a board game is entirely incidental.
If the police seize a pack of ladies' stockings from your home, that's absurd. If they seize a crate of ladies' stockings, bank plans, and a toy gun from your car outside a bank, that's reasonable.
No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
Here's the thing: a bunch of people were protesting by chaining themselves to gates and generally impeding operations at a power station. The police came along, hauled them off, and took away the tools they were using. Knives, chisels, bolt cutters, and balaclavas.
It's got nothing to do with balaclavas being illegal, any more than bolt cutters are illegal. It's got nothing at all to do with the game itself. It's the fact that the masks were being used in the process of shutting down a power station.
Did anybody spot that most of the article was dedicated to describing the game and its distribution hopes, as if it were a game review, while the confiscation itself got just a single sentence in the article? This is a fucking advert. The creators, from Cambridge, heard about it, and got their mate at the local paper, in Cambridge to write about it as a favour. This is a local paper, and the event the article is supposed to be talking about happened in Kent, 100 miles away.
Bogtha Bogtha Bogtha
Since when did our police not have guns? The unarmed bobby on a bicycle toting a whistle is very much a thing of the past.
As one unfortunate Brazillian man found out, our police have guns and they are all too happy to use them.
If we can put a man on the moon, why can't we shoot people for Apollo-related non-sequiturs?
According to the article "The satirical board game was confiscated along with knives, chisels and bolt cutters, from climate protesters during a series of raids near Kingsnorth power station, in Kent, last week." So they actually just grabbed a ton of stuff. It's not like the only thing they took was the board game. I agree that they probably should have been more selective, but generally they prefer to be on the thorough side, versus the nicer side.
I refrain from a rant, but the more police I meet, the more I hate the police.
I don't. Refrain, I mean; here's my rant from January- Police State: In USSA, cops hassle YOU! The police ought to serve a good purpose, protecting us from robbers, thieves, rapists, murderers, etc. But all too often the police themselves are the villians. The last link is about a cop here in central Illinois who was charged with 49 felonies including one count of obstructing justice, three counts of criminal sexual abuse, seven counts of criminal sexual assault, seven counts of armed violence, 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault, and 21 counts of official misconduct. He plead guilty to TWO MISDEMEANORS and got off. Anybody else would have been behind bars for the rest of their lives.
mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
To be fair, from TFA:
"The satirical board game was confiscated along with knives, chisels and bolt cutters, from climate protesters during a series of raids near Kingsnorth power station, in Kent, last week."
The game was one of the items they took along with the real dangerous stuff. They were presumably caught planning a break-in to a power plant (the article is scant on important details, and chooses to focus on the board game). It's still kind of stilly that they took the game, but realizing that they had knived and devices intended to break into and probably sabotage a power plant puts a whole different perspective on the situation. I would chalk it more up to police officers being overcautious (or clueless) and siezing anything that could possibly be considered evidence of their intentions. Had they has other baclavas, they probably would have siezed those as well).
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Bullshit. The guys who shot Jean-Charles de Menezes were ultimately only convicted of a health and safety violation. As Mark Steel dryly commented, shooting someone in the head 7 times is both unhealthy and unsafe.
If we can put a man on the moon, why can't we shoot people for Apollo-related non-sequiturs?
The problem with Stockwell wasn't with one individual getting it wrong; it was the entire intelligence operation that couldn't communicate properly and panicked in the aftermath of the 7/7 bombings. The result was a tragic mistake.
I wouldn't call the people who shot Jean Charles de Menezes morons. He/They got the wrong man, but they followed a man who they thought was going to be a suicide bomber down into the Tube to stop him. That actually calls for a fair amount of bravery.
Of course, this might all be completely off-topic because according to The Times, the "policemen" might have actually been Special Forces Military Intelligence (the super secret SRR).
Although the anti-Police sentiments seem to be popular on Slashdot, my personal, limited experience with the UK Police has always been postive. I find that if you are polite and show them respect, and don't automatically take a defensive position, they tend to be absolutely fine. YMMV.
Case in point: I sold a car (on a trailer) to an off duty police officer. When I said I'd tow the car to his place because the registration wasn't current he said he could just drive it home. I pointed out the expired tags and he said, "It's OK, if I get pulled over I'll just Badge 'em."
I wish I were lying.
Even the police's official stance is actually that he was wearing a light demin jacket and jeans, walked the whole time, used his Oyster card to enter the station, walked down the steps, then ran across the platform to board the train before it left, and at no point did they identify themselves. Surprisingly this version didn't get nearly as much press coverage as the "parka-wearing lunatic dives across ticket barriers as armed police yell at him to stop" version. Guess the media are too busy to run corrections?
No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
I'm curious how closely you've dealt with the Military. I used to work loss prevention for AAFES and I've gotten a pretty good glimpse into Military Justice. I'd say that if anything the majority of the time the Military is harder on their people than civilians. On top of all the punishments that come at a soldier from civilian court they face further discipline up to and including loss of their career for their actions.
If crimes are committed on post they may be relegated to the command to handle and commanders can issue punishments including loss of rank, loss of pay, confinement and separation from the military. If the crimes occur off post the civilian courts get first crack followed by the commanders.
I have to disagree that it's likely to be dismissed out of hand.
Thanks
Eric
yeah, well I have some news for you too, look at these two photos side by side and tell me if you can tell the difference:
http://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2005/08/17/menezes_osman_wideweb__430x253.jpg
The guy on the left is the guy that got shot, the guy on the right is the guy they were looking for.
Some other guy a bit further below posted an excellent link to an article in the register that details just how screwed up the situation really was. This should have *NEVER* happened. Really, there is absolutely no excuse for it.
Police apprehend, they certainly do not kill before having a positive id.
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As a gun enthusiast myself and someone acquainted with a fair number of police officers, I will tell you that the average police officer doesn't have all that much interest in guns, either. Most cops shoot just enough to qualify (which doesn't involve much!) and don't know much about guns at all, including their own service weapons.
Generally speaking, though, you're right -- police officers tend to be blue collar (or light-blue-collar junior college types) and not terribly interested in making subtle distinctions.
But at the same time, having done ride-alongs and gotten to know some of them well enough, its easy to see why. There is a certain percentage of the population willing to believe that cops are always wrong and that crime is actually the rational response of the oppressed, the police bureaucracy in most larger departments is viciously political, and their job is entirely thankless.
This confisaction happened at a protest rally, not in game stores. The police confiscated items which seemed likely to be used by troublemakers, including bolt cutters and balaclavas with the word evil stiched on them.
Still a horrible abuse of police power, IMO, but not the work of drooling idiots.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
Beat me to it. In many states, transportation of a newly purchased vehicle is usually adequate reason to drive a vehicle with out of date registration, as long as registration is obtained within a reasonable period of time. In many cases if a ticket is given, updating the registration within a set period of time (in my state, 10 days) would adjudicate the ticket, as long as proof is brought to the courthouse along with the ticket.