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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?
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
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