This stupidity has to stop

There is an astonishing story over on the Telegraph's website and commented upon by Henry Porter about a student arrested for chalking a protest on a pavement. Apart from querying whether the police have lost all sense of proportion, the greatest irony is that the student was writing a protest about the loss of liberty!

Abuse of powers

There is a disturbing story in the newpapers about the shameful arrest of a man who photographed a PC reversing the wrong way up a one way street. Without going into the details of that particular case (which should have involved the dismissal of the PC involved but didn't) what is deeply disturbing is that the man involved had DNA samples and fingerprints taken. I strongly suspect that these were not destroyed even though the Avon and Somerset Chief Constable has apologised and called the officer's behaviour "totally unacceptible.