BBC: Scotland Police Utilizing Web To Hunt for Knives

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kaiservontexas

Joined
Dec 16, 2007
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Anybody seen this news report yet?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/hi/the_p_word/newsid_7852000/7852248.stm

The article says the police in Scotland are searching the web for pictures of Scottish citizens brandishing or displaying edged tools/weapons and knives. Once they discover a such a picture they go pay the individual a visit.

Here is a quote:

"Even when pictures are taken in private, though, which isn't technically breaking the law, he says the weapons are so dangerous his officers pay a visit to the people involved."
 
Pardon my french, but the lawmakers in UK and the rest of the Island, as well as in some 'extreme western' parts of EU are sick. :(

In the lines, the call a kitchen knife or baseball bat being offensive weapons. Looks like the only tool to be legally used in these countries will be a paper made handkerchief/tissue.

I think and believe that a HUGE majority of the people who 'show off' their collections (called as offensive weapons in the passage) are guys who do this out of hobby and neither of those is a 'gang member'.

It would be of a great help if the politicians would use their common sense, if any left.
 
Anybody who posts photos of themselves holding firearms or other weapons on the Internet is very stupid. Here in the United States, there have been a number of child pornography law prosecutions that happned when girls under 16 years of age transmitted nude photos of themselves to classsmates via cell phone an Blackberry transmissions. The girls were charge with distributing child pornograpy and the recipients were charged with possession when police found the images on their cell phones. Upon conviction, all involved would have to register for life as sex offenders! VERY, VERY Stupid!

What socially-redeeming purpose would there be in posting your photos holding deadly weapons on the Internet? If you were ever in the unfortunate situation of having to use these weapons in an actual self-defense situation, the local prosecutors would use these photos to crucify you in the courtroom! Let's all use our heads here and think straight!
 
TOM1960 said:
Anybody who posts photos of themselves holding firearms or other weapons on the Internet is very stupid.
Click to expand...

Maybe so, but that´s not the point. The point is that these people are being hassled by the police even though they have broken no law.
 
TOM1960 said:
Anybody who posts photos of themselves holding firearms or other weapons on the Internet is very stupid.
Click to expand...

That's a bit too much of a harsh blanket statement for me. Are we to extend this to anyone who ever posts an in-hand picture of a knife here on Bladeforums?

If I'm selling a knife and include a shot of it in my palm for a size reference, am I very stupid?

If a maker is doing a work in progress thread and the last picture is of them proudly holding the finished product, does this make them very stupid?
 
jujigatame said:
That's a bit too much of a harsh blanket statement for me. Are we to extend this to anyone who ever posts an in-hand picture of a knife here on Bladeforums?

If I'm selling a knife and include a shot of it in my palm for a size reference, am I very stupid?

If a maker is doing a work in progress thread and the last picture is of them proudly holding the finished product, does this make them very stupid?
Click to expand...

TOM is obviously implying pictures with your face in it (or identifiable markings), not of your palm for a size reference. Come on...

It is very risky to take pictures where you are holding a weapon and can be identified from said photo, no matter what the intent. Why? Because anything can be twisted to be used against you. Unfortunately, we are not innocent until proven guilty anymore, its swaying more towards the reverse everyday.

I hope this crap doesnt start a similar trend in the States.

However, UK police have more down time it seems. So maybe this is just an isolated occurrence. :)
 
The UK is a fascist police state.

TOM1960 said:
What socially-redeeming purpose would there be in posting your photos holding deadly weapons on the Internet? If you were ever in the unfortunate situation of having to use these weapons in an actual self-defense situation, the local prosecutors would use these photos to crucify you in the courtroom! Let's all use our heads here and think straight!
Click to expand...

if you were thinking straight, you would not have just spouted that gibberish. Inanimate objects are just that. Posting a picture of your car is no different. What if you ran over some kid? Would they use the picture against you?
 
taspankya said:
It is very risky to take pictures where you are holding a weapon and can be identified from said photo, no matter what the intent. Why? Because anything can be twisted to be used against you. Unfortunately, we are not innocent until proven guilty anymore, its swaying more towards the reverse everyday.
Click to expand...
Precisely. Just a few years ago a good fella by the name of "Matthew Corwin!"
got busted for BS weapons charges because of pics on MySpace, and this guy is an MP in the US Army Reserve. All charges eventually dropped, but it cost him lots of cash and time in jail (bail was high).
 
Rat Finkenstein said:
The UK is a fascist police state.
Click to expand...

Yeah, of course it is. Remind me which country you live in? The one that passed the Patriot Act and tortures it's own nationals? Let's not mention fascist police states.

:rolleyes:

Rat, you haven't got the faintest idea of what you are talking about, but you say it anyway. I'm guessing you haven't ever been outside of your home state, let alone overseas, which is why you always come across as, let's be honest, a bit simple when it comes to international issues. You favour the Short Bus analysis.

The police program in question here in the UK is aimed at 'wannabe gangstas' who pose with knives and guns on social networking sites such as Bebo. These young people have several times gone beyond their posturing to film themselves severely beating other young people, and in one hideous incident, gang raping a fourteen year old girl on film. The networking sites are also used to sell drugs and maintain territory, generally through the making of threats.

The policy itself is clearly not much more than a public relations exercise on behalf of the Glasgow Police. Itself one of more than forty distinct Police Services in the UK. So it's hardly a UK program.

It may be silly on many levels, but it's trying to send a message to young people who have become engaged in a culture where weapons are now cool, and posing with them on social networking sites is almost a requirement, that the police are aware of what is going on.

I'm not going to be posing on Bebo with my Les Voorhies Flipper in one hand, a crack pipe in the other, and Tupac playing in the background.

So I reckon I'm safe.

Danzo
 
Lawmandan said:
Remind me which country you live in? The one that passed the Patriot Act and tortures it's own nationals? Let's not mention fascist police states.
Click to expand...
Lawmandan--you apparently know little yourself.

Please find me a single American citizen who was negatively impacted by the Patriot Act. Just one. Outside of a few Hollywood types who were terrified people would be listening to their phone calls, or seizing their emails, or reading their mail...except none of that ever happened.

And please name me one "national" who was tortured by the Federal government. Just one.

Your experience to America seems to be limited to The Guardian and Hollywood movies. Bad teachers, both.
 
Watchful said:
Please find me a single American citizen who was negatively impacted by the Patriot Act. Just one.

And please name me one "national" who was tortured by the Federal government. Just one.
Click to expand...

Firstly I can't, because the Patriot Act prevents me from doing so under penalty of law in every legal jurisdiction that the US government has extended agreements with. Your government will actually try and extradite me if I name someone. Scary, huh?

Secondly you know full well that the Federal Government established both the camp at Guantanamo Bay and the policy of 'extraordinary rendition' precisely so that they could deny any official Federal US government involvement in torture.

:rolleyes:

But this isn't about your country, it's about mine. And people are posting fantasist nonsense. That makes me annoyed. For sure we have a screwed up media and a venal and stupid government, but that's pretty much the norm in most of the western world.

Yeah, our knife laws are severe, but they are actually less severe than in many parts of the USA, and certainly not enforced with the same sort of enthusiasm by the police. We never have to discuss what we will say to the police here in the UK, as to be honest getting stopped and searched is almost unheard of.

I can freely own, and even carry, dirks and daggers and all other double edged blades if I have a good reason. You can't do that in many US jurisdictions. OK, Auto's and balisongs are banned, but that's true of many parts of the USA as well. I can buy any Assisted Opener I want and have it delivered the next day, whereas I understand that the Texas Supreme Court is disallowing that.

What I don't understand is this thing that some people on BF have of wallowing in their perceived knowledge of the restrictions in UK law, whilst at the same time ignoring the creeping restrictions in your own US legal jurisdictions.

Look to yourselves, rather than mocking us. But if you need to mock, then at least get your facts right.


Danzo
 
Lawmandan wrote:

"What I don't understand is this thing that some people on BF have of wallowing in their perceived knowledge of the restrictions in UK law, whilst at the same time ignoring the creeping restrictions in your own US legal jurisdictions."


I say he absolutely positively has a well made point. Policies in some parts of the US doesn't even border on but are nothing more than shear, moronity, ignorance, and stupidity.
 
I have news loving the constitution and wishing and supporting the well being of a free nation are requirement of which by no means requires that one be a stupid sap in fact quite opposite freedom requires vigilance to maintain if you read your history right.
 
Re: the one arrested ......

In 1970 Jose Padilla was born in Brooklyn, NY. He later moved to Chicago, Ill. It is alleged he became involved with terrorists. President Bush declared him an enemy combatant and FBI agents arrested Padilla in Chicago. Even though he IS an American civilian he was sent to the US Navy Military Prison in South Carolina where he was held for 3 1/2 years without trial. Padillo claimed to have been tortured by interrogators.

Later his case was transferred to a US federal CIVILIAN court where he was convicted for 'conspiracy'. He now resides in a US federal CIVILIAN jail.

I fear for our country when the US military puts US civilians in military prisons.

As an aside, at a Clan Fraser Gathering in 1997 in Scotland, I saw many of my kinsmen with swords and daggers.
 
Lawmandan said:
*snip- a bunch of ignorant nonsense*
Click to expand...

keep babbling. I remember your first posts on this forum defending/supporting the known thief and scum bag Allan Blade along with your idiot friend Martyn.

If that wasn't enough to mark you as a schmuck, pretty much every post since then has been blowing the same smoke screen and propaganda about the oppressive government and laws that you appear to be a tool of.

"I reckon" you should take your bovine excreta and run on home.
 
Lawmandan said:
Firstly I can't, because the Patriot Act prevents me from doing so under penalty of law in every legal jurisdiction that the US government has extended agreements with. Your government will actually try and extradite me if I name someone. Scary, huh?
Click to expand...
What? You can't name a single American citizen affected personally and negatively by the Patriot Act because... why? Because the US will extradite you if you do? Where are you getting this? Wait, never mind....I think I know.

Lawmandan said:
Secondly you know full well that the Federal Government established both the camp at Guantanamo Bay and the policy of 'extraordinary rendition' precisely so that they could deny any official Federal US government involvement in torture.
Click to expand...
I believe your statement was that American nationals were being tortured. You haven't yet backed that outrageous claim, either. If you want to discuss operations and as-yet-unfounded claims by human rights groups, you can take that right over to Political. Except, you now need to be a member of BFC now. I guess you decided to dump your political accusations here instead, for free.

Lawmandan said:
But this isn't about your country, it's about mine.
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I agree. And yet you introduced the subject, and then go on to rail about the US.

So I guess it's not about your country, is it?
 
Watchful not for nothing but don't try to sell the Brooklyn Bridge in war people get tortured period, the whole nine yards not just waterboarding denying it insults the intelligence of most rational people. I am not one to eat that politically motivated denial BS out of the hand of everyone that happens to tickle my ears.

These days it's hard to tell who are the good guys and the bad guys. Who's bidding is the soldier really serving these days ? In world war II is was more clearly defined.
 
Another question I ask myself is who is getting tortured is it a person that possesses information about a legit military concern that needs to be extracted or is it someone that some unprofessional inexperienced jerk who was promoted in the military without proper qualifications dragged in due to mere suspicion.

I ask anyone here if this is a good question ????????????
 
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