Wickham's musings from Chalke

 
250 police stormed two small terrace houses in east London at 4 am about two weeks ago and arrested two young men who were suspected of building a chemical bomb. Some police were armed, some were in chemical protection suits and there was an air-exclusion zone overhead.

After eleven days in custody they were released without charge.

One of them was shot in the chest. Police are so lucky he was not killed. They have already killed one innocent man last year.

They have been describing the arrests. The one who was shot said he heard people crashing into the house and thought it was burglars as there was no shouting "Police" or similar warning. He went to the top of the stairs in the dark wearing boxer shorts and T-shirt. There were some torch flashes and he was shot without warning. A man got hold of his left leg and dragged him down the stairs so that he was bumping his head. His head was kicked and he was told with swear words to keep quiet. He was taken outside and just dropped on the pavement.

His mother, brother and sister were also roughly treated. Our special SO3 police seem to be copying American tactics of hit hard, shoot and ask questions later. One can understand such rough actions in a situation like the mountains of Afghanistan where there is a known nest of armed Taliban fighters and our troops are likely to be outnumbered, but why use the same tactics with 250 police against two sleeping men when there is only suspicion about them, not evidence?

It appears that MI5 and police had information about them and neighbours had seen men sitting in a car nearby 24 hours a day, obviously watching something.

After the arrests the houses (a pair linked by a pass-door) were covered with scaffolding and sheeting and completely stripped out and searched. I saw a TV video when the sheeting was being removed and there was a big pile of floorboards.

Now the police face a big bill for reinstating the damage and the men are likely to sue. £500,000 has been mentioned.

Here are two alternative scenarios:-
1. The men are completely innocent. Police had wrong information or the men were set up by terrorists.
2. They are terrorists but have completely fooled the police.

Certainly the demeanour of the men suggests that they are innocent. I don't think two terrorists would both have been able to withstand eleven days of police questioning without looking suspicious, but both these men obviously gave police nothing to go on.

Shami Chakrabarti, the head of Liberty, has been surprisingly calm but is calling for police tactics to be reviewed.

Most commentators from all walks of life have said that police have no option but to investigate terrorist activities, especially if dangerous bombs could be set off injuring thousands of people. They have agreed that police will make some mistakes. The tactics used must be questioned though. If police were watching the houses for some time, why didn't they arrest the men when they left the houses and enter the houses when they were not there? Police would have been in less danger of being shot, there would have been virtually no danger of a bomb being set off and no suspects, innocent or guilty, would be shot.