Draconian Royal Wedding security measures "impossible" in the US

Over at the Fox News blog, there's a very interesting article which suggests that many of the security measures being taken by the Police in advance of the Royal Wedding on Friday would be impossible to implement in the United States.

While the Police are likely to roll out many of their usual law enforcement tactics - random stop an searches, carefully monitored CCTV footage and beefed-up patrols - they have requested that a whole raft of hugely draconian restrictions are imposed in the Westminster area on the day of the wedding.  Among these measures is a temporary ban on an unnamed iPhone application in the vicinity of Buckingham Place and Westminster Abbey.  The Police will apparently be "monitoring use of the application on the wedding day and arrest anyone caught uploading unauthorized images". 

In the United States, such measures would simply not be possible as a result of regulations which ban Police from deploying overly-invasive tactics in the name of "pre-emptive Policing".  While US law enforcement officers are, for example, able to set up controlled areas into which people will be only granted access if they agree to be searched, their powers of random stop-and-search are hugely curtailed.

While articles on Fox News are often greeted with howls of derision, it's well worth a read.  You can view the whole piece here .

Hat-tip: AW

Comments

[FaustiesBlog]

Can you post the link to the article, please?

Thanks.

[alastair]

Or you *could* read the whole piece, if you actually, you know, published the link :-)

[Demeter]

For a country that fingerprints all its visitors to talk of "draconian" measures elsewhere is risible.

[Anonymoose]

The part about the banned iPhone app was information based on an April Fools joke, which just goes to show the quality of Fox News' reporting.

http://crave.cnet.co.uk/mobiles/color-iphone-app-banned-at-royal-wedding-due-to-security-threat-50003362/

[a commoner]

are you commenters suggesting that all is well in the uk then?

the police in the uk are unaccountable and can kill people in cold blood in daylight and get away with it - AND THEY DO!

[Saxon]

"There’s a more mature acceptance in the U.K. of the tradeoff between civil liberties and security,” former CIA agent Mike Baker told FoxNews.com. “They went through homegrown terror issues with the IRA and they were bombed in WWII , and it developed an attitude that you don’t find here.”

What a big brother loving slime ball.

[John O'Groats]

we don’t want these sort of people at the royal wedding

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/apr/28/royal-wedding-protest-three-arrested

or

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/royal-wedding/8481261/Royal-wedding-Twenty-arrested-as-squats-raided-across-London.html

arrested and removed without commiting any crime

nah

we want these instead

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/apr/28/bahraini-linked-to-torture-royal-wedding

we are not very far behind East Germany 1970s style in the uk now. The police remain unaccountable. When people are being arrested for crimes they have NOT YET APPARENTLY committed something is very wrong

[Chris B]

The banning of the iphone app was an April Fool article!!! We do still have some civil liberties left in the UK you know!

[David]

I was disturbed to read of the many people arrested 'pre-emptively' before the royal wedding, who don't seem to have any history of criminal activity. I understand that it was a important day, but this is draconian and a chilling reflection of the attitude towards protest in this country, which is increasingly being viewed as something approaching criminal behaviour.

[Purlieu]

Twitter was a cut-down service on 29th and quite a few Facebook pages disappeared.
Almost like Egypt pre-Tahrir

[bubbery sunglases]

I understand that it was a important day, but this is draconian and a chilling reflection of the attitude towards protest in this country, which is increasingly being viewed as something approaching criminal behaviour.

[cheap ray bans]

I understand that it was a important day, but this is draconian and a chilling reflection of the attitude towards protest in this country, which is increasingly being viewed as something approaching criminal behaviour.

[christian louboutin]

towards protest in this country, which is increasingly being viewed as something approaching criminal behaviour.