Australia – Police to have power to strip-search at random
November 29, 2009 by Infowars Ireland
POLICE will soon have sweeping powers to search people at random, including strip-search, even if there is no reasonable suspicion those targeted have done anything wrong.
The ‘’stop and search” tactic is part of a law and order crackdown set to be passed by State Parliament, despite the Government conceding that the legislation breaches the Victorian Human Rights Charter.
Legal experts have labelled the proposed laws, which will enable officers to strip-search children and the disabled, as draconian and a knee-jerk reaction to the problem of drunken violence.
Under the legislation, police will also be given the right to move people on if they believe they may be going to cause a breach of the peace.
Police Minister Bob Cameron says the wide-ranging legislation was necessary to maintain social standards, and the search powers were aimed at preventing an explosion in knife-related violence. ”Police are detecting more young people with knives and when you look at the Western world, when you see an upsurge in knife culture, it can turn sharply and quickly,” Mr Cameron said.
”We’ve seen that happen in some cities in the United States and especially in London. In London, it just turned and there was an explosion of knife-related crime a few years ago.
”We are putting the laws in place and taking a pre-emptive strike; we just won’t tolerate a knife culture in Victoria.”
But Mr Cameron’s claims have been rejected by senior lawyers who believe the ‘’stop and search” powers will be misused and are likely to target minorities such as the homeless, Aborigines, the mentally ill and the young.
Melbourne barrister Michael Pearce, SC, president of Liberty Victoria, said the bill was undemocratic. ”It will clearly involve significant intrusions on ordinary civil liberties and human rights, such as the right to walk the streets and mind your own business,” he said.
Mr Cameron, who acknowledges areas of his legislation fall outside the Charter of Human Rights, said: ”People have a right to privacy, but they also have a right not to be stabbed … if random searches can bring about the prevention of stabbing, then it is totally correct for police to be able to do this.”
James Farrell, the principal lawyer at the Homeless Persons Legal Clinic, said Mr Cameron’s reasoning was spurious. ”Talking about London and America is just vague political posturing that leads to people feeling unsafe, when statistics show there’s no reason they should.”
The Government’s focus on knife attacks comes after a 9 per cent rise in robberies involving blades last year, though police figures show assaults using a knife fell 2 per cent from 2007-2008 levels. In London, despite Mr Cameron’s claims, police statistics show knife-related crime has fallen year on year since 2004.
The increased police powers are being introduced under the Summary Offences and Control of Weapons Acts Amendment Bill, which was passed in Victoria’s lower house last week and has the support of Labor, the Liberals and Nationals, almost guaranteeing it will become law before Christmas.
Under the bill anyone can be searched if they are in a designated area and any area can be designated if violence occurred there in the previous 12 months or police receive intelligence that it may become a trouble scene. Read more…
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New years morning ,2010 approx, 330 am my wife was walking home from a party.Unable to get a cab ,it was teeming with rain (as it does in Cairns) she saw an oppirtunity to flag down a passing police car and ask for assistance. Rather than provide assistance they forced her into the back of the police van and took her to the Cairns watch house where she was charged with public nuisance.She was then forceably stripped bare nacked by a female officer in the presence of two male officers( who could be heard chucling in the background) Their reason for her arrest,” Drunk in a public place” Their reason for stripping her ” her clothes were wet” , 8.00 am they released her, still under the influence and still with the same wet clothes.I dont seem to understand how the police can justify their actions nor can iunderstand how our government can allow such a Blatent breach of our civil rights.Last I heard we were still a democratic society ,yet all I see is communist style police tacticts. As a child I was taught to respect and trust the police,what a joke! I would be intrested to hear from anyone with a similar story. We the public need to unite on these human rights issues so our voice can be heard,Unity is strength.