For those of us who live comfortably and safely in the UK, it can be hard to imagine that you'd have to be on the lookout for danger much in your day-to-day life. After all, that job is for the police and other security services that protect us: not that we can't or shouldn't look out for ourselves.

 

Nowadays more than ever it's smart for young lads to keep their wits about them. Cops and parents alike, from the day we can walk, drill the classic precautions into us - don't talk to strangers, no walking alone late at night, etc. and so forth. There is one particular event that has forever changed how the police view 'danger', though: the infamous attack on American soil colloquially known as 9/11. It can be difficult to imagine how a terrorist attack over there could possibly affect us more than 3000 miles away with an entire ocean between us - but it did, and the effects are felt more by some of us than others.

 

In order to fight against what a lot of people in power saw as a sort of return of terrorism, the police had to be given new powers: things they could legally do to make sure they could safeguard Britain better. A lot of these featured in a new act: the Terrorism Act 2000. Sounds like a band, right? It actually allowed the police, particularly those at ports and airports, to do some pretty controversial things.

 

One of these, which they can still do, is stopping and searching anyone they believe is connected in any way to terrorism. That could be planning to commit a terrorist attack, having been involved in a terrorist attack that has already happened, or even knowing someone who is planning to commit a terrorist attack. The officer(s) stopping an individual don't even need 'reasonable suspicion' to do this, and they can hold someone for nine hours for the purpose of one of these stops. Imagine you're trying to get through an airport when you get taken aside by the police and held there for nine hours.

 

Here is the real problem though: think about all the news reports you've seen on television or in the newspaper which have talked about people arrested for being connected to terrorism. Most of them are Muslims, right? Now imagine that it's your job to keep an eye out for anyone who might be a terrorist, and you've got to judge that from how they look. With this in mind, it's no wonder the Metropolitan Police were once judged as institutionally racist, and that their stop-and-search powers are now set to be reviewed.