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Bank raid? We just want to change a wheel (From Echo)
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Bank raid? We just want to change a wheel
8:00am Tuesday 9th September 2008
AN innocent couple were dramatically arrested by armed police who thought they were about to hold up a bank with a gun.
The man and woman were pulled over by two police cars outside Barclays Bank, in Ness Road, Shoebury, because officers believed they were carrying a gun.
The man was ordered to kneel on the ground and was handcuffed before he and the woman were taken away for questioning.
The weapon which a member of the public reported to police turned out to be a wheelbrace for their Peugeot 407. The operation involved armed officers, a police dog unit, and plain-clothed officers who are believed to have followed the couple’s car before it was stopped.
Estate agent Alexander Ashe watched the drama unfold through the window of his Bairstow Eves office.
He said: “The first thing we heard was police telling this man to get on the ground and we thought it was a bank robbery.
“They grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and handcuffed him.”
Another witness, Robert West, said: “I’d just pulled on to Ness Road and was following the Peugeot south towards Campfield Road when two police cars, with just their lights flashing, hurtled past.
“The Peugeot pulled across the road, into a kerbside parking bay, and the police jumped out of their cars, guns in hand.”
A shop owner, who asked not to be named, said: “The first I knew about it was when I heard lots of screaming and shouting.
“There were at least two police cars and three or four armed officers, pointing their guns.”
The couple were led away, questioned and released without charge within half-an-hour of the incident.
Essex Police spokeswoman Helen Cook said: “A member of the public reported seeing a firearm.
“We sent the armed response unit there and a couple were stopped and questioned.
“There was no firearm. It turned out they had a wheelbrace with them.”
- Are you the couple who were wrongly arrested? Please ring the Echo newsdesk on 01702 321159
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Your Say YourEcho
Thames Gateway, S-O-S says...
8:24pm Mon 8 Sep 08
Not that they are trying to build up a database on everyone in the country though....no, really not.
acid_jim, SS8 says...
8:53pm Mon 8 Sep 08
Not that they are trying to build up a database on everyone in the country though....no, really not.
What's wrong with a national DNA data base? Like National Identity Cards the only people who need fear it are wrongdoers.
NOTORIOUS, basildon says...
1:00am Tue 9 Sep 08
Southchurch Steve, Southchurch says...
8:42am Tue 9 Sep 08
If it had beena robbery everyone would have been moaning about the CCTV cameras not picking it up.
minorthreat, says...
11:13am Tue 9 Sep 08
Marshwalker, Shoeburyness says...
4:13pm Tue 9 Sep 08
If you are INNOCENT! What are you worried about?
Or are you worried that your partners might stict you up so they can get out of the relationship!!!
The police can have my DNA any time they like, the hospital have allready got it, so whats the problem? Obey the law of the land and you will not have anything to worry about.
Thames Gateway, S-O-S says...
5:24pm Tue 9 Sep 08
If there needs to be a DNA National database with everyone on it, THEN THIS NEEDS TO BE DISCUSSED AND AGREED WITH POPULATION, not unilaterally imposed by stealth by the civil servants and police.
At the moment it is accepted for criminals to be DNA'ed. Why should someone who has been mistakenly arrested have the indignity of this procedure foisted on them when they have done nothing wrong, and the stigma of being on the database for evermore (like a common criminal)?
The couple here should get a full written apology from the police, and compensation for the trauma involved.
In a just society, there would be no question of keeping their DNA on what is at present a database for UK crimals. This is of course now shared internationally with European police forces (who have the power to arrest and extradite you without too many questions asked) and probably the whole of the interpol community.
In my opinion, good policing starts with trusting the people, not treating everyone as a 'yet to be' criminal.The more police rely on this technology, the less common sense policing is likely to flourish. I suspect the more savvy criminals will become adept at 'fitting up' innocents by dropping a little incriminating DNA on the scene of crimes, and watch with glee the result from the sidelines.
jomoo, clapham says...
6:30pm Tue 9 Sep 08
One other commentee made reference to the DNA profile/s being available in the EU, from the UK database. They've been available in the US for years under various treaties.
Not mentioned, yet, by the press, is the fact that the dna profiles are also being sold to private companies by the police.
Also not mentioned is another fact, very small samples from crime schemes (as in single cell small) are being amplified to larger samples by a flawed system, which raises the problem of rogue samples (if a person is mugged in a street they are highly likely to have cells from any number of people on their clothes or body).
Of course, we all know that dna is never wrong. But then, how would we know if it IS ever wrong if nobody will tell us ?
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Hawk, shoeburyness says...
5:51pm Mon 8 Sep 08