Petition protest at Police powers

A retired senior police officer has expressed concern about the "sweeping power" that he claims is being abused on a daily basis in all of the 43 police forces. David Gilbertson, who was assistant inspector of constabulary until he retired in 2001, has joined the former head of MI5 and the former Director of Public Prosecutions to express concern about the kind of state we are building in Britain. He has started a viral email campaign to ask people to sign a Number 10 petition against police powers to arrest any person for any offence.

The change came in section 110 of the notorious Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005. For the first time in the history of policing in the UK it allowed anyone to be arrested for "any offence no matter how trivial and whether or not a power of arrest previously existed for that offence," says Gilbertson's email. "People can now be (and have been) arrested and detained under Section 110 for not wearing a seatbelt, dropping litter, shouting in the presence of a police officer, climbing a tree, and building a snowman."

You can add your name here: http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/PowersofArrest/