Police tried to follow me home

They tell me there are 14,000 Police Officers out on the streets of London to control the demonstrations against the Bush visit and I can certainly believe it. I was stopped and photographed outside LARC and then a few minutes later another pair of officers stopped me at a bus stop at Whitechapel and demanded to know my name and address. I declined to tell them and they said ok we’ll wait then. They followed me onto the bus and stayed on all the way to Stoke Newington. When I got off they followed me again. I made a phone call to let people know I would be late home and one of the officers went into the phone box after me while the other continued to follow me. Presumably they traced the call. So I caught another bus back to Victoria. They stayed with me and followed me to the next bus stop. Then they finally left so I nipped around the corner and caught a bus home.

The whole thing took me 3 hours. I felt it was worth it though. It is important to defend our right to privacy. Police have no right to demand personal information unless they are making a rest. I asked them was there no criminal activity happening in London tonight that they could spend that much time hanging out on buses.