How did we come to this? With the security services growing ever more powerful and wars raging overseas, more people are likely to face terror at the hands of the British state than the elusive ‘terrorists’ we’re told lurk on every street corner.

Terror MeterSearching in vain

As terrorists attacked the World Trade Center on September 11th, 2001, Britain hosted the Defence Systems and Equipment International (DSEI) fair in London’s Docklands, offering high-tech weapons to potential buyers from some of the world’s most notoriously oppressive regimes.

Ironically, Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 was used by police officers to search and arrest peaceful protesters outside. These powers have been used to disrupt peaceful protests ever since – most extensively at climate change protest The Camp for Climate Action. In London, the Metropolitan Police have used Section 44 of the Terrorism Act over 150,000 times since October 2007. Only six in every 10,000 were actually arrested, none of them on terror charges.

“Code A guidance” on Section 44 encourages racial profiling, suggesting it is “appropriate for officers to take account of a person’s ethnic origin in selecting persons to be stopped.” Young black and British Asian people are six times more likely to be stopped and searched by police than white people.

Manchester’s past terror raids

The recent arrest of innocent Pakistanis on terror charges is unfortunately nothing new for Manchester.

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