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The bigger issue I see is the low quality police work. Back "in the day" it wasn't uncommon for US police to frame random black guys for crimes in order to con

The bigger issue I see is the low quality police work. Back "in the day" it wasn't uncommon for US police to frame random black guys for crimes in order to consider the crime solved. Sticking a homeless guy in prison over something that's a natural right in other parts of the world and in the presence of substantial doubt that it was even his (plausible other reasons for his DNA to be on the gun and no motive to have it in the first place) seems to be about the same level of quality.

pjc50 7y ago
The lack of proof that the gun was linked to him sounded quite alarming. What I suspect happened was like the #twitterjoketrial: once anti-terrorism police had got involved, it was impossible to de-escalate it and admit it was just a homeless guy and not a secret terrorist bunker. (The setup is superficially very similar to "stay behind" operations, so I can sort of see how someone might have panicked)
- J-dawg 7y ago
  It's definitely alarming. These cases of selective enforcement seem to happen at random. I think you're right that it's mostly face saving. Recently they even turned on one of their own: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/mar/04/met-officer-faces-sack-over-child-abuse-video-despite-appeal https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/mar/04/met-officer-...
- TheOtherHobbes 7y ago
  It's basically "We don't know what this, so let's call it terrorism" - which apparently includes any form of social deviance or unsanctioned initiative.