Terror? It's in the bag
Every day I get the Northern Line tube to central London. It's usually crowded and wedged with commuters on their way to their nine to five jobs. In cities like London, you have to make your mean city face. You don't stare and you certainly don't speak to anyone. But ever since July, people have been staring a lot on the London underground. I carry a backpack to work as I always did in Dublin. However, the backpack has become one of the greatest sources of fear to have ever existed in this city. To allay other people's fears, I leave it on my back as much as possible and try not to fumble with it when I am on the Tube.
On July 7th, four men brought terror to London. And it hasn't gone away. People like me who carry backpacks are not to be trusted. Last night, BBC journalist Rajsh Thind in his programme "Travels with my Beard", told us about his idea for "freedom bags" which in essence is a transparent backpack. To be honest, I laughed out loud. How ridiculous? Surely the citizens of this great city would scoff at the very notion of using plastic see-through backpacks. As he handed out his free freedom bags outside Stockwell tube station, gracious receivers of this gift claimed that it could some day save their lives.
Carrying my bag around has made me wary. And with good reason. Not only do I not want to startle fellow Tube passengers, I also don't want to attract attention from police. Just over six months ago, Jean Charles de Menezes was held to the floor of an underground train and had seven bullets inserted into his brain. This happened only a few hundred yards from my home at Stockwell station. Police claimed that he jumped the barrier and refused to obey police instructions. This was later accepted as not being true.
On July 21st, a man attempted to detonate a bomb on an underground train between Stockwell and the station I enter every morning. The bomb failed to explode and he fled from that station but was later apprehended.
That said, I haven't been stopped by police. I'm a white man who obviously doesn't fit the profile. Black people is seems are not as innocent looking. They are eight times more likely to be stopped and searched by police under section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000.
Published by Colm.
On July 7th, four men brought terror to London. And it hasn't gone away. People like me who carry backpacks are not to be trusted. Last night, BBC journalist Rajsh Thind in his programme "Travels with my Beard", told us about his idea for "freedom bags" which in essence is a transparent backpack. To be honest, I laughed out loud. How ridiculous? Surely the citizens of this great city would scoff at the very notion of using plastic see-through backpacks. As he handed out his free freedom bags outside Stockwell tube station, gracious receivers of this gift claimed that it could some day save their lives.
Carrying my bag around has made me wary. And with good reason. Not only do I not want to startle fellow Tube passengers, I also don't want to attract attention from police. Just over six months ago, Jean Charles de Menezes was held to the floor of an underground train and had seven bullets inserted into his brain. This happened only a few hundred yards from my home at Stockwell station. Police claimed that he jumped the barrier and refused to obey police instructions. This was later accepted as not being true.
On July 21st, a man attempted to detonate a bomb on an underground train between Stockwell and the station I enter every morning. The bomb failed to explode and he fled from that station but was later apprehended.
That said, I haven't been stopped by police. I'm a white man who obviously doesn't fit the profile. Black people is seems are not as innocent looking. They are eight times more likely to be stopped and searched by police under section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000.
Published by Colm.
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