Although a little worried about being late for my meeting, I was impressed by their air of professionalism and vigilance. I was pleased that the government was doing something to keep us all safe and thought it would be selfish to refuse. ‘I don’t mind at all,’ I replied, ‘as long as it doesn’t take a huge amount of time.’
LATER:
Turn that phone off,’ he said. ‘You’re about to be arrested for possessing offensive weapons and carrying a bladed instrument in public. You’ll be allowed one call when we get you to Charing Cross police station.’
I felt confused and indignant. As we stood by the side of the road, waiting for a police van to arrive, I asked the constable whether this whole business was, in his opinion, a valuable use of police time and resources. This was when the policemen and the PCSOs started to become hostile. ‘You’ve committed an offence, mate, and you’d better get used to the fact that you’re going down for six months,’ said one policeman.
Whoops, the moral of this story is never volunteer to let the Police search you. Even possession of a multi-tool penknife, without the intention to use it as a weapon, will get you locked up now. They can't, or won't, differentiate between terrorists/gangsters and a harmless businessman going to a meeting. Of course, this man was foolish to have a collapsible baton and a penknife in his briefcase and to allow them to search him, but the Police could have just bollocked him, told him not to do it again and let him go.