Noisy gadgets and their stupid owners: They don’t build them blenders big enough…
Okay, I’m a fucking dinosaur and I hate all the small electronic and binary gadgets that have conquered the world like so many malevolent ETs.
You name (and flaunt) it in public and I’ll loathe it.
I can absolutely bloody well guarantee that.
Mobile phones – check
Blackberries – check
Nintendo-type games – check
Anything with headphones or earplugs – check
Any kinds of things that turn your average citizen into a sluggishly moving, mental midget with bubblegum for brains I abhor.
Moreover, if these things make or leak ANY kind of noise that I can pick up from more than half a meter away, I hate them and their anti-social owners even more.
Having said all that, even I would admit that the police acted just a little bit over the top in the following case:
A commuter was arrested at gunpoint and had his DNA and fingerprints taken simply for listening to his MP3 player while waiting for a bus. Darren Nixon was surrounded by armed police after his music player was mistaken for a gun.
When a passer-by saw the 28-year-old get out his black Philips machine to change tracks, she panicked and dialled 999. Police tracked Mr Nixon using CCTV. As he got off the bus home from work he was surrounded by a firearms unit, who bundled him into a van. He was then put in a cell and his fingerprints, DNA and mugshot were taken before he was released.
Although police realised it was a false alarm, Mr Nixon, from Stoke-on-Trent, now has to live with his DNA stored on a national database. The force will also keep on record that he was arrested on suspicion of a firearms offence. DNA records are kept for life so that they can be matched to future samples. Even suspects who are wrongfully arrested normally stay on the database.
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