London Olympics in 2012 to give stupid powers to the police

Now that the Winter Olympics in Canada are over the world’s attention is turning to the upcoming 2012 Olympics to be held in London England.

While organizers are telling anyone who will listen – and believe them – these games will be fiscally responsible the truth as with all Olympics will probably turn out to be a different story.

One of the big concerns of course id the security that will surround the games with the current budget of £600 million generally considered to be laughable and overly optimistic. What is starting to get the attention of many civil liberty groups however is the increase in police powers leading up to and including the games.

Moves to safeguard company trademarks and stamp out ambush marketing, to preserve the monopoly of official advertisers and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) logo, are raising concerns among civil liberty groups.

[…]

Police will have powers to enter private homes and seize posters, and will be able to stop people carrying non-sponsor items to sporting events.

“I think there will be lots of people doing things completely innocently who are going to be caught by this, and some people will be prosecuted, while others will be so angry about it that they will start complaining about civil liberties issues,” Chadwick said.

Source:Yahoo News / Reuters

Given the country’s penchant for stomping on people’s rights none of this surprises me and I wouldn’t be at all surprised to hear more complaints in the future as we get closer to the games.