Police Investigate Large Scale Olympic Ticket Touting

The Telegraph reports that the police have compiled a new “watch list” of nearly 1000 Olympic ticket touts, many of whom are linked to serious organised crime, and 30 sites outside Britain suspected of being involved in illegally selling tickets for the forthcoming Olympics.

Almost 200 people have been arrested for a range of offences, with warnings of further raids over the coming weeks as interest in the Olympic Games intensifies.

I assume the the police will also be investigating those individuals and organisations involved in the ticket touting bonanza that I wrote about just two days ago?

Olympic Medals won during the Beijing 2008 Olympics

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10,000 Target Unattainable

The Press Association report that the target of 10,000 special constables (volunteers) for the London 2012 Olympics is unattainable.

The target has been now been lowered to 6,667.

Olympic Medals won during the Beijing 2008 Olympics

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Toilet Matters

There seems to be a degree of confusion in the media over reports that, because there will be a shortage of portaloos in 2012 (all loos are being requisitioned for the London Olympics), Glastonbury 2012 will be cancelled.

However, Michael Eavis (the organiser of Glastonbury) has denied reports that the cancellation is due to the portaloo shortage. He stated that the cancellation is in fact due to the shortage of police, as they will be tied up by covering the the London Olympics.

Olympic Medals won during the Beijing 2008 Olympics

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Party Poopers

Chris Allison, Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner, has warned that last minute events in 2012 to celebrate the Olympics could be "dangerous".

Mr Allison is heading the Met's 2012 security planning and preparations, and told the London Assembly's Health and Public Services Committee last week:

"People have got to understand that 2012 will be a very different year.

This is why it is important for the Greater London Authority to get people to sign up to say they are not going to do something last-minute because that could be dangerous.

They (event organisers) need to see that there will be a challenge for us in 2012 and to self-regulate."

I can't see this working at all.

Olympic Medals won during the Beijing 2008 Olympics

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Anti Doping Line Opened

The UK will launch of a confidential 24-hour hotline that will encourage anonymous callers (athletes, coaches, support staff, parents and friends etc) to provide tip-offs about those they think might be cheats, or supply and traffic in performance-enhancing substances during the Olympics.

All very well, maybe.

However, I guarantee that this will be abused.

What better way to put an athlete off his/her game by having them investigated for drugs the day before an event?

Who would want to do that?

Fellow competitors, bloody minded individuals, people with money bet on the event.

The list is endless.

Olympic Medals won during the Beijing 2008 Olympics

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Unlawful Anti Terror Law

The Times reports that the police intend to use Section 44 of The Terrorism Act 2000 at every tube station in London during the London 2012 Olympics, this gives them the power to search people without any suspicion that they are terrorists.

The only problem with this is that the European Court of Human Rights has ruled that this is unlawful.

Section 44 must be granted by the Home Secretary for a designated area.

The Home Office is appealing against the European Court ruling.

Doubtless, were these powers to be enacted, the terrorists would avoid using the tube system.

After games, will the powers be revoked?

I doubt!

Olympic Medals won during the Beijing 2008 Olympics

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Drugs Bust

Lord Moynihan, chairman of the British Olympic Association, is proposing a new law that would give police the right to search Olympic athletes' rooms for performance-enhancing drugs.

Whilst using performance enhancing drugs is outwith the rules of the Olympics, since when were some of these performance enhancing drugs illegal?

Granting police these powers would be a further erosion of the civil liberties, that the Labour administration has already spent years undermining.

Olympic Medals won during the Beijing 2008 Olympics

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Olympic Bugs

It seems that we may be taking one step further to becoming a police state. Emulating the Chinese, the police are studying Chinese surveillance tactics as they ready themselves for the 2012 London Olympics.

One tactic being considered is the installation of miniature microphones in thousands of taxis. These bugs will transmit passengers' conversations to a police control room. The police, if they consider the conversation to be "suspect", would then activate a disabling device to stop the cabs.

Another tactic used by the Chinese was to embed tracking microchips in the tickets and passes of Olympics spectators.

Olympic Medals won during the Beijing 2008 Olympics

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2000 More Police Needed?

People are never shy of jumping on the Olympics bandwagon, and using it as an excuse for demanding more money/resources.

True to form Paul McKeever, Chairman of the Police Federation, has stepped up to the plate and asked for 2000 more police officers. He is quoted in publicservice.co.uk:

"We must not lose sight that we will also be policing the biggest sporting event this country has handled in 2012, when the Olympics comes to the UK.

How we are expected to deal with the demands this will place upon the service, in addition to the increasing property crime rates with fewer officers per head of the population, is beyond me. My real fear is that the level of service and protection we will be able to afford the public will be severely affected unless action to address this is taken now."

Well, he would say that wouldn't he?

Olympic Medals won during the Beijing 2008 Olympics

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The Largest Security Operation Since WWII

The Olympics in 2012 is turning out to be a security nightmare, presenting the Home Office with the largest peacetime security operation since the Second World War.

There will be up to 10,000 officers policing the event, this accounts for around 7% of all the police in England and Wales.

Unsurprisingly the heavy burden, and concentration of policing required for the event, threatens to "displace" crime, trouble and terrorism to other parts of the UK.

The costs of policing will, according to Jacqui Smith Home Secretary, remain "on budget" (whatever that really means) at £600M - unless the terror threat is raised from "severe" to "critical".

Olympic Medals won during the Beijing 2008 Olympics

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Home Office Jeopardises Olympics Security

The Telegraph reports that police are concerned that the failure of the Home Office to deliver a £600M security plan (deadline last September, but postponed to some time in 2010) threatens the security of the 2012 London Olympics.

Given the government's predisposition to harp on about the ongoing terrorist threat, this reluctance to come up with a plan may seem somewhat surprising. However, the Olympics budget (currently £12BN, including £2BN running costs) is out of control and the government is broke.

Quite simply, there is not the money available to cover all aspect of the games. Therefore the government is taking shortcuts within the areas that they hope will not be seen on TV.

The fundamental purpose of the games is to provide the government with a PR "spectacular", all other issues relating to the games will come second.

Olympic Medals won during the Beijing 2008 Olympics

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Torch Trouble

It looks as though there will be trouble as the Olympic torch is carried around the world, in the run up to the Beijing Olympics this August.

Anti China protesters evaded tight security and managed to disrupt yesterday's Olympic torch ceremony, this guarantees that the flame's procession through London in a fortnight's time will be disrupted.

Tenzin Dorjee, a Tibetan activist who was briefly detained during the protest, said:

"Later we will do protests in London and Paris."

Scotland Yard will allocate 2,000 officers and staff, including river, airborne and mounted police, to protect the Olympic flame's journey from Wembley Stadium to Greenwich on April 6.

Human rights activists, supporters of an independent Tibet and critics of China's support for Darfur and Burma are preparing demonstrations along the 31 mile route.

Are the Olympics really worth all this trouble?

Olympic Database

The British police are developing the first national database of mugshots, in order to use face recognition technology to match CCTV images with details of offenders.

The system is being developed as a pilot scheme involving the Lancashire, West Yorkshire and Merseyside police. It has already generated a database of more than 750,000 facial images over the past 18 months.

Are there really that many criminals in that part of the UK?

Peter Neyroud, the chief executive of the National Police Improvement Agency (NPIA), wants the system up and running in time for the 2012 London Olympics.

The system will enable officers on the beat to be equipped with advanced "second-generation" hand-held computers which can take and transmit fingerprints, download mugshots and details from the police national computer, and access images from local CCTV cameras.

Funny how the Olympics are being used as an excuse/deadline for increased surveillance!

Big Brother

The 2012 London Olympics has given the state a rather nice excuse to beef up its surveillance of the general population, by linking up 500,000 CCTV cameras across the capital.

The Metropolitan Police (Met) force wants to pool its 10,000 cameras with traffic and congestion cameras across London.

The network will be operated from a command centre, in London, by military, police and intelligence services.

Assistant commissioner Tarique Ghaffur, Olympic Security Co-ordinator, said:

"Efforts focus on the capabilities we currently have and how these can be used efficiently to make London safer both now and during Games time.

A good example of this is how the current capabilities of various CCTV networks might be harnessed and integrated in London within the current legislative framework, to deliver greater effect in mitigating specific threats as part of the Olympic security effort."

The interesting thing is that even after the Olympics have ended, the command centre would remain in place.

Why?

Olympics Organisers Ban Olympics

In the farce that is the London Olympics 2012, one truth remains self evident; namely that the Olympics are not about sport, but about money.

Nothing demonstrates this point more clearly than the fuss that the London Olympics organisers have caused over a science fiction book by Robert Ronson.

Mr Ronson's crime?

The title he used for his book was "Olympic Mind Games".

The "good people" of the London Olympics decided that this could be viewed as a breach of copyright. In order to squeeze every last drop of money out of the games words such as "Olympics" and "2012" are copyrighted. Therefore, in theory, this site breaches also the copyright, as it liberally uses the word "Olympics".

The organising committee were so angst ridden about Mr Ronson's book, that they sent him an email asking that he desist from using the word "Olympic" and expressions such as "London 2012, or 2012 etc" in the title.

Seemingly the committee has the power to do so under statutes passed in 1995 and 2006. Nonetheless some common sense prevailed in the minds of the Olympic organisers as Ronson refused to kowtow, doubtless fearful of looking totally ridiculous, they have decided that it would be "disproportionate" to prosecute.

It is of course quite ridiculous to attempt to ban the use of words that are listed in dictionaries. Not that it stopped "Big Brother" from doing just that in Orwell's "1984".

Here is a list of banned words for you to savour:

-Olympics
-Olympic
-2012
-London 2012

Enjoy them whist you can, the thought police will be coming soon to stop you reading them; unless of course a nice fat fee has been paid first!

Fake Off!

Beware the conmen and scammers who congregate around the Olympics, like flies around shit.

Police in southern China have arrested a man for running a fake Beijing 2008 Olympics website, that scammed people by running bogus contests.

Computer engineer Liao Peigui made $53K after persuading "winners" to first transfer a deposit equal to 10-20% of the promised prize money into a bank account that he owned.

Liao had "cloned" the official website of the Beijing Olympic organising committee, known as BOCOG; thus it appeared genuine to the unsuspecting.

Scamming is endemic on the web, as this site demonstrates www.stupidpunts.net

I Am Sailing

The cost of policing Olympic events in Dorset, for the 2012 Olympics, is estimated to be at least £21M.

Dorset police have submitted a request to the government to foot the bill for the security needed for the sailing events for the 2012 London Olympics.

Needless to say, there is quite a difference between asking and receiving!

Annette Brooke, Lib Dem MP for Mid-Dorset and North Poole, said:

"My greatest concern is to make sure this does come from central funds allocated for the Olympic Games and most of all that Dorset Police has the money up front.

It's going to be such a huge proportion of their overall budget."

A spokeswoman for Dorset Police said, without apparent irony:

"We can confirm a bid of £21m has been put forward to the Home Office but this has not yet been approved and we are not expecting approval anytime soon. These things take a considerable period of time."

Quite!

Olympic Catalyst for Abuse

Amnesty International has issued a report warning that as China prepares to host the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the preparations are in fact acting as a "catalyst" for worsening abuses of human rights.

Amnesty notes that there is now an extensive use of detention-without-trial by police, and an increase in the persecution of civil-rights activists.

Amnesty also notes that new methods are being deployed to rein in the domestic media and censor the internet.

They ask that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) should raise the issue with the Chinese government.

"The IOC cannot want an Olympics that is tainted with human rights abuses....the Olympics is apparently acting as a catalyst to extend the use of detention without trial".

China has not yet responded to the report. However, in the past it has stated that it is fulfilling all the commitments made in its bid for the games and has accused Amnesty of being biased against the Chinese government.

Giselle Davies, an IOC spokeswoman, said that the governing body would "want to take the time to digest it before making any further reaction".

Amnesty may do well to remember that the pace of economic and social change in China needs to be managed with care, lest there be a total fragmentation of society. To blame the Olympics for everything that Amnesty disapproves of is maybe far too simplistic.