Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

Ironic that after yesterday's post, today I should have to say that 2006 certainly hasn't started off giving me what I wish for. Swingeing new police powers now mean that you can be arrested for just about anything, however trivial - indeed worse than that, on suspicion of just about anything. And search warrants can now cover multiple searches at different times and places. Ye Gods, what sort of country is this fair land of ours turning into? Don't I trust the Police then? Well, only to the same extent that I trust any large organisation. It is inevitable that there will be good policemen and bad policemen, but the ones you really have to watch out for are the ambitious policemen, who see everything in terms of their own career, and who will assess these new powers, as they assess everything, in terms of how they can be used to help get their feet on the next rung of the ladder. They are not neccessarily bad people, but by God, they can be dangerous, and these new powers will simply make them that more dangerous.