61 year old man - god what next? Another criminal taken off the streets by Met Police NOT

I used to be in the Met police and several years ago was policing Wimbledon (within the grounds of the Queens Club). I remember the Police Superintendent at the time giving us daily briefings and reminding us that there was a "positive arrest policy". As a consequence you had, as in these instances, law-abiding citizens being searched at the entrances (by a private security company)and being arrested if they were carrying any knives or bladed articles even though they were being carried for a practical use. There is an argument that people should not be carrying such things and should know better. However, I remember an elderly American lady (travelling thousands of miles to have a once-in-a-lifetime holiday) being arrested for carrying a pepper spray. Despite informing the police that she thought it was legal to carry it (where she is from it is legal and females are encouraged to carry them) she was taken away, fingerprinted and had to give a DNA sample. To say she was devastated would be an understatement. The whole experience must have terrified her. She was eventually given a caution but this in itself is still serious. After all, if we wanted to travel to the U.S with a caution under our name we could be denied entry into the country. I think these actions are completely ridiculous and often cause more harm than good. It is all down to a numbers game that the police and other public sector bodies are obsessed with. Thank God I'm out of it!

The 66 year old man who was arrested for carrying cs spray was arrested under section 5 of the firearms act as cs spray is classed as a firearm. And that is what the American lady would have also been charged with. I worked for the private security firm that do Wimbledon tennis and in 2006 I had a BT guy arrested for carrying a police hasp in his van

"I had a BT guy arrested for carrying a police hasp in his van"

Oh, well done. You are a hero.

All you people having a go at the police should stop and read the last paragraph of the article again.

The knives found were LOCK KNIVES, which are illegal in this country. You carry one, you take the consequences.

Yeah - I'm with Jock. I think the quote marks around the words "cutlery" and "picnic" are probably there for a reason. Ignore those quote marks, and you could easily jump to the conclusion that the article is trying to imply that the "offenders" have done nothing wrong.

Let's not read things into the article that aren't actually there.

It's news to me that American women are encouraged to carry pepper spray around. There was me thinking that although New York may have been more violent than London in the mid 20th century, it's been the other way round more recently. Then again, perhaps I'm wrong. Maybe London is safer than New York after all.

i always laugh at the guys on the gate at wimbldeon. so think they are the flying squad

last year they tried to stop me coming in with an aircompressor. they didnt even give me an excuse as to why even though i need it for my job.

so i walked up to the next gate and they let me in. then wheeled it back past the first gate....lol

Wimbledon is an event which attracts hundreds of people. Therefore, it is important that people are prevented from carrying in anythig which could remotely be considered suspect. Police have definitely done the right thing here. Had they not done it and had someone been attacked with a knife (we keep reading about horrific knife attacks), there would have been an enormous hoo-hah about why had police not stopped people from coming in with knives! Either way, police can never win. I think we should praise them.