Bullet proof vests for sale

On my ride to work I often pass Dallas Clothing, a slightly odd clothing store in Whitechapel.  I say it's odd because the entrance is a small doorway that leads to what I assume to be a shop in a windowless area above a beauty saloon called Afreen.

This morning, I noticed a sign on the door advertising bullet proof vests and gloves.  Call me an old cynic, but I can only think of one reason that you'd want to be buying bullet proof vests and that is because you are somebody closely associated with gun crime... in which case, I wonder whether simply leaving a store that sells such equipment would provide reasonable grounds for a stop and search under s. 1 PACE?

Comments

  1. RogerBW19 April 2011 at 12:34

    For values of "closely associated" that include "worried that you will catch a stray bullet when the local dealers are having a barney on your patch".

    Or of course "a person with non-white skin who has to come within a mile of the Metropolitan Police".

    ReplyDelete
  2. A.J. Wimble19 April 2011 at 12:35

    Or maybe you just work in a shop that has been robbed at gunpoint recently and are afraid of it happening again

    ReplyDelete
  3. Defence Brief19 April 2011 at 15:59

    RogerBW, Just so we are clear, that shop was in London, not the wild west or some kind of apartheid state. I've lived in London all my life and have never been shot at despite spending much of my time in the poorer drug ridden parts of the city.

    AJ Wimble, I didn't say there were no reasons for having such an item lawfully, merely wondered whether it might give grounds for a stop and search... although I wonder how many shop workers do wear bullet proof vests in London? I bet it's not that many.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous22 April 2011 at 09:13

    I would have thought that the Firearms Act 1968 S47 would be more appropriate than S1 PACE.

    Anyhow, I'd certainly find someone wearing a bullet proof vest in public that isn't a copper or security guard highly suspect and therefore they would be subject of a search.

    I arrested a drug dealer once who had a bullet proof vest at his house, he said in interview that it was because he got jumped a few years ago. Sadly CPS saw no value in it so on to the MG6C it went.

    ReplyDelete

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