I searched, but couldn't find a thred on this so... From slashdot Link So for those of you in the UK; have you heard this? Is this old news? What do you think about this?
i've certainly never seen it, those articles make it look like everywhere does it. i'd say birmingham is a major city but i havent seen anywhere doing it
I've never experienced this. Mind you, I've not gone to the pub on a regular basis for months now. Most of the pubs and clubs where I live are rubbish, so apart from the occasional venture to Manchester, Leeds, or to a techno party somewhere, I stay in
So whenever you go into a pub? You need to be fingerprinted before you can buy a pint? Does anyone else see an issue with this?
It's been on trial in Yeovil since feb iirc, basically whenever ya enter a club or pub you get your fingerprint scanned and it checks that you haven't been banned from anywhere else nearby. Not sure whether I like the idea or not tbh, has it's plus and it's minuses.
Been to a few clubs up in Nottingham where they have a device that scans your hand(s) to see if you've touched any drugs etc.. If it shows up anything as Class A (Coke, Heroin, XTC etc..) then you get taken into a meat wagon and strip searched. "Bend over please, this won't hurt a bit!"
It would be a good idea to keep the jerks out but you still see them when you go to Dennys to sober up later. When someone starts a fight it kinda kills the mood.
Yeah, I have a problem with this. Basically, it treats everyone as a potential criminal. I would say that people should be up in arms about this and boycotting any pub that has implemented these systems, but unfortunalty it doesn's seem to be happening.
Exactly, this places the burden of proof of innocence on the individual. I hate stuff like this. Strangely, I'm quite sure that I wouldn't mind nearly as much if it was a chain or corporation doing it. At least then people have a choice, and you know corps are regulated by laws, and are more professional in the way they handle data then the government. The government I especially don't trust with stuff like this. It can only be a matter of a decade or so before the government has these finger prints going onto a central database, tied with other stuff. It saddens me that people are accepting this without even realising that there might be an issue.
Never been in a fight at a pub - never involved in drink related abuse of any kind. If I got asked to be fingerprinted at a bar I would be personally offended at being thrown in with a bunch of yobs. While I see its merits I would just vote for another party at the next election, or not at all - when people start treating me like a criminal for going to the pub then that person loses my respect. edit: of course this could never actually happen - a large proportion of the population will drink at a pub at some point during the year and the riot would be huge. Students, bums, normal people, criminals, the elderly - all united under the common goal of storming downing street. It would be anarchy, it would be decisive, and it would be swift.
The police here had a similar device to check for drugs, that relies on a swab taken from the palm of your hand. Of course, its not anything like 100% accurate and the time I was asked to take the test, I failed, apparently for traces of heroin ! Thankfully I wasn't arrested, though I was threatened with it, and upon retaking and passing the test, because (shock! horror!) I am not a heroin addict, I was allowed into the place I was going...without so much as an apology from the police.
So if you brush by someone in the street, touch something someone else has, like a door handle, then you're ****ed? Too many things now are changing around to be burden of innocence rather than absolute proof: like some on the spot fines or speeding tickets.
No but everyone holds cash in their hand mushky, and forensics people can find traces of coke on something like 99.9% of all bank notes. If you get unlucky then you could have a £20 note in your hand that someone used for snorting a few lines the day before. Tests for drugs like the one Will mentioned are ridiculous. Sometimes I think the police come up with these things without actually realising how much it perverts the rule of law and peoples rights.
Yeah we have that here too. The US scanning fingerprints at customs I can understand... (more to the point, I just wasn't in a position to argue) but.. at pubs/bars/clubs?? I think that's going a little far. It's not right.
