I am very, very worried.

[xochitl42]

A friend of mine attends Eton (yes, that Eton). We've been keeping in touch, and he's been relating some very, very alarming things of late.

On Friday, he sent me this:
Signs are going up everywhere in Windsor and Eton saying that the area has come under a "Dispersion Zone" and groups of over three people are liable to be dispersed by the

Comments

[koga]

Unarmed population long used to the encroachment of government in to its life from overly invasive councils to more CCTV cameras than any other nation...

What do you expect?

[eye_of_a_cat]

Hey, now - I'm British, and we don't quite see the link between gun control and Nineteen Eighty-Four! I wouldn't worry just yet.

As for the news - I haven't heard this either, and find it very odd. 'Dispersal zones' are short-term acts that occasionally get put in place in areas where gangs of kids/teenagers are causing trouble; they give police more powers in that area than they'd usually have (they can take under-16s back home if they're there after 9pm - there's a BBC Q&A on them here, anyway). I don't like the idea because there's already too much demonisation of teenagers, but there's certainly nothing about armed police or random arrests in anything I've ever heard about these. And armed police are a pretty unusual thing here. I've only ever seen them at airports. I suppose there might well be some around Windsor Castle as a matter of routine - if they're out on the streets, maybe there's been some kind of Royal-related security threat?

[koga]

Well, to be fair, the right to bear arms -was- one of the reasons we had a civic disagreement a few hundred years back.

But, that said, I was being mostly sarcastic. :)

[eye_of_a_cat]

Heh, no worries! I've had some very odd internet conversations over the years with Americans convinced my country is on the brink of tyranny. The flip side of this is people like a colleague of my dad's, who warned him not to go and visit New York because 'they all have guns in America and you'll get shot!' Wow, it's amazing any tourists make it home alive ;)

[doctor_toc]

"Dispersal Zones" (not "Dispersion Zones", which might be what's defeating your google-fu) are nothing new; they're temporary areas where the police have the right to break up groups of people and move them along at their discretion. It's legal boiler-plate designed to cover what most US cops do by saying "nothing to see here, move along". They're used to break up groups of drunks mainly.

Armed police are often seen on the streets of Windsor when the Royal Family are in residence at the Castle. There's been absolutely nothing about any unusual activity in the news so far. Given the nature of Brits (we love to complain), were anything odd happening, we'd all know about it.

As for the arrest yesterday? Hmmm, police pulling someone over on a Saturday. I'm guessing he was drunk, mouthed off to the cop and got discretely collared. Students are so excitable these days.