Police forces and the government are taking those extra steps, trying to exclude those who voice opposition to animal abuse from society.

This became even more evident when police officers recently stopped and searched people in the North of the UK who they believed to be animal rights activists for simply being in a shopping centre, with no reasonable grounds to suspect a crime had, or could be potentially be committed; other than that which they stated on the stop/search forms - "Grounds: Susp. Animal Rights Activists"

The four police officers and three Community Support Officers obviously tried to embarrass the 'suspect campaigners' by looking through their outer clothing and taking details in open view of the
public, before proceeding to escort and evict them from the shopping centre.
...
Animal rights campaigners cannot even step into a shopping centre without being stopped, searched, harassed and bullied by those in uniform.

National Extremism Tactical Coordination Unit-Watch
- Homepage: http://www.vivisection.info/netcu_watch

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full story:
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/12/358309.html