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| Britain |
| He is upset, but I feel safer |
| 2011-10-06 |
| Oxford University PhD student mistaken for jacket wallah after going for run in weights vest An Oxford University was mistaken for a suicide bomber as he jogged around the city's streets - wearing a weighted vest. Â Armed police stopped the Iranian man after reports of a suicide bomber, only to discover he was a jogger wearing an exercise vest. The suspect was ordered to stop running, put his hands in the air and drop everything as officers approached him. The officers carefully took off the heavily padded vest and searched it, looking for explosives and a detonator. However, if you can't say something nice about a person some juicy gossip will go well... they found the Oxford University PhD student was wearing a training vest loaded with weights for added resistance when running. Used by the likes of Prince Harry for his Armed Forces trek to the Arctic, the weight vest is becoming a popular exercise accessory. Iranian student Goudarz Karimi said he was shocked by the police response even after they realised he was not a suicide bomber. He said he had gone out for a jog on Monday afternoon and was confronted by the armed response team in Southfield Road, East Oxford. Mr Karimi said: 'They told me "Stop! Stop! Put your hands in the air. Drop everything you have". The police removed my weight vest and examined it. They started asking questions: "What are you doing?" They said they had a report of someone walking in a bomb suit. There were police cars and the street was blocked.' The 25-year-old was then made to remove the 30kg vest so officers could check it for explosives. He said that when they realised it was an exercise vest they advised him to remove it to prevent any another call from a terrified member of the public. 'They told me I'd have to take my vest off, I didn't want to provoke anything else and that's why I put my jacket over it.' Mr Karimi said he feared his ethnic origin had sparked the concerns.'I am 100 per cent sure that if I was blond with Caucasian skin type, nobody would have noticed and said anything about it. But I'm of dark skin complexion and from Iran and I'm sure that's related to it,' he said. He said officers advised him not to wear it in the street in future but Thames Valley Police dispute this. Mr Karimi, who is studying for a PhD in physiology, anatomy and genetics at Oxford University, said: 'I felt a bit like my rights were violated. The police told me to take my vest off and to go home and I don't see why I should. 'The point is the first time they stopped me, they asked me not to walk there anymore. They said "maybe it's better somewhere else, like in a park". 'Then later, when I wanted to do another round of the block and I was walking near the police car, the police officer said "You've got to stop". 'I said "I've not finished my work-out" and he explicitly said "Take off your vest".' Mr Karimi said that was when he covered the vest with his coat. Superintendent Amanda Pearson, of Thames Valley Police, said: 'Police received a call from a member of the public who was concerned about a man walking in Southfield Road, with what he thought was a vest which may have contained explosives. Officers attended and spoke to the man, who explained he was wearing a weight vest for personal training reasons. The vest was checked and officers confirmed this was the case and there was no need for public alarm. 'While I appreciate that in this case being stopped and checked by the officers may have been unsettling to the gentlemen concerned, the officers were responding to a call from a member of the public who had a genuine concern and police are duty bound to investigate any calls of this nature to ensure public safety. 'In order to stop any further calls from members of the public, the gentleman was asked to put his coat on, which he agreed to do. There was no legal requirement for the gentleman to put on his jacket and he did not have to do so.' She added: 'The officers have to weigh up a number of factors to determine if a stop and search is proportionate, and justified, and the decision to stop and search would not be made on ethnicity alone and wasn't in this case.' |
| Posted by:trailing wife |
| #12 In my experience the Shia don't explode all that often. Only because the Shia are sitting back and enjoying the fight between Sunnis and civilized people. Ask that question in the 1980's. |
| Posted by: Eohippus Phater7165 2011-10-06 20:26 |
| #11 In my experience the Shia don't explode all that often. The Sunni seem to be more volatile at room temperature. |
| Posted by: Secret Master 2011-10-06 18:03 |
| #10 To put it into proper perspective, imagine it weren't Muslims, but Jews, who adopted a tactic of suicide booming. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2011-10-06 17:04 |
| #9 Won't do his knees any good. |
| Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 2011-10-06 14:45 |
| #8 If he's so intelligent (an Oxford University PhD student), then he should have and no doubt did figure out what the consequences of his actions would be. This is just another in a long list of contrived grievences from the usual suspects. |
| Posted by: Pollyandrew 2011-10-06 14:24 |
| #7 He shouldn't be annoyed at the cops. He should be annoyed at his co-religionists who put on suicide vests--looking a great deal like weight vests--and kill people. If it weren't for them, the cops would have no interest in him. BTW, as an aging jock, I wonder if the cumulative trauma of running in a weight vest is going to have him sounding like a bowl of Rice Krispies before his time. |
| Posted by: Richard Aubrey 2011-10-06 09:40 |
| #6 Police are entirely justified. 6-Jun 2009, Bristol: Doctor's son 'kept suicide vest and turned his bedroom into bomb factory' 24-Apr 2007, West London: Raids on the homes of three men found material "useful to a person preparing or committing an act of terrorism", a court has been told. It included instructions on making a suicide vest, explosives and poisons. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2011-10-06 09:18 |
| #5 Surely he was innocent but he shouldn't be playing up the victim role either. He was jogging around with what looked like a suicide vest and the bronze has a responsibility to check up on that sort of thing when they are called the same way they would be if anyone was running around in a way that scared people. Yes the people should be better informed, should have gotten a better view of the vest before calling, but its not as if folks aren't blowing up buses and other things. The fear is legitimate and a decent citizen should accept that and move on. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2011-10-06 08:51 |
| #4 Nah. Just a guy jogging with a weight vest. Honestly, when they realized it was a guy jogging with a weight vest, they should have said "have a nice day" and left, not offered him advice about where he should and shouldn't go. |
| Posted by: Secret Master 2011-10-06 02:43 |
| #3 Test runs to acclimate the local Cop Contingent? |
| Posted by: USN, Ret. 2011-10-06 02:21 |
| #2 Profiled or not, better 1 inconvienenced than 100 dead. |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2011-10-06 01:11 |
| #1 When ALICE Packs filled heavy Rocks, Wood, or your Family's Rice-Bag-Supply-for-the Month just won't suffice. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2011-10-06 00:19 |