What an earth is suspicious? He was filming not a crime ,if they believe it is to them that is their problem, he was not filming alleyways doors etc if as you say you watched he filmed the town as an example the skeletons in the wimpy and the lady statue . He was minding his own business.
As i said before they can ask him ,why should he answer its none of their business would you answer just because you were walking down the street and they thought that was suspicious you may want to live in a police state i don't. They seemed to think they had some sort of authority of him as he said they are nobodies asking for his name or should i say demanding it saying it was a offence is laughable retraining is needed .
You call it arrogance or being obstructive i call it standing up for his rights as for walking away that was exactly what they did when told too by someone above them.
We have (rightly) NEVER had complete freedom to do as we please - which you seem to be suggesting is a long-held inalienable right. 500 years ago, a stranger poking his nose around the village was going to be met with a few questions! A century ago, the Bobby on the beat would have been asking “What’s going on here then sir?” And if you said that you have the right to remain silent - I don’t think it would have got you very far.
I think you’re harking back to a nostalgic time that was never really there.
I think basically we just hold different opinions about the definition of “suspicious”. I do fully understand your opinion - and to be honest, for much of my life, I would have almost entirely agreed - I have always been among the last to accept today’s Big Brother society- and still don’t.
But definitions of “suspicious” change - as the technology and criminal tactics and threats change.
If some bloke comes down my street today and he’s filming my next-door neighbour going about their daily routine - and appearing to focus on entrances and open upstairs windows above the garage - then proceeds down the back ginnel filming the backs of houses down the street- you might say that’s filming and not illegal but it’s bloody suspicious - and I want a policeman to have the power to investigate.
Those officers in that town won’t have known for sure what was on his film - Wimpy, or whatever. For a town centre, I would say it was reasonable to have decided to ask a polite question. If he’d given an even remotely polite answer, then he, the officers and the citizens of that town could have just have just rested easy and enjoyed their day.
Reacting the way he did - it just slowly escalated suspicions to the point where it would be negligent to just let him carry on without some sort of further check.
