Sus Law: Difference between revisions

The Vagrancy Act of 1824, informally called the "Sus Law", allowed police officers in England to stop, search, and even arrest anyone they liked on the basis of suspicion alone. The Act, the short title for which was "An Act for the Punishment of idle and disorderly Persons, and Rogues and Vagabonds, in England", did not apply to Scotland.

 

 

Outside of children's television, this trope is basically unheard of in the United States, possibly because Americans have enough cultural awareness of police abuses to put this beyond the [[Willing Suspension of Disbelief]]: that sort of thing is considered either to cross the line into fantasy territory (''[[The Simpsons]]'', for example) or to be [[Corrupt Hick|a genuinely sinister situation]] on U.S. TV, but not across [[The Pond]]. Meanwhile, in 2008, at least two UK political parties are promising to free the police of accountability and restore their power to arrest whomever they <s> like</s> don't like whenever they like.

{{examples}}

* Happens in several episodes of ''[[Are You Being Served?|Are You Being Served]]'', including an instance of Mr. Rumbold refusing to vouch for the staff to get revenge. Mr. Humphries was once detained for having a "suspicious-looking bulge" from an orange in his pocket.