But what if you're not a journalist?

David Mery finally gets his apology. I wrote about it here 3 years ago.

It's frightening - and daunting - that it takes a journalist nearly 4 years of bureaucratic and legal rodeo to get an apology for an unlawful arrest, after being stopped and searched under the terrorism act, arrested for 'public nuisance' (for looking suspicious) having his DNA sampled, his home raided, and his belongings confiscated.

It took 4 years even though he's a journalist and the incident was widely publicised. It took 4 years even though the police clearly realised, from the very beginning, that he was totally innocent.