Our obsession with crime is crushing our freedoms

[martin]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/sep/07/justice.police
" Children as young as eight are among 5,000 private citizens across the country recruited as paid 'covert human intelligences sources'.
The speed with which our dear, familiar democracy is vanishing under the weight of totalitarian pettiness is appalling and one wonders when this easygoing nation will rise against the trends set so blithely by that authoritarian basket case Tony Blair and continued by mediocrities such as Hazel Blears and Jacqui Smith"

[dhaslam]

That is just dreadful.   There has been a similar rise in petty officialdom in Ireland but sometimes there can be a bit of a twist to it.  Some time ago a person living in a block of flats locally phoned the council about rubbish spilled from plastic bags outside his flat.  A  man arrived from the council and because there was  no one else around to blame  he fined the person who reported it.

[martin]

we may laugh, but it really is appalling - a short while ago, a couple were spied on using anti-terrorist legislation by their local council because it was suspected that they lived outside a school catchment area
We are sleepwalking into a police state - to use "civilian informers" is actually a genuine Gestapo tactic - in a short while nobody trusts anybody else - they may be a government spy!

[MR GUS]

 simply asking for out & out violence for being so impertinantly stupid, if I was threatened by one of these informers I think I'd actually have to beat them up & their parents just to drive a point home!

[KenB]

Martin,

They are only trying to find jobs for the useless forkers that made up the population the Golgafrinchan Middle Ship B.

Ken

[NickW]

Ok - I read this the other day and did I laugh.

A bit political I know but what the hell.

Dear Labour Voters

We meet at last. It’s been 11 years and you’ve enjoyed every moment, haven’t you?

You had flip all but weren’t happy watching others get on, so you voted for the grinning slimeball who offered you something for nothing, didn’t you? Guess who got rich? You or him?

I digress. Let’s get back to you lot. All 9 million of you. How are things? Still smiling? You’ve had 11 years to make the best of it. So let’s look at what you have achieved. All 9 million of you.

Whilst you’ve been enjoying cheap credit, the rest of us have noticed that we don’t actually own our country anymore. Whilst you’ve been enjoying hot tubs, 4x4’s, gas fired BBQ’s, nail studios, the hairdressers and trying to keep up with the Beckhams, the Magna Carta has been torn to shreds and thrown away. Whilst little Tyson has been riding around on his Argos 27.9% APR financed BMX, 900 years of British History has been shat on.

Ever wondered why you don’t have a villa in Tuscany? Ever wondered why everyone else takes holidays in the Caribbean whilst you go to Menorca?

It’s because you are thick and lazy. And along came a Party that told you being thick and lazy was no good reason for you NOT to have what they had.

You stupid, stupid female private parts (FPP). Guess where Tony Blair is now? Do you think he is drawing the curtains on his two bed terraced house, full with M&S trinkets, to hide from the postman? Like you are? Do you think he wakes at 5am, shitting it that the bailiffs will be there at 11 to take away his new Nissan?

Cut to the chase. You’re up to your goosing eyes in it. £20K, £30K on the plastic? Tax credits aren’t going to help pay that are they? Overtime’s going to be cut because there’s a recession coming. Oooppps. That’s what been paying the minimum due every month, isn’t it? Whilst you’ve been buying sovereign rings, Tag Heuers and Tescos Finest to impress your parents, the party that promised you a shot at being loaded without doing anything has fecked it all up. And guess who is going to pay?

I know your parents were hard up. I know you grew up with flip all. I know your parents couldn’t give a shoo about getting you through school properly. They were too busy wife swapping or down the bingo or social. I know you laughed at your teachers.

Guess what?

You’re FeCKED. Totally, properly FeCKED. You are going to lose your houses, cars, plasmas, koi carp and Nikes. Think your parents were hard up? Just goosing wait six months. You will KNOW what a diet of pasta and ketchup tastes like. No more Dominoes Pizza in front of the Simpsons on Sky, no more Tandooris. Get your fat, lazy arses in the kitchen and goosing cook something. Your kids will hate you as their PS3’s head over to Cash Converters, your wife will hate you as you trade in her Louis Vuitton handbag and you will hate yourself when you take a carrier bag out to the car to clear the glove compartment as the bailiff waits.

I hate all 9 million of you. I wish you all the plagues of hell. I want to see the four horsemen of the apocalypse in your Next furnished living room.

In your greedy, petty little pursuit of free “stuff” you allowed MY country, MY rights and MY life to be turned over by a bunch of goosing snake oil salesman.

I hope it costs you everything, you shites. I can handle 9 million suicides, and frankly with no major wars, there’s no other way we’ll get rid of you FPP's.


flip off and die.

[KenB]

Nick,

Looks like the language filter is having a day off!

I suggest you tone this down a bit before it's pulled. There might be 8 year old council informers reading this. 

See you next Tuesday!



Ken

[NickW]

Thanks Ken - I assumed it would do it for me!

[stephend]

Some of the Met's anti-terror campaigns are just insane, e.g. their war on photography: http://www.boingboing.net/2008/03/04/london-cops-declare.html

...and these were quickly remixed:
http://boingboing.net/2008/03/05/remixing-the-london.html  

[martin]

Nick - even the cleaned-up version is excellent!
and as for the Boingboing thing................








and must admit rather prefer the 60 year old way of dealing with terrorism