We keep on warning people about what is happening; this sleepwalking into a police state and that the authorities won't let go of their powers too easily.
Here is a piece from an online news site which underlines what we here at MAD have been saying.
Captain Gatso
Faced with the quickening pace of technological development Ministers have claim that their election pledge to roll back the surveillance state will make it increasingly difficult to prevent such measures from becoming commonplace.
The warnings coincides with publication of consultation on plans for a code of practice to govern the introduction of such technologies, which includes giving the public the right to take councils to court if they believe CCTV surveillance is becoming too intrusive.
The Protection of Freedoms Bill will see a new Security Camera Commissioner established to vet a new breed of HD, 360 degree vision, zoom lens cameras equipped with facial recognition software didn’t overstep the mark.
Unmanned aerial drones were also looked at with the report stating “ there is scope for their unchecked proliferation and attendant risks if they are not considered within any overarching strategy”.
There are presently four million CCTV cameras in operation in the UK – one for every 14 citizens.
You need to read that last line again. We have more cameras than anywhere else on earth - why? And most of those cameras are sited in cities so the figure per person is sure to be horrific.
They aren't there to detect or prevent crime.
Showing posts with label police state. Show all posts
Showing posts with label police state. Show all posts
Wednesday, 2 March 2011
Thursday, 1 July 2010
Why the Police in the UK do not respect freedom or democracy
People keep telling me that I'm wrong on the Police State UK.
But the evidence keeps piling up. The problem is that the rozzers either don't understand the law - or keep on making it up as they go along.
Here are two cases from this week alone which illustrate why these clowns can do what they do without EVER being sacked.
Democracy? Bring it - it should make for a nice change in this country.
Case number 1:
Read how the police overstep the mark and then push a 15-year-old down some steps because he - RIGHTLY - tries to tell them what the law is: Journalism and this Hackney news site.
Here's the best bit for me:
Director of Big Brother Watch Alex Deane told Journalism.co.uk it would support Mattsson in any future cases against the police.
"Some officers think that anti-terror legislation gives them blanket powers to hassle people whenever they want," he says. "This case is a very bad example of that. Confronted by bullying policemen, acting entirely outside their powers, this young man admirably stood up for himself and rightly maintained that he was entitled to take pictures in a public place. The police should apologise immediately and admit that they were in the wrong."
Case number 2:
Journalists win payout after police admit failing to respect press freedom - The Guardian
Watch this idiot in action. They really don't care about freedoms do they? Can they really believe it's always 'us and them'. At this rate it soon will be.
Captain Gatso
But the evidence keeps piling up. The problem is that the rozzers either don't understand the law - or keep on making it up as they go along.
Here are two cases from this week alone which illustrate why these clowns can do what they do without EVER being sacked.
Democracy? Bring it - it should make for a nice change in this country.
Case number 1:
Read how the police overstep the mark and then push a 15-year-old down some steps because he - RIGHTLY - tries to tell them what the law is: Journalism and this Hackney news site.
Here's the best bit for me:
Director of Big Brother Watch Alex Deane told Journalism.co.uk it would support Mattsson in any future cases against the police.
"Some officers think that anti-terror legislation gives them blanket powers to hassle people whenever they want," he says. "This case is a very bad example of that. Confronted by bullying policemen, acting entirely outside their powers, this young man admirably stood up for himself and rightly maintained that he was entitled to take pictures in a public place. The police should apologise immediately and admit that they were in the wrong."
Case number 2:
Journalists win payout after police admit failing to respect press freedom - The Guardian
Watch this idiot in action. They really don't care about freedoms do they? Can they really believe it's always 'us and them'. At this rate it soon will be.
Captain Gatso
Sunday, 13 December 2009
Drivers’ personal details handed to EU
Please believe me when I say we now live in a police state.
Your privacy is no longer an issue - anyone in Europe can find things out about you.
There's going to be a few people being chased for committing minor motoring offences from years ago - shame we don't have the same enthusiasm to chase foreign offenders.
This is in the Sunday Times:
Drivers’ personal details handed to EU
The personal details of nearly 40m UK motorists will be open to abuse when they are “automatically” trawled by foreign states, an internal police report has admitted.
Sensitive information such as a driver’s address, motoring convictions and medical history will be exposed to routine sifting by police, traffic wardens and other officials across Europe when European Union data-sharing plans come into force in 2011.
The “restricted” document raises fears that foreign traffic police and other bureaucrats on the continent will be able to hunt down British tourists years after they return home for reasons such as unpaid parking fines.
Read more
Your privacy is no longer an issue - anyone in Europe can find things out about you.
There's going to be a few people being chased for committing minor motoring offences from years ago - shame we don't have the same enthusiasm to chase foreign offenders.
This is in the Sunday Times:
Drivers’ personal details handed to EU
The personal details of nearly 40m UK motorists will be open to abuse when they are “automatically” trawled by foreign states, an internal police report has admitted.
Sensitive information such as a driver’s address, motoring convictions and medical history will be exposed to routine sifting by police, traffic wardens and other officials across Europe when European Union data-sharing plans come into force in 2011.
The “restricted” document raises fears that foreign traffic police and other bureaucrats on the continent will be able to hunt down British tourists years after they return home for reasons such as unpaid parking fines.
Read more
Thursday, 12 February 2009
Every email and call will be stored under new law
So, let's get this straight. The threat of 'terrorism' (still not defined) has led to the potential introduction of this law. So why do we allow 650 public bodies access to the data? Why have councils and sneaks got the right to access the data whenever they want to?
This is a huge intrusion into a persons private life and another nail in the coffin of democracy. I keep saying that we aren't heading to a police state because it is already here.
It's just unbelievable.
From a newspaper today:
Phone and internet firms will be forced to store for a year records of any call, email or website visit in the UK, under a law quietly introduced last night.
Taxpayers will pay £46.58million so that police, the security services, health authorities and even town halls will have the right to access their 'communications' records.
The cash is to compensate companies for the cost of storing records on around a billion pieces of information every day and the expense of supplying this information to all bodies covered by the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000.
This is a huge intrusion into a persons private life and another nail in the coffin of democracy. I keep saying that we aren't heading to a police state because it is already here.
It's just unbelievable.
From a newspaper today:
Phone and internet firms will be forced to store for a year records of any call, email or website visit in the UK, under a law quietly introduced last night.
Taxpayers will pay £46.58million so that police, the security services, health authorities and even town halls will have the right to access their 'communications' records.
The cash is to compensate companies for the cost of storing records on around a billion pieces of information every day and the expense of supplying this information to all bodies covered by the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000.
Thursday, 5 February 2009
Cameras, not coppers
Below is a post by Hilton Holloway from Autocar. He writes very well and examines the news about police not enforcing minor traffic violations.
Hope you don't mind Hilton, but I'm going to 'cut and paste' your blog here for everyone to read.
Many thanks Hilton. We need more people like you to stand up and explain why this move is so very dangerous.
When will the rest of us take to the streets?
Hilton's blog:
It’s said that the UK has the highest concentration of CCTV cameras in the world. Some estimates say we have 4.2m CCTV cameras – one for every 14 people. Walk through central London and you could be caught on camera 300 times in a single day.
Well, in the last two days the creeping automation of the policing of everyday life took another couple of significantly leaps forward.
Press reports on Tuesday said the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) had given the go-ahead for the rollout of Specs average speed cameras in urban areas. The cameras will be used in new 20mph zones, which many in local London politics have been lobbying hard for.
Perhaps the one glimmer of good news is that the cameras will be used in place of speed humps, which, the anti-car brigade suddenly now agree, lead to huge increases in local pollution and noise. Even so, as any experienced driver knows, sticking exactly to a 20mph limit on a narrow, urban street will not be easy. Avoiding a fine will become a serious issue.
But there’s even worse news. Last night it was revealed that the Metropolitan Police have been stripped of their powers to deal with offences involving major road signs. These include such things as ignoring ‘one way’ and ‘no right and left turn’ signs.
Although drivers can be stopped and ‘advised’, the Police can no longer give a ‘formal warning’ or take any ‘reporting action’.
Apparently, powers to prosecute (ie send out big fat fines) now lies with Transport for London and London local authorities, who will use the extensive CCTV camera network to scan the streets.
Understandably, some coppers are hoping mad. As I pointed a few days ago, Traffic Police make a major contribution to road safety by stopping drivers on the spot and issuing strong words of advice or a ticket. And Traffic Cops have a huge success rate in uncovering other wrong doing, thanks to their instinct for dodgy cars and dodgy driving.
But instead of experienced officers, exercising professional judgment, Britain is going to be policed by unthinking 9-5, civilian camera operators whose idea of car crime will be illegal left turns. Will the cameras be able to breathalyse drivers? Stop drugged drivers? Pull over tailgaters?
Years ago, parking offences were handled by the Police. Then the whole system was hived off to civilian operatives who needed to hand out fines in order to pay their own wages and raise money for the council coffers. In short order, parking enforcement went from keeping the traffic flowing to an expensive game of cat and mouse.
Indeed, if you want an example of the current policy-maker’s hatred of drivers, consider this. A parking fine in London for overstaying by 3-4 minutes can easily be £80. Well, a couple of years ago, the law on shop lifting was changed so that anybody caught with less than £250’s worth of stolen goods would get an automatic, on the spot fine of…£80.
But I’ll finish by giving you the most chilling example of law-enforcement by robotic cameras and robotic people. In June 2007 terrorists packed two E-Class Mercs with gas tanks and parked one in London’s Haymarket and one in the adjacent street. The Haymarket bomb was spotted by an ambulance driver at around 1.30am and the area evacuated.
However, the other Merc was ticketed by a parking warden, then quickly towed off and stored at the huge Park Lane underground car park.
The traffic wardens and tow truck drivers clearly didn’t watch the news because, even though the car was parked outside because it smelt of petrol, they didn’t call the Police. The cops eventually tracked the second Merc-bomb down the following afternoon.
And still the policy makers would rather have cameras instead of coppers.
Mind how you go.
Keep up with the comments: http://autocar.co.uk/blogs/anythinggoes/archive/2009/02/05/cameras-not-coppers.aspx
Hope you don't mind Hilton, but I'm going to 'cut and paste' your blog here for everyone to read.
Many thanks Hilton. We need more people like you to stand up and explain why this move is so very dangerous.
When will the rest of us take to the streets?
Hilton's blog:
It’s said that the UK has the highest concentration of CCTV cameras in the world. Some estimates say we have 4.2m CCTV cameras – one for every 14 people. Walk through central London and you could be caught on camera 300 times in a single day.
Well, in the last two days the creeping automation of the policing of everyday life took another couple of significantly leaps forward.
Press reports on Tuesday said the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) had given the go-ahead for the rollout of Specs average speed cameras in urban areas. The cameras will be used in new 20mph zones, which many in local London politics have been lobbying hard for.
Perhaps the one glimmer of good news is that the cameras will be used in place of speed humps, which, the anti-car brigade suddenly now agree, lead to huge increases in local pollution and noise. Even so, as any experienced driver knows, sticking exactly to a 20mph limit on a narrow, urban street will not be easy. Avoiding a fine will become a serious issue.
But there’s even worse news. Last night it was revealed that the Metropolitan Police have been stripped of their powers to deal with offences involving major road signs. These include such things as ignoring ‘one way’ and ‘no right and left turn’ signs.
Although drivers can be stopped and ‘advised’, the Police can no longer give a ‘formal warning’ or take any ‘reporting action’.
Apparently, powers to prosecute (ie send out big fat fines) now lies with Transport for London and London local authorities, who will use the extensive CCTV camera network to scan the streets.
Understandably, some coppers are hoping mad. As I pointed a few days ago, Traffic Police make a major contribution to road safety by stopping drivers on the spot and issuing strong words of advice or a ticket. And Traffic Cops have a huge success rate in uncovering other wrong doing, thanks to their instinct for dodgy cars and dodgy driving.
But instead of experienced officers, exercising professional judgment, Britain is going to be policed by unthinking 9-5, civilian camera operators whose idea of car crime will be illegal left turns. Will the cameras be able to breathalyse drivers? Stop drugged drivers? Pull over tailgaters?
Years ago, parking offences were handled by the Police. Then the whole system was hived off to civilian operatives who needed to hand out fines in order to pay their own wages and raise money for the council coffers. In short order, parking enforcement went from keeping the traffic flowing to an expensive game of cat and mouse.
Indeed, if you want an example of the current policy-maker’s hatred of drivers, consider this. A parking fine in London for overstaying by 3-4 minutes can easily be £80. Well, a couple of years ago, the law on shop lifting was changed so that anybody caught with less than £250’s worth of stolen goods would get an automatic, on the spot fine of…£80.
But I’ll finish by giving you the most chilling example of law-enforcement by robotic cameras and robotic people. In June 2007 terrorists packed two E-Class Mercs with gas tanks and parked one in London’s Haymarket and one in the adjacent street. The Haymarket bomb was spotted by an ambulance driver at around 1.30am and the area evacuated.
However, the other Merc was ticketed by a parking warden, then quickly towed off and stored at the huge Park Lane underground car park.
The traffic wardens and tow truck drivers clearly didn’t watch the news because, even though the car was parked outside because it smelt of petrol, they didn’t call the Police. The cops eventually tracked the second Merc-bomb down the following afternoon.
And still the policy makers would rather have cameras instead of coppers.
Mind how you go.
Keep up with the comments: http://autocar.co.uk/blogs/anythinggoes/archive/2009/02/05/cameras-not-coppers.aspx
Saturday, 29 November 2008
Britain is a police state - OFFICIAL!!
The arrest of Tory MP Damian Green is a shocking act - the police are out of control.
And for Gordon Brown to say he didn't know anything about it is beyond incredible.
Only a clown like Speaker Martin would allow cops to raid the MP's office in Parlament. This is an affront on democracy - but like I've been saying...Labour (or should that be ZANU Labour?) aren't interested in democracy. They don't like critics.
These people know that their days are numbered. Interesting that things like this happen when those snakes Mandelson and Campbell return to the warzone.
So, the front of the Daily Mail (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1090386/Police-state-Britain-MPs-want-protection-arrest-Tory-telling-truths-Labour-didnt-want-know.html) is that Britain is now a police state and MP's want protection. What about the rest of us? We've been putting up with this for years. We have no rights. The police will pursue who they like.
On top of this there's an interesting story in today's Times too. A reporter is put through the criminal process (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article5254372.ece) and it turns out there is no case to answer. Strip searched etc.
She had a copper as a friend and then was 'monitored' illegally by the police. The judge is appalled.
Bizarrely, Article 10 of the European Human Rights convention has protected her. She says she feels 'violated' but I doubt she will be the last. Do the police ever step forward and apologise and promise not to do it again?
Where are you ZANU Labour supporters now? Is this really the Britain you want? You must speak out now - we are teetering on the brink. Labour and the police are out of control.
But don't worry about it - the Socialist Prime Minister Tony Blair is now a multi-millionaire. Nice work if you can get it.
Captain Gatso
The Motorists Friend
http://captaingatso.net
++++++++STOP PRESS ++++++STOP PRESS ++++++STOP PRESS
I have been sent the police equivalent of a 'D Notice' which has been emailed to all of Britain's news editors.
I'm pleased to see that they've all ignored it - except the Labour-supporting papers who can't bring themselves to upset the puppet master. They haven't got the balls to realise they are supporting a bunch of fascist bastards.
Anyway, references to the Contempt of Court Act don't mean anything now - especially now that everyone has published material likely to prejudice a fair trial. Endanger a criminal trial? You bunch of piss-taking amateurs. I hope a few careers get burned over this.
And for Gordon Brown to say he didn't know anything about it is beyond incredible.
Only a clown like Speaker Martin would allow cops to raid the MP's office in Parlament. This is an affront on democracy - but like I've been saying...Labour (or should that be ZANU Labour?) aren't interested in democracy. They don't like critics.
These people know that their days are numbered. Interesting that things like this happen when those snakes Mandelson and Campbell return to the warzone.
So, the front of the Daily Mail (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1090386/Police-state-Britain-MPs-want-protection-arrest-Tory-telling-truths-Labour-didnt-want-know.html) is that Britain is now a police state and MP's want protection. What about the rest of us? We've been putting up with this for years. We have no rights. The police will pursue who they like.
On top of this there's an interesting story in today's Times too. A reporter is put through the criminal process (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article5254372.ece) and it turns out there is no case to answer. Strip searched etc.
She had a copper as a friend and then was 'monitored' illegally by the police. The judge is appalled.
Bizarrely, Article 10 of the European Human Rights convention has protected her. She says she feels 'violated' but I doubt she will be the last. Do the police ever step forward and apologise and promise not to do it again?
Where are you ZANU Labour supporters now? Is this really the Britain you want? You must speak out now - we are teetering on the brink. Labour and the police are out of control.
But don't worry about it - the Socialist Prime Minister Tony Blair is now a multi-millionaire. Nice work if you can get it.
Captain Gatso
The Motorists Friend
http://captaingatso.net
++++++++STOP PRESS ++++++STOP PRESS ++++++STOP PRESS
I have been sent the police equivalent of a 'D Notice' which has been emailed to all of Britain's news editors.
I'm pleased to see that they've all ignored it - except the Labour-supporting papers who can't bring themselves to upset the puppet master. They haven't got the balls to realise they are supporting a bunch of fascist bastards.
Anyway, references to the Contempt of Court Act don't mean anything now - especially now that everyone has published material likely to prejudice a fair trial. Endanger a criminal trial? You bunch of piss-taking amateurs. I hope a few careers get burned over this.
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