Posted on 10/26/2009 3:06:28 PM PDT by opentalk
Police are gathering the personal details of thousands of activist who attend political meetings and protests, and storing their data on a network of nationwide intelligence databases.
The hidden apparatus has been constructed to monitor "domestic extremists", the Guardian can reveal in the first of a three-day series into the policing of protests. Detailed information about the political activities of campaigners is being stored on a number of overlapping IT systems, even if they have not committed a crime.
Senior officers say domestic extremism, a term coined by police that has no legal basis, can include activists suspected of minor public order offences such as Police are gathering the personal details of thousands of activists peaceful direct action and civil disobedience.
Three national police units responsible for combating domestic extremism are run by the "terrorism and allied matters" committee of the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo). In total, it receives £9m in public funding, from police forces and the Home Office, and employs a staff of 100.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
Once a free-society starts rationalizing violations of personal privacy and freedom, it is very simple to rationalize and justify more extreme measures.
Well, then it’s time to start building a database of all government employees, their photos, resumes, spouses, home and work addresses & phone numbers, family income, savings, etc.
Calling citizens the extremists reminds me of Homeland security Memo when Obama first took Office.
Somewhere in Gulliver’s travels was a passage about studying the ‘stool’ of your subject as this was supposed to
be the time when the ‘subject’ was most pensive (e.g., prone to scheming....) Is this far behind?
Maybe they should be monitoring the sermons at the mosques?
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