In Hitler’s Germany, the Gestapo maintained huge files on the population containing reports from members of the public about their neighbour’s activities. Now it seems that the Metropolitan Police are trying to revive the idea, launching a campaign asking members of the public to report any behaviour they think might be suspicious.
Such ‘suspicious’ behaviour apparently includes taking pictures of security equipment like CCTV cameras, or travelling in a ‘vague’ manner.
As well as being a charter for the paranoid and the nosey parker, this scheme fosters the insidious idea that ‘terrorists’ are all around us. You could be a terrorist – or I could. Better ring the Met, let them take a look, just to be on the safe side.
So be careful where you point your camera or phone in public. Don’t go out for a Sunday afternoon drive. You might end up receiving the careful attention of the Met. And as Jean Charles de Menezes found out to his cost, that’s something you really don’t want to happen.
Of course this is England, not Nazi Germany. That was a dictatorial police state where the rights of individual citizens counted for nothing. It couldn’t happen here – could it?
(Article published on The Free Society website: http://www.thefreesociety.org/ )
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