[Infowarrior] - More London security hysteria

[Richard Forno]

(The pictures @ the link are amusing. --rf)

http://www.boingboing.net/2009/03/24/london-cops-reach-ne.html

The London police have bested their own impressive record for insane  
and stupid anti-terrorism posters with a new range of signs advising  
Londoners to go through each others' trash-bins looking for  
"suspicious" chemical bottles, and to report on one another for  
"studying CCTV cameras."

It's hard to imagine a worse, more socially corrosive campaign.  
Telling people to rummage in one another's trash and report on  
anything they don't understand is a recipe for flooding the police  
with bad reports from ignorant people who end up bringing down anti- 
terror cops on their neighbors who keep tropical fish, paint in oils,  
are amateur chemists, or who just do something outside of the narrow  
experience of the least adventurous person on their street.  
Essentially, this redefines "suspicious" as anything outside of the  
direct experience of the most frightened, ignorant and foolish people  
in any neighborhood.

Even worse, though, is the idea that you should report your neighbors  
to the police for looking at the creepy surveillance technology around  
them. This is the first step in making it illegal to debate whether  
the surveillance state is a good or bad thing. It's the extension of  
the ridiculous airport rule that prohibits discussing the security  
measures ("Exactly how does 101 ml of liquid endanger a plane?"),  
conflating it with "making jokes about bombs."

The British authorities are bent on driving fear into the hearts of  
Britons: fear of terrorists, immigrants, pedophiles, children,  
knives... And once people are afraid enough, they'll write government  
a blank check to expand its authority without sense or limit.

What an embarrassment from the country whose level-headed response to  
the Blitz was "Keep Calm and Carry On" -- how has that sensible motto  
been replaced with "When in trouble or in doubt/Run in circles scream  
and shout"?

http://www.boingboing.net/2009/03/24/london-cops-reach-ne.html