Since 9/11, the Brits have suffered from terrorism far more than we have. They have good reason to be concerned about internal security, and as this article from the Christian Science Monitor shows, the Labour government is considering a new surveillance program far more intrusive than anything undertaken by the Bush administration:
The British government is weighing a plan that would require civil servants – including social workers and doctors – to report people deemed likely to commit acts of violence in the interest of stopping crimes before they are committed, according to a leaked official document.
The Times of London reports that the British Home Office’s internal document on “multi-agency information sharing” – which the newspaper received from a senior British official – would allow government agencies better access to information on potential threats.
Public bodies will have access to valuable information about people at risk of becoming either perpetrators or victims of serious violence. Professionals will obviously alert police or other relevant authority if they have good reason to believe [an] act of serious violence is about to be committed. However, our proposal goes beyond that, and is that, when they become sufficiently concerned about an individual, they must consider initial risk assessment of risk to/from that person, and refer [the] case to [a] multi-agency body.
The Guardian compares a society with the plan enacted to the science fiction film Minority Report, in which Tom Cruise stars as a policeman in a “’pre-crime’ unit who arrests would-be perpetrators before they can carry out crimes.” Privacy advocates’ criticism shows similar concerns.
A [spokesman for the British human rights group Liberty] said the reports were worrying. ‘What does the Home Office propose to do with the people who have committed no crime, but who fit a worrying profile? How far are we willing to go in pursuit of the unrealistic promise of a risk-free society?’
A Home Office spokesperson told The Daily Telegraph that it didn’t want to comment on leaked documents, but that the proposals are still in development, by a working group it has convened.
The British government is weighing a plan that would require civil servants – including social workers and doctors – to report people deemed likely to commit acts of violence in the interest of stopping crimes before they are committed, according to a leaked official document.
What’s really sad about Britain today is that the operative phrase above may be interpreted in two different, but equally accurate ways. In fact I had to re-read that paragraph to be sure the proposal wasn’t designed to identify people inclined to defend themselves against violent criminals.
I immediately thought of the movie Minority Report…
I guess it isn’t enough to have skaty million cameras all over the place, including in trees in rural areas to stop fox hunting. They now need a pre-crime unit and microchips on the garbage pails to prevent citizens from defiling Mother Nature with their horrid refuse…
One might view this from a distance and think, wow, isn’t that excessive. But, what worries me is that this is what we can expect in our nation about 20 years from now if the trend of importing European politics continues.