British Police State is alive and well.

The police state that Tony Blair gave England is alive and well. Just ask Darren Nixon of Stoke-on-Trent. Mr. Nixon works as a mechanic. And he appears to be a rather law abiding gentleman who never had a run in with the police until recently. But recently when he got off the bus he took home he found himself surrounded by armed officers barking orders at him.

Mr. Nixon had trouble hearing them because he was listening to his MP3 player at the time so he had to take the earphones out. Nixon was quickly apprehended. He had his mug shot taken and the police added his DNA to the national data base along with taking his fingerprints.

What crime did Mr. Nixon commit? None. Nothing. He did absolutely nothing wrong. Not even the police say he is guilty of a crime. Some half-blind, deluded woman convinced herself that the MP3 might be a handgun and called the police. In England it is entirely illegal to own firearms by the way. In fact, recently a drama group was even told they had to register plastic swords with the police as well as keep them under lock and key when not being used in a stage production. It should be duly noted that the gun ban in England was immediately followed by a massive crime wave as criminals realized they were still armed and that only their victims had been disarmed by the law.

Now consider those DNA samples that were extracted from Mr. Nixon. Under the policies of the English state those samples stay in the files permanently -- even though Mr. Nixon had done nothing wrong and was apprehended by the police on bogus charges. Mr. Nixon shouldn’t feel too bad, some 100,000 children, including a seven-month-old child have been added to the criminal data base because found ways to take their DNA samples as well.

People can have their DNA taken merely because they witnessed a crime and then the government creates a file on them, with that DNA and place it in the criminal data file. The British government says individuals can ask the police to remove the files. And that is true, but the police routinely refuse to do it. But a spokesman for the Home Office claims that there is “clear evidence showing the substantial public benefit in relation to the detection of serious crime” by keeping the DNA of innocent people. From just 2006 to 2007 the number of children, innocent of any crime, who have their DNA kept by the government shot up from 24,000 to 105,000.

It is estimated that over 1 million Britons, never charged with any crime, are on the system and that innocent people comprise one out of four samples. The government pooh-poohs concerns saying: “Those who are innocent have nothing to fear from providing a sample and retaining this evidence is no different to recording other forms of information such as photographs and witness statements.” Do note that while the people are called innocent this Home Office spokesman called the DNA samples “evidence”.

And if you want some idea of how twisted British thinking can be Lord Justice Sedley recently called for mandatory filing of DNA samples of all residents and anyone visiting the country. He said that the police currently take samples from blacks more than from whites. To combat this “discrimination” this “Justice” wants to force everyone to supply their DNA in the name of fairness. Apparently the fact that black women are more likely to be raped is a good reason for the government to rape all women in the name of fairness.

Currently the British police are adding about 1,000 people per day to the DNA data base. Under Blair, and in the U.S. under Bush, western concepts of freedom and human rights were severely damaged. So far in England the opposition Conservative Party is promising to undo many of the worst aspect of the police state. In the United States the Democrats have made no such pledge.

Photo: Mr. Nixon with his deadly MP3 player. No doubt the police feel justified as someone claims he was playing Guns and Roses.