British cops want to target children as "future" criminals.

One thing I have long thought is that when it comes to burgeoning police state that the British are slightly ahead of the United States. Both are headed down the road to serfdom and both are moving at a rapid pace. But the Labour government of England has actually had more contempt for human liberty than the Bush regime -- as hard as that is to believe.

I have mentioned three issues which I think make England a dangerous place to live if you value freedom. Those are the fact that the government has disarmed the law abiding populace -- criminals are still armed of course. History is filled with instance where governments become so intolerable that the people rise up and depose them. The English will never have that option.

Second, the government has people under constant surveillance. And I mean quite literally under surveillance. The government runs thousands of surveillance cameras which film the public throughout the day. Add to that the odious monitoring of people’s financial records, something that is rampant in the United States and the British people are thoroughly monitored by the State throughout their daily activities. Of similar vein is that the British, like the Republicans in the United States, have pushed through a national ID, which amounts to a government issued travel permit to move about in one’s own country.

The third trend in England that should scare the hell out of anyone with an ounce of brains is the drive to set up a DNA data base that will eventually trace every person in the country.

Now a top police official in England is floating the idea to begin collecting DNA samples from children. Gary Pugh of Scotland Yard is the new DNA spokesman for the Association of Chief Police Officers. He is also a disgusting man with utter contempt for human liberty -- just in case you didn’t know what I thought of this man. When police start acting in this manner they are violating the rights of people, individuals who violate the rights of others are criminals. The reality is the the police have become another criminal gang just more pervasive and deadly.

This police official says that children should be monitored and if they exhibit any behavior that is consider worrisome their DNA should be taken from them and stored for use later. He says this is a way “of identifying people before they offend”. Notice he is not even arguing that the State should collect DNA after they commit a crime but before hand. How young should this be done? Pugh says. “You could argue the younger the better.” His justification: “We have to find who are possibly going to be the biggest threat to society.”

Please note again the future tense. Pugh is arguing that the police should take evidence involuntarily from individuals who have NOT committed a crime but who are merely thought to be possible, future criminals. Who will be fingering these children for apprehension at such a young age? Why state schools, of course. I quote the Guardian:

Pugh admitted that the deeply controversial suggestion raised issues of parental consent, potential stigmatisation and the role of teachers in identifying future offenders, but said society needed an open, mature discussion on how best to tackle crime before it took place. There are currently 4.5 million genetic samples on the UK database - the largest in Europe - but police believe more are required to reduce crime further.

The Guardian says that government “criminologists are understood to be confident that techniques are able to identify future offenders.” Sure! Government never screws up. What a minute? Wasn’t it the British police who followed the wrong man, thought he was a terrorist, and then executed him in his seat on the Underground in front of a train full of people?

Jean Charles de Menezes was a 27-year-old young man from Brazil who didn’t realize he was being followed by armed police officers in plainclothes. The officers said they got him confused with someone else. They followed him onto a bus and then into the London Underground. He boarded a train and sat down to read a newspaper when the police officers rushed the train. The officers tackled the seated man and then shot him to death. Police then lied to the public repeatedly to justify their execution. They claimed Menezes had vaulted over the ticket barrier and ran into the train. Video footage proved that he used his ticket like everyone else and walked calmly. Police claimed he was wearing bulky clothes which they suspect had bombs underneath. He was wearing jeans, a t-shirt and a relatively tight short jacket. They claimed that when they boarded the train that the victim went after them. Eyewitnesses on the train say that never happened.

In the end the police just said it was a “tragic” mistake. It wasn’t tragic for them. No wonder they want to disarm the public. Any decent person witnessing what the police were doing to this man, who was armed, would have pulled some shots off at the criminals executing an entirely innocent man. And investigations show that he was being held in his seat when he was murdered. This man was shot eight time, seven of them in the head.

Yet the police in England are demanding that the public trust them and allow the collection of the DNA of schoolchildren based entirely on the suspicion that the child might, years in the future, commit a crime.

Police are already routinely collecting DNA from people in England at every turn they can. If you witness a crime they may take DNA. If you are a “suspect” they can take DNA and they keep it even if it turns out you are entirely innocent. The Brown government wants to take DNA samples from every visitor to the country, even those just changing planes -- showing they are going even farther than the traitorous Bush Administration that forces all visitors to submit fingerprinting and mug shots.

What we are facing is two governments, one in England and one in the United States, that have come to the conclusion that citizens must be treated like criminals. Both are stripping people of their privacy and subjecting them to constant monitoring as quickly as they can.

The reality is that the governments of the United States and the United Kingdom are now threats to the life, liberty and property of every decent person. The police no longer act to protect you from criminals. You are the criminal and they are protecting their real clients, the political class, from you. You are their enemy. You are their target. They have little interest in criminals. They have a great deal of interest in you.

They want to know about every cent you earn. They wish to be able to tap your phone anytime they wish, with the necessity of a warrant. They want to monitor your e-mails, you mail, your computer usage. They have turned your bank into police agents who report on how you spend money so that they can investigate anything they deem “suspicious”. They want to force you to get a state permit to travel on any road, any plane, any public bus. The police can demand that you show them ID even if you are just walking on the sidewalk. You can no longer move about the “land of the free” without a state issued permission slip. And to make it worse they are raping you pocketbook in order to pay for this assault on you.

Any interaction with any government employee, from the local school teacher, social worker or beat cop to the highest office in the land is potentially a threat to you. Even the most innocent looking bureaucrat can start a process that will destroy your life. And if someone mistakenly thinks some oregano that you have in the kitchen is marijuana you can suddenly find armed men breaking down your doors in the middle of the night. If you are lucky they won’t kill you -- but don’t count on it. That sort of mistake happens all the time.

It didn’t used to be this way. But today more and more people are suffering death by government. If you want to trust the State go right ahead. I’m sure Mr. Menezes didn’t think he had anything to worry about either. In fact they executed him so quickly that he probably never knew what was going on.

I could easily list hundreds of people who have been subjected to incredible injustices. Hundreds have died at the hands of police agents. Every single day millions of air travelers are barked at, ordered about and frisked like common criminals. These days they mostly stare at the ground quietly enduring the humiliation afraid to say anything. If you say something you can be hurt, you might be killed.

Exactly how much of this will people put up with before they throw the bastards out.