Jailed for a Zerbert

[varjag]

Of course fear is good for the economy. It also makes people easier to dominate. Why else do you think there is so much support among politicians for provoking terrorism? They are safe; it's the little people who get hit.

This is getting really off-topic, but one thing that really surprised me in PM speech after the London bombings is when he said along the lines of "they attacked the common people, not us, G8 politicians". At first I wasn't sure if he was serious, *of course* they would attack the folk in unprotected city rather than make a hopeless effort of getting through the countless, echeloned security force to Mr. Blair and company.

It is entirely conceivable that if the high-rank politicians were more accessible targets they'd address the bombings to them. Maybe he really should start walking around unguarded; it could thwart terrorist attacks against the population and save many lives.

</rant>

 

[bmattock]

Just to stir the pot a little bit - this bit of news from today:

Montgomery Advertiser: Manhunt for Photographer

July 28, 2005
Photographer may be pedophile
By Julie Arrington
Montgomery Advertiser

Police patrols have increased in the Grandview Pines neighborhood in Millbrook in search of a would-be photographer who might be a sexual predator.

One expert believes the suspect could be on the move.

Police started looking for the man after Millbrook resident Emily Cleghorn filed a report last Thursday that he approached her 12-year-old son and asked if he could take his picture. The suspect has been described as a white male in his 20s with dark hair and a thin build.

[SNIP]

Cleghorn said the suspect claimed to be a news photographer.

[SNIP]

David Bundy, photo editor for the Montgomery Advertiser, said there are certain ways to identify a photojournalist.

"News photographers from the Advertiser would all be carrying credentials from that newspaper and would offer a phone number to call the newspaper's office for verification if needed," he said.

Harris, who handled sexual assault cases in Washington, D.C., for 11 of the 25 years he was in the FBI, has traveled the state giving sexual assault training to police officers. He said that from what he has read in the Montgomery Advertiser, the suspect appears to be a pedophile.

This guy could be a freak, obviously. If he did indeed identify himself as a news photographer, that doesn't look good.

But I would guess that the neighborhood hysteria is now such that if a person just wandered down the street with a camera around his neck, they'd be tackled, pummelled, and trussed up for the police in about ten seconds flat.

Regardless of whether or not any crime had been committed.

I don't think is off-topic - it could end up affecting us all.

Just more food for thought, my friends.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[RML]

giving sexual assault training

Hmmm. What's the FBI up to? Creating more pedophiles to guarantee its future funding?

 

[bmattock]

Hmmm. What's the FBI up to? Creating more pedophiles to guarantee its future funding?

Take the word 'pedophile' out and replace 'communist'. It's the same thing. Nothing ever really changes.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[jan normandale]

This is an interesting thread. Laws eroding rights. Specifically photography but also all other sorts of erosion.

When you are all done your analysis and 'arguments' (the classic meaning of argument) it distills down to one person... a judge.

Most of our concerns seem to be focused on the messengers, enthusuastic as they might be in doing the right thing. No one is saying stop or no to these agencies of enforcement. If you want to see this change you need to start at the top of the judicial system.

That is where the root of the problem lies. Who in authority tells the enforcement agencies 'enough , you must stop' or 'you must use discretion, because you are destroying innocent peoples lives'.

Officials are quoted as saying if it saves one ( ... insert appropriate interest here) and then say the public should be prepared to see more of these acts by enforcement agencies. Where are the judges in all of this? Some one must be accountable. If you have the authority you must be accountable.

This problem is not just for the UK or the US it is also happening to photographers in Canada and the official's responses are eerily similar for all of us in these countries which 'cherish freedom'.

Jan