Are we living in a police state?
In the coincidence stakes the following three stories (which popped up in my Slashdot feed) pose a disturbing question, are we seeing the rise and rise of a police state throughout the world?
First story was the shooting death of a prominent anti-government webmaster in Russia whilst in police custody. Next comes the slightly less dramatic news that in the US police have raided a meeting in a public of a group who were planning a protest at this week’s Republican National Convention. Then there is also news of German customs agents raiding a consumer electronics show in search of patent breaching kit, which whilst down there on the list of things puts the news that Microsoft have been granted a patent on “page-up” and “page-down” keystrokes in a slightly more interesting light. Microsoft is apparently getting close to 10,000 patents. Patents basically mean that anyone else using “your idea” has to pay you money and you can see why Bill’s baby is so keen on them. Some people actually consider them a form of protection, harking back to the days of protection rackets, but these days backed up by police or in the German case, customs powers.
Not long ago that the press were jumping up and down about the fate of a couple of elderly ladies sentenced to re-education in China for having the guts to apply for a permit to protest about housing issues in China at the time of the Olympics. Generally the western media were fairly strident in their expressions of outrage over the Chinese government actions, it remains to be seen if that was just a opportunity to have a swipe at China or whether the free press does actually have some concerns about the exercise of police (ie state) power over its own citizens. This is a serious concern given the amount of powers that anti-terrorism laws have handed police in recent years. That such laws did nothing to stop terrorists and terrorism seems to have slipped under the radar, however civil libertarians and proponents of free speech would not find cases such as these particularly comforting.
Does anyone care?