Archive for the 'Repression' Category

Britain: not so much 1984 as Minority Report

Published
by
Christiaan
on 24 November, 2008
in Britain, Civil liberties, Culture, Politics and Repression
. 0 Comments

Kiwi Tom Chapman writes for Public Address about the authoritarian bureaucracy that has been taking root under New Labour’s watch in Britain.

The UK police, who have my DNA, have already sold DNA data to private companies and, according to Jenny Willott MP, this includes “sinister explorations into ethnic profiling.”

I’ve pencilled in the advent of a National ID card and/or biometric passports as points at which I might leave Britain. I just don’t want to be a part of a society that has a centralised infrastructure whereby the government or some numbskull at the Post Office/Police can have access to all this information and use it against people they don’t like.

I don’t how many times I’ve heard the cliché “if you don’t have something to hide you’ve got nothing to worry about” so in some ways a lot of people here deserve such a government.

The shooting of Thomas Hurndall

Published
by
Christiaan
on 12 October, 2008
in Activism, Britain, Human shield action to Iraq, Palestine and Israel and Repression
. 0 Comments

There’s a documentary drama on the UK’s Channel 4 tomorrow night at 9 PM, telling the story of Thomas Hurndall’s murder by an Israeli sniper, and his family’s fight to uncover the truth. 

I met Tom on the human shield action to Iraq in 2003. He left Iraq when war became inevitable and travelled on to Gaza where he was eventually shot in the head by Hayb, an award-winning Israeli marksman, while trying to save Palestinian children who were having pot shots fired around them by Israeli snipers.

From his diary:

What do I want from this life? What makes you happy is not enough. All the things that satisfy our instincts only satisfy the animal in us. I want to be proud of myself. I want more. I want to look up to myself and when I die, I want to smile because of the things I have done, not cry for the things I haven’t done.

External links:

God’s chosen people…

Published
by
Christiaan
on 14 September, 2008
in Palestine and Israel and Repression
. 0 Comments

Here’s recent footage of the Israeli navy firing machine guns at unarmed Palestinian fishing boats.

The Sunday Herald reports:

The footage, taken on September 6 by Andrew Muncie, who is from the Highlands, shows an Israeli gunboat engaging fishing boats while international observers hold their arms in the air and scream for them to stop firing.

No-one was injured in the incident, but Palestinian fishermen claim 14 colleagues have been murdered at sea by the Israeli navy since the onset of an economic blockade imposed after Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip in June 2007. Israel says patrolling these waters is a vital security measure to stop weapons being smuggled into Gaza.

 

America’s Police State coming along just nicely

Published
by
Christiaan
on 2 September, 2008
in Activism, Civil liberties, Human rights, Law, Repression and United States
. 0 Comments

Glenn Greenwald reports on the appalling events in Saint Paul, Minnesota, where the Republicans have been holding their National Convention over the weekend. It appears the Federal Government has been orchestrating fascist-like police raids across the city on opposition groups in attempt to shut them up.

Protesters here in Minneapolis have been targeted by a series of highly intimidating, sweeping police raids across the city, involving teams of 25-30 officers in riot gear, with semi-automatic weapons drawn, entering homes of those suspected of planning protests, handcuffing and forcing them to lay on the floor, while law enforcement officers searched the homes, seizing computers, journals, and political pamphlets. 

Massive police raids on suspected protesters in Minneapolis | Sat, 30 Aug 2008
Federal government involved in raids on protesters | Sun, 31 Aug 2008

The Land of the Free, where the Federal Government actively recruits local residents to infiltrate and inform on groups who oppose the government, where the police steal people’s vehicles and leave them stranded on the side of the road to shut them up, where major radio presenters are arrested by thugs in riot gear for having the audacity to ask a policeman a question, and where young women get pepper sprayed in the face for holding a flower up to the police as they walk by her.

Scenes from St. Paul: Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman arrested | Mon, 1 Sep 2008

But, frankly, none of this quasi-fascism compares to apparent lack of outrage from ordinary Americans.

There’s a poem made for these people:

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I wasn’t a Jew.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.

—Pastor Martin Niemöller.

External links:

Update, 7 Sep 2008: external link to ‘RNC: Media Intimidation Condemned’ added.

Photographobia: an irrational fear of photographers

Published
by
Christiaan
on 5 June, 2008
in Analysis, Britain, Propaganda and Repression
. 0 Comments

A couple of weeks ago I was on the overland train to Camden Town, London when a tourist was taking a photo out the window. Some local got up and harassed him, telling him he wasn’t allowed to take photos on the train, then went and sat down again. Rolling my eyes I suggested he ignore the wannabe fink, but he meekly complied, not knowing any better.

Bruce Schneier has a theory on why some people think photographers are a threat: because that’s what the terrorists do in the movies, right.

He also includes some handy links to wallet documents on photographer’s legal rights that can help you if you get harassed. Here’s a UK one.