Victoria is Now a Police State
A guest post by a reader. This was first published in Kiwiblog.
The city of Melbourne has already endured one of the longest and harshest lockdowns anywhere in the world. And the lockdown has just been extended, with little hope that this will be over anytime soon.
The Victorian Police is behaving like a hostile occupying force, with the gentle bedside manner of Imperial Stormtroopers and the sense of humour of the Stasi. Peaceful protest is illegal. The Police recently arrested a pregnant woman in her home and charged her with incitement. She now faces up to 15 years in jail for the heinous crime of promoting a peaceful protest on Facebook. Others have been forcibly masked before being wrestled to the ground and handcuffed for the crime of being out of their homes for a non-permitted reason.
The Police has unlimited power. They can enter your home without a warrant, and they will do so without any hesitation. If you’re not quick enough opening the door, they will break it down for you.
How could this happen in a civilised country? Why is there nobody stopping the madness? Here are some hints.
Showing posts with label Police State. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Police State. Show all posts
Friday, 11 September 2020
Friday, 29 May 2020
The Day the Police State Came
They Have Made Us All Prisoners
The new authoritarian State’s dream has come true thanks to the repulsive word 'lockdown'
Peter Hitchens
Mail on Sunday
We will never get out of this now. It will go on for ever. We will not be free people again. Even when we seem to be free we will be like prisoners on parole, who can be snatched back to their cells at a moment’s notice.
I think I now understand why this period has come to be known by the repulsive word ‘lockdown’, an American term which describes the punishment of rioting convicts in a penitentiary, by confining them in their cells for long periods. I hate this word, because it does not seem to me to be fitting to describe free people in a free country.
But we are no longer such people, or such a country. We have become muzzled, mouthless, voiceless, humiliated, regimented prisoners, shuffling about at the command of others, stopping when told to stop, moving when told to move, shouted at by jacks-in-office against whom we have no appeal. We are learning, during this induction period, to do what we are told and to become obedient, servile citizens of a new authoritarian State. We are unlearning the old rules of freedom.
The new authoritarian State’s dream has come true thanks to the repulsive word 'lockdown'
Peter Hitchens
Mail on Sunday
We will never get out of this now. It will go on for ever. We will not be free people again. Even when we seem to be free we will be like prisoners on parole, who can be snatched back to their cells at a moment’s notice.
I think I now understand why this period has come to be known by the repulsive word ‘lockdown’, an American term which describes the punishment of rioting convicts in a penitentiary, by confining them in their cells for long periods. I hate this word, because it does not seem to me to be fitting to describe free people in a free country.
But we are no longer such people, or such a country. We have become muzzled, mouthless, voiceless, humiliated, regimented prisoners, shuffling about at the command of others, stopping when told to stop, moving when told to move, shouted at by jacks-in-office against whom we have no appeal. We are learning, during this induction period, to do what we are told and to become obedient, servile citizens of a new authoritarian State. We are unlearning the old rules of freedom.
Friday, 22 July 2016
Soft-Despotism Hardening Up
When Sins are Criminalised
We were staggered to learn that at least one police force in the UK--Nottinghamshire Police--does not have enough to do. The word is that Mr Plod in the 'shire is sitting in the station twiddling his thumbs, challenged with an acute case of boredom, and wondering if he should pursue another calling
But his inventive superiors, always looking for ways to keep the force busy, have come up with a doozy. Whistling is about to be criminalised. That will mean a whole new line of work for Mr Plod and his indolent colleagues. Whistling in public, apparently, is one manifestation of misogyny. And, let's be clear, misogyny is a haaaaate crime!
We were staggered to learn that at least one police force in the UK--Nottinghamshire Police--does not have enough to do. The word is that Mr Plod in the 'shire is sitting in the station twiddling his thumbs, challenged with an acute case of boredom, and wondering if he should pursue another calling
But his inventive superiors, always looking for ways to keep the force busy, have come up with a doozy. Whistling is about to be criminalised. That will mean a whole new line of work for Mr Plod and his indolent colleagues. Whistling in public, apparently, is one manifestation of misogyny. And, let's be clear, misogyny is a haaaaate crime!
A police force has become the first in Britain to recognise misogyny as a hate crime, in an effort to make the county a safer place for women. Nottinghamshire Police is recording incidents such as wolf-whistling, street harassment, verbal abuse and taking photographs without consent within the hate crime definition. It also includes unwanted sexual advances, uninvited physical or verbal contact and using mobile phone to send unwanted messages. [NZ Herald]At this point we need to send out a warning to all the gypsy rovers in Nottinghamshire. No whistling within the auditory orbit of any female--lest you be charged with a hate crime.
Tuesday, 18 August 2015
Imperial Power Meets the Human Soul
Stale and Crumbling
Empires are expensive entities. The bigger the Empire, the more the faces of the poor are ground into the dust. But as anthropologist Clifford Geertz pointed out, human culture is dense, rich, and exceedingly multi-layered. The problem with all imperial ambitions and achievements is that they can never encompass the richness and complexity of human ingenuity, creativity, or reason.
The intrinsic imperial instinct is to restrict, control, suppress, outlaw, forbid, and subdue. But in every human heart lurks a nascent revolution against the arbitrary edict. In every human heart lies a self-respect, an amour-propre, which sees right through the empty vanity of the emperor and his imperial edits. The empire can only be maintained if it keeps control of everything--which is impossible. Therefore, the more empires grow, the more impossible they are to maintain. Generally, empires crumble and collapse from within, crushed under the millstone of their rules and ever burgeoning edicts and rules, on the one hand, and forever being undermined by the subtle complexities of subjects, on the other.
When dictators and emperors emerge, one option in dealing with them is to give them enough rope so they hang themselves. The very complexity of human beings ensures that, given enough rope, it will inevitably happen. Blame the wondrous complexity of the created human soul. Nations and empires which eschew freedom and seek, instead, to command and rule by fiat over subjects, will inevitably collapse from the centre. The very multi-layered complexity of human beings ensures it.
If one would like a modern example, take the latter-day Soviet Union, Mark II.
Empires are expensive entities. The bigger the Empire, the more the faces of the poor are ground into the dust. But as anthropologist Clifford Geertz pointed out, human culture is dense, rich, and exceedingly multi-layered. The problem with all imperial ambitions and achievements is that they can never encompass the richness and complexity of human ingenuity, creativity, or reason.
The intrinsic imperial instinct is to restrict, control, suppress, outlaw, forbid, and subdue. But in every human heart lurks a nascent revolution against the arbitrary edict. In every human heart lies a self-respect, an amour-propre, which sees right through the empty vanity of the emperor and his imperial edits. The empire can only be maintained if it keeps control of everything--which is impossible. Therefore, the more empires grow, the more impossible they are to maintain. Generally, empires crumble and collapse from within, crushed under the millstone of their rules and ever burgeoning edicts and rules, on the one hand, and forever being undermined by the subtle complexities of subjects, on the other.
When dictators and emperors emerge, one option in dealing with them is to give them enough rope so they hang themselves. The very complexity of human beings ensures that, given enough rope, it will inevitably happen. Blame the wondrous complexity of the created human soul. Nations and empires which eschew freedom and seek, instead, to command and rule by fiat over subjects, will inevitably collapse from the centre. The very multi-layered complexity of human beings ensures it.
If one would like a modern example, take the latter-day Soviet Union, Mark II.
Saturday, 10 January 2015
Letter from NZ (About Stupid Offensive Bureaucratic Policing)
Police erode public faith with zero tolerance zeal
StuffKarl Du Fresne
9th Janury, 2015
Human nature is a perverse thing. It consistently thwarts all attempts to coerce us into behaving the way bureaucrats, politicians and assorted control freaks think we should.
Take the road toll. Since early December New Zealanders have been subjected to a ceaseless barrage of police propaganda about the futility of trying to defy speed and alcohol limits. Stern-looking police officers have been in our faces almost daily, warning that zero tolerance would be shown to lawbreakers. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has found their lecturing increasingly tiresome and patronising.
Of course the police can claim the best possible justification for all this finger-wagging: it's about saving lives. But what was the result? The road toll for the holiday period was more than double those of the previous two years. For the full year, the toll was up by 44 on the record low of 2013. The figures suggest that people crash for all manner of reasons, and that the emphasis on speed and alcohol is therefore simplistic.
[We are not sure that the focus upon speed and alcohol should be regarded as simplistic. Ex-post facto examination of all fatal crashes are reported to demonstrate that they are they all-too-often causal factors. But it is how the police focus upon these that needs to be rethought. The artificial reductions in alcohol intake, the bureaucratic methods of testing and deployment, and the facile statistical targeting are all counter-productive, as Du Fresne points out. Ed.]
The police focus on speed and booze because these are easy targets, and when the road toll comes down they can take the credit. In the ideal world envisaged by ever-hopeful bureaucrats, wayward citizens can be managed much as sheep are controlled by heading dogs. But people will never be harangued into driving safely; human nature is just too contrary.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)