[spiritbears]

Coming back from Tucson this weekend, had a pretty strange experience on I10. One of the highway warning signs said there was an accident 5 miles ahead, but when we got close, 2 big rigs blocked both lanes and stopped traffic. When we got to the "site" there was no evidence of a crash. About 10 miles down the road we ran into 7 or 8 cops pulling over what seemed like random cars and police helicopters. (These were not border patrol...just highway patrol)...

Anyway...felt lucky to get through that mess. Last night I heard a late-night ad on the radio that was recruiting truckers to "help" (read-work for) the police. What's next???? recruiting our kids to narc on us? oh, already do that......

[alyasa]

That sounds rather sinister... Were there people in yellow radiation suits and oxygen tanks milling about, joking about the coffee?

[spiritbears]

HA...
Next time you pass that trucker going 87, better hope he's not on the payroll....

[acousticrock87]

I hate I10. Strange things go on there...I saw a car in the far left lane about 200 feet in front of me just turn 90 degrees to the right in traffic on that freeway. For no reason.

[alyasa]

It's slowly integrating itself into the social scene then... Soon we will be self-regulated, barcodes and microchips implanted. It won't be much of a stretch really; all it takes is just one paranoid, fearful statesman. Once he starts ranting on TV, every man, woman and child will be clamoring to get themselves registered. America will start having viral marketing on public transportation; when you leave your house, robot advertising machines will sweep your barcodes, collect your personal information and display pertinent advertising according to your interests. People will be safer; because 'the system will be foolproof' and all crime will be eradicated. Meanwhile, in the slums and squats where most of us will end up; rape, robbery and murder will be early childhood lessons, taught on the streets and applied there; and survival becomes a matter of dripping blood. And where will the trucker be then? He'll actually be wearing a badge and carrying state-issue weaponry by then. Just thinking out aloud.

[spiritbears]

I'm right with you alyasa....

[alyasa]

I just hope George Bush isn't alive by then. If he is, he'll probably gloat.

[acousticrock87]

Originally Posted by alyasa

It's slowly integrating itself into the social scene then... Soon we will be self-regulated, barcodes and microchips implanted. It won't be much of a stretch really; all it takes is just one paranoid, fearful statesman. Once he starts ranting on TV, every man, woman and child will be clamoring to get themselves registered. America will start having viral marketing on public transportation; when you leave your house, robot advertising machines will sweep your barcodes, collect your personal information and display pertinent advertising according to your interests. People will be safer; because 'the system will be foolproof' and all crime will be eradicated. Meanwhile, in the slums and squats where most of us will end up; rape, robbery and murder will be early childhood lessons, taught on the streets and applied there; and survival becomes a matter of dripping blood. And where will the trucker be then? He'll actually be wearing a badge and carrying state-issue weaponry by then. Just thinking out aloud.

Wow. I nearly got lost amid the whirlwind of misanthropic terms...

[alyasa]

Misanthrope? It's just the politics of fear. Perpetuated by everyone's favourite superhero, America The Beautiful.

[acousticrock87]

It's a real word? I just like the sound of it.

And my favorite superhero is Gambit, who I'll repeat is not in X-Men 3. Bastards.

[alyasa]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misanthropy

[acousticrock87]

Haha. "Final Fantasy VI has a misanthropic villain, Kefka." That's random. I liked Kefka.

[alyasa]

I've only played 7,8 and 9... But I rock at Wasteland...

[atari 2600]

alyasa points towards a dark future that many have forecast

damn, i thought i was a debbie downer

whap-wah (raspberry)

we need a constitutional amendment to end all repeat terms of office to short-circuit the conspiratorial power-grabs of career politicians

therein lies the only hope, so hop to it

[acousticrock87]

Originally Posted by atari 2600

alyasa points towards a dark future that many have forecast

damn, i thought i was a debbie downer

whap-wah (raspberry)

we need a constitutional amendment to end all repeat terms of office to short-circuit the conspiratorial power-grabs of career politicians

therein lies the only hope, so hop to it

Argh I hate that skit. Good reference, though.

[alyasa]

To be or not to be, that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them. To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover'd country from whose bourn(e)
No traveller returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action.-Soft you now,
The fair Ophelia, - Nymph, in thy orisons
Be all my sins remember'd.

[h8kurdt]

1984 Is Happening Children!

[Hip Priest]

From here

Police sent 78 to quell lone protester
By John Steele, Crime Correspondent
(Filed: 26/05/2006)

A total of 78 police officers were used, at a cost of £7,200, in the night-time operation to crack down on the anti-war protester Brian Haw in Parliament Square, it was disclosed yesterday.
Brian Haw
Brian Haw can't bear to watch as police remove his placards from Parliament Square

The raid ran up a bill of £3,000 in overtime and £4,200 for "transport, catering and erection of road barriers", said Sir Ian Blair, the Metropolitan police commissioner.

The manpower involved in reducing Mr Haw's permitted protesting space to a 10ft "cube" outside Parliament is almost four times the 20 suggested after the raid in the early hours on Tuesday. However, Scotland Yard said 24 of the 78 officers were "kept in reserve".

Sir Ian defended the scale of the operation after fierce criticism by some members of the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA), which oversees his force. The Met was accused of "overkill" and of creating the impression around the world that police were being used to suppress anti-war dissent.

But Sir Ian said Scotland Yard had "no discretion" over someone who allegedly ignored the law - in this case section 132 of the 2005 Serious Organised Crime and Police Act, which outlaws protests around Parliament that have not been sanctioned by police.

Mr Haw, a carpenter from Worcestershire who has dedicated five years to often very loud protest, is being prosecuted for allegedly failing to abide by conditions set down for his demonstration.

The Liberal Democrat peer, Lord Tope, an MPA member, said: "Some may well find Brian Haw and his activities irritating, but being an irritant is a pretty fundamental part of our democracy. The right to protest. . . the right to irritate some of those sitting in Parliament feeling self-important.

"I do think it brings the Met into a bit of disrepute - 78 police officers arriving in the middle of the night to clear placards and chase mice. I really do think that it was huge overkill."

Damien Hockney, from One London Group, said: "This has been interpreted around the world that Britain is suppressing dissent by people opposed to the Iraq war. That is the way it is being put across - policemen being sent in overnight to knock somebody down. From a PR point of view, that is a very dangerous thing to have done."

Since the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act came into force last year, Mr Haw claimed the restrictions on protests around Parliament could not apply retrospectively to him because his demonstration began in June 2001.

He was successful in his first court hearing but this month the Court of Appeal rejected his argument and refused leave to appeal to the House of Lords.

The court said Mr Haw would have to apply to the police for authorisation to continue. He is due to appear in a magistrates' court for an alleged breach of the Act in failing to comply with conditions.

Sir Ian told the MPA: "While the police have much discretion, they do not have discretion about continuing criminal offences which are in the public eye, all the time.

"The fact is that Mr Haw has been given permission to continue his protest. What he is not able to do is ignore the law - that is what he is doing. Until such time as he obeys the law, we will have to enforce it."

Commander Chris Allison, the head of Westminster policing, who was in charge of the operation, said not all 78 officers were deployed. Twenty-four were kept in reserve, while others were evidence-gathering teams who filmed proceedings.

Scotland Yard sources said a relatively large number of officers was needed, even though the raid was at night. Senior officers had to guard against the risk that other protesters or agitators who became aware of the operation might have confronted the police.

[Hip Priest]

Another one:

Protester fined for naming Gulf war dead at Cenotaph
By John Steele, Crime Correspondent
(Filed: 13/04/2006)

An anti-war activist who demonstrated at the Cenotaph by reading out the names of UK soldiers killed in Iraq was fined £350 yesterday.

Milan Rai was also told to pay £150 costs and now has a criminal record after the latest case under a controversial new law.

He was found guilty of breaching the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act (SOCPA) which bans demonstrations around Parliament that have not been agreed with police.

District Judge Nicholas Evans, at Bow Street Magistrates' Court, told Rai: "You knew what the law was. You, quite with your eyes wide open, decided not to comply with it [the law]." He accepted that Rai had been "polite at all times".

Rai, the founder of an anti-war group, Justice Not Vengeance (JNV), had argued that the SOCPA legislation banning unauthorised protests inside a Parliament "exclusion zone" ran counter to the European Human Rights Act.

But the judge rejected his arguments. He said Rai had not been taking part in a spontaneous show of dissent, but had organised an event and deliberately failed to get formal authorisation as a matter of principle.

Rai contacted police in advance of the demonstration, on Oct 25 last year, but refused to fill in paperwork required for its authorisation.

The day before the demonstration, Rai, 40, from Hastings, east Sussex, posted a statement on the JNV website saying: "The demonstration is unauthorised. Attendance has a high risk of arrest.

"The organiser has been told by the police he will be arrested as an organiser under new SOCA (sic) repressive laws." Rai and Maya Evans, a fellow protester, were seen demonstrating at the Cenotaph at around 9.30am on Oct 25. Rai was served with a "notice of unauthorised demonstration" leaflet by police and given 10 minutes to stop protesting within the exclusion zone. He was arrested after this time.

After the hearing Rai said he would not "willingly" pay the fine.

He said he was consulting with the civil rights group, Liberty which represented him during the case.

He planned to ask the High Court to rule that the SOCPA was incompatible with Article 10 and 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights which guarantees freedom of expression and freedom of assembly.

The judge said he thought Parliament had been "very much alive to the need to have the interest of demonstrators and their convention rights protected, particularly in relation to Articles 10 and 11", when it framed the legislation.

Last December, Evans, 25, also of Hastings, east Sussex, became the first person to be convicted under the Act, in relation to the Cenotaph incident.

Evans, a chef, was given a 12 month conditional discharge and ordered to pay costs of £100.

Note that for reading out the names of war dead at a war memorial, he was arrested and charged under Serious Organised Crime and Police Act.

[spiritbears]

Don't know if any of you are aware of whats happening with the 6 Nations in Canada.....Police set to crack protesters heads.... Its getting worse....