I think the Brits have it worse than we do. They have laws that nominally guarantee certain rights but they don't have the kind of constitutional guarantees that we have, at least on paper. Here, at least in theory the constitution can be invoked. There, the law can be changed and that's all there is to it.
London - and by extension, the rest of the UK - is now officially the most electronically monitored cities in the world, with more CCTV cameras per head than in any corner of the globe. And yet, given this triumph of police surveillance over personal privacy it has scarcely made any discernible impact on street crime or national security.
"Know Your Rights". You are quite correct, Jon, in your observation that we have no constitutional guarantees. Particularly with regard to free speech. You can say what you like, in fact, only in so far as you have sufficient funds to settle out of court.
And while it is still something of a minor cause for celebration that our police carry no weapons beyond the regulation pepper spray, tazers and telescopic batons, there are several well documented incidents where citizens have been shot dead on the street by armed response units for wielding nothing more deadly than a furled umbrella.
3 comments:
I hear, I see, it makes me so sick. I have been "the law" under the Marshal Law of American citizens...I KNOW what happens, and it is never good.
I used to be sad that I didn't have grandchildren, now I see that it is a blessing.
I just spent a couple hours this morning watching this: http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=-3351275215846218544&hl=en-GB#
thinking maybe if the Brits, on a smaller scale, can fight their way out...maybe we can too.
Tomorrow, I'm going to try to watch this without throwing up.
http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=-3351275215846218544&hl=en-GB#docid=8648758687435876540
But I've lived it, so I probably won't be able to tolerate watching it.
I think the Brits have it worse than we do. They have laws that nominally guarantee certain rights but they don't have the kind of constitutional guarantees that we have, at least on paper. Here, at least in theory the constitution can be invoked. There, the law can be changed and that's all there is to it.
London - and by extension, the rest of the UK - is now officially the most electronically monitored cities in the world, with more CCTV cameras per head than in any corner of the globe. And yet, given this triumph of police surveillance over personal privacy it has scarcely made any discernible impact on street crime or national security.
"Know Your Rights". You are quite correct, Jon, in your observation that we have no constitutional guarantees. Particularly with regard to free speech. You can say what you like, in fact, only in so far as you have sufficient funds to settle out of court.
And while it is still something of a minor cause for celebration that our police carry no weapons beyond the regulation pepper spray, tazers and telescopic batons, there are several well documented incidents where citizens have been shot dead on the street by armed response units for wielding nothing more deadly than a furled umbrella.
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