Political Police???

Why does this sound like the Soviet Political Officers that were (are?) so prevalent within the ranks of the soviet military, in order to quell any potential discontent, usually with a Nagant round to the back of the head???

Sort of makes the House UnAmerican Activities Committee seem tame...

Special branch is bigger than in cold war

'Political police' are now more intrusive than at any time in UK history, claims civil liberties group Statewatch

Alan Travis, home affairs editor
Tuesday September 2, 2003
The Guardian

The number of police special branch officers has more than doubled in the past 25 years, despite the end of the cold war and the ceasefire in Northern Ireland, according to research by the civil liberties group Statewatch published today.
It is notoriously hard to establish the number of police officers involved in the special branch, tasked with countering terrorism and monitoring "subversive" organisations, but, Statewatch says the numbers in Britain grew from 1,638 in 1978 to 4,247 last year.

www.guardian.co.uk...

Yes.

The machinery of quelling dissidence in the "Land Of The Free And The Home Of The Brave" is less McCarthyist, and more Stalinist, as I have commented before.

MA,
Did you not notice that this was about the UK?
Or have you just resigned yourself to the belief that the UK is just the 51st state in the Union?

Fry

Yes, I did.

My opinion is "come one, come all" for reasons in the article...

Before September 11 some chief constables were reducing the size of their local special branches, but since then the numbers have risen to their latest total of 4,247, with an increasing role played by civilian staff as intelligence analysts....

...But it also concentrated its efforts on the threat to public order from groups such as the animal rights movement and anti-globalisation demonstrators...

Its official brief says its operational work "is directed towards counter-terrorism, followed by public order ... the two main methods of targeted surveillance collection being through human sources and surveillance". The events of September 11 underlined the "urgent need to monitor those who abuse democratic liberties to further their terrorist intentions".


Next, watch it happen in Oz (already going down if you're unlucky enough to have an Arabic name and have been seen at any public meeting the "fuzz" didn't like the sound of).

But really, watch the US! (Or don't watch it, just "feel" it).