I can totally understand the need to protect one’s country from those that would do it harm but one has to wonder as well if giving the power to spy on people to wannabe politicians and tinplated Napoleons is the right use of those powers. Nowhere is this abuse of power more visible than in England the once proud bastion of freedom that is now reduced to letting local councils spy on their citizens - all in the name of keeping people safe from terrorists.
Maybe if there was some grand scheme behind the Orwellian behavior I could understand it but by granting local councils in England the ability to enact the Regualtion of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA) the door to misuse has been opened. More than half the town halls have admitted to using these powers to spy on families that they suspect of putting their rubbish out on the wrong day.
Men and women are dying in Iraq and Afghanistan so that these power drunk idiots can spy on citizens using secret cameras in the trash bins or on lamp posts just to catch people putting out their trash on the wrong day.
One officer told an undercover reporter: ‘In some areas, particularly where there is terraced housing, we have a problem with people putting their black rubbish bags out three or four days early.
‘When they have been left in alleyways or at the rear of terraced properties, it is difficult to identify exactly who has placed them there.
‘The cameras are hidden in tin cans or put on lamp posts and allow us to monitor who is coming out of which property and leaving their rubbish. Sometimes we are able to put these cameras inside peoples’ homes that overlook the alleyways.
Can someone please explain how this even closely resembles being right?
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