According to today’s Metro newspaper, tucked in on page 12, young people with no criminal past are being arrested so that their DNA can be taken ‘in case a rape or murder goes unsolved in the future’.They’ve done nothing wrong, yet, and probably never will.. Google, define ‘police state’ for me would you? Ah yes, just as I thought. Has  ‘innocent until proven guilty’ turned to ‘guilty of something’?

“Youths with no criminal past are being arrested so their DNA can be stored on a database, it was revealed on Thursday. They are being targeted in case they commit future crimes.” cite

Seems like another step in the grandmother’s footsteps game the state are playing with us. The step being towards the eventual Minority Report / V for Vendetta combo.

“Lib Dem parliamentary candidate Jo Shaw obtained the statistics and was shocked at the findings. ‘If you are innocent, you shouldn’t have your data kept for years,’ she said.”

No, Jo, .. if you’re innocent you shouldn’t be arrested and be forced to give your DNA. It’s kinda an essential part of our rights in this country.

Edit: for the first three ads, click here.

I’ve just found out about another rather worrying advertising campaign from our British Police force which, continuing a recent trend encouraging the public to snoop on their neighbours and report their fears based on their slightest suspicions, asks: “Too much bling? Give us a ring”. (N.B. in other recent news: Lecturers  to be forced to become ‘immigration snoopers’, keeping tabs on foreign students)

The aim is to identify people who are obtaining far more money illegally than they possibly could earn in their job, and one easy way to find people to investigate is to turn the public into ‘contact police officers’. Supposedly (although I don’t know many people myself who would do this), I’m supposed to phone an anonymous hotline if I see someone who I feel looks to be too wealthy for .. well, what? How do I as a citizen make this decision about what’s right and what’s wrong? This is a fundamentally subjective decision, wide open to bias based on class, race, age, appearance, to name but a few.

The emotive language bothers me:

“A greedy money launderer who profited from drugs misery has had his BMW car and Yamaha motorbike confiscated.”

What is this, a tabloid? No, it’s the wording on the official Leicestershire Police  2muchbling website. I’d rather the police were less emotive, but nevermind, this isn’t too bad.

“To report your suspicions or concerns, either call Sussex Police on… “

To report my suspicions? On a day to day basis I see lots of colourful looking people on the street, but what am I supposed to do: judge them on appearance and ring the police, with no substantiated evidence, just a sneaking suspicion?

“..The chair of Cleveland police authority, Dave McLuckie, said after the verdict: “Even though he was acquitted in the criminal trial, it is quite clear that there was enough evidence there to prove that he was unable to legitimately fund his lifestyle.”

“Almost £650,000 in assets will be confiscated from Pickering, 38, and sold partly to finance extra policing on Teesside..”

Sorry, so even though he was aquitted of the charges, you still confiscated his money? And the money goes back into the police  force?

From the Guardian:

“Of course there is more to this than simply asking members of the public to perform their civic duty – what about the money? The Home Office have earmarked 50% of the proceeds of any investigation for use by the police force that seized it. Despite the fact that the police are facing a £3 bn shortfall in funding over the coming year, New Labour is still only too keen to cite the fact that they have recruited 14,000 extra police officers since 1997 (albeit with scarcely any impact whatsoever on visible street presence). Given that over 80% of any force budget is spent on wages alone, it is obvious where the current shortfalls will be met.“

Another poigniant comment from the Guardian:

“How much better would the Stasi, the KGB and the Hitler Youth Movement have been if the governments involved had only had the sense and foresight to get them all working on commission?” cite

I’ve not even mentioned the problems with people being arbitrarily investigated:

“..If the allegations were discovered to be unfounded, then that person might never be any the wiser that the police had taken an interest in their assets, but the fact still remains that intelligence has been generated in their name based on little more than the status envy of a neighbour or acquaintance.” cite

I wonder how many innocent people will end up on intelligence databases for the crime of “ostentatious display of wealth”?

Note: I’m far too late for this to be considered breaking news, as I first saw these adverts a month or so ago in Newcastle Upon Tyne (although they’re apparently they’re being displayed all over the country) but they’re still playing so strongly on my mind that I have to get it off my chest in some more public way than just talking to my friends. Click here for full sized images

“These chemicals won’t be used in a bomb because a neighbour reported the dumped containers. Don’t rely on others. If you suspect it, report it. Confidential Anti-Terrorist Hotline: Call … ”

Seriously, how severe is the terrorist threat in the UK? As severe as the threat of Chemical/Biological/Nuclear weapons in Iraq? As I remember, that turned out to just be the government selling us fear (which most of us didn’t buy) in order to invade the country for whatever purpose (Oil? I don’t know).

Encouraging citizens to snoop on their neighbours can, and will if it happens, have only one result: fostering fear and paranoia within communities, particularly ones where there is an existing level of this already. I think that the fears people have about other people who are different to them don’t need a lot of feeding, and if this encouragement comes from the government then it validates the fear, perhaps reducing the motivation that the person will have to challenge the fear they hold with rational thought. The fact that we can see our government actually releasing material like this I find extremely concerning.

A comment on the Guardian article, which I feel sums up my thoughts more eloquently that I can, says the following:

‘Sometimes I don’t know whether I’m being hysterical, or whether to start believing tin-foil theories. To me it seems every freedom is under assault from repeated, under-the-radar, changes to legislature. What’s worse, what really frightens me, is that I believe the opposition will do exactly the same should the country choose them. Where does this all end? Where are we headed?’ cite

I’m not sure what concerns me more, the motives for promoting this sort of mentality, or the means (fear, advertised on billboards) with which it is being done.

“A bomb won’t go off here because weeks before a shopper reported someone studying the CCTV cameras. Don’t rely on others. If you suspect it, report it. Confidential Anti-Terrorist Hotline: Call … ”

What, are we supposed to report anyone looking up at the cameras, whilst these things watch us all day long? It’s tempting enough just to stare back them to freak out the camera operator without this kind of advert encouraging me to..

Poster #3

ANYTHING YOU SAY MAY (BE TAKEN DOWN) AND USED AS EVIDENCE

During my English GCSE, we were taught that getting a point across in a marketing campaign, be it subliminal or otherwise, is all about how you show the text on the page. This meant that you could get a subtle point across in the font, arrangement, size etc of the text. For example, a dieting adverts’ text might be arranged to curve into the shape of a slim woman’s figure, therefore emphasising the message.

The reason I mention this is that the first time I read this, the message that got through to me was: “Everything you say will be taken down and used as evidence (i.e. against you)”. Perhaps it’s just me being paranoid, I don’t know. Whichever way you look at it this poster, they’ve taken the policing pledge and made it vaguely threatening, rather than reassuring, which I believe is the whole point of the poster. Note, you have to be really close to actually read the small print explanation.

Click here for full sized images

I’d really appreciate comments on this topic, as I’m trying to believe that the problem lies with me rather than with my police and my government.

P.s. I take solace in the fact that our civil-rights devouring Home Secretary Jacqui Smith resigned today. Let’s ensure her successor is better.

I’ve delayed posting this to my blog for some reason, I think I felt like I wanted it to be a bit more tested, which it now is. Here’s the launch email I sent out today:

Hey!

I’m chuffed to tell you that LettuceRemind.com was launched a few days ago to a great response, and is now ready for visitors.

LettuceRemind.com is a Twitter/iPlayer mashup that allows you to track your favourite TV series, getting reminded when there’s a new episode released, and optionally before the episode is removed from the iPlayer as well (so that you don’t miss a single episode!).

What you can see there right now is the initial set of features, but loads more is in the pipeline for the next few weeks, such as support for Channel 4’s ‘OnDemand’ site, the ‘ITV player’, plus additional alert methods (email, SMS, etc: send ideas!), a Facebook app, and far greater control over when and what you receive alerts about.

I’m really keen to received feedback so that the site can become a great resource, especially your ideas and bug reports!

There’s no need to signup, just use your Twitter account to sign in (securely, don’t worry: we use OAuth) and we’ll do the rest.

Cheers,
Ian

http://lettuceremind.com

p.s. I fixed a bug which affected new users last night, sorry if you had any trouble using the site.

It does occasionally open a window for me into some pretty random conversations, but even so, it lowers the usefulness of the @ replies function quite drastically on some days, and the problem is only going to get worse as more people (read: newbs) join Twitter. Ah well, at least I have a mint two character handle!

Waiting… waiting… waiting.. zzzz

Twitter’s servers are infamous for being unreliable. I like to keep my servers in tip-top shape. However, the back and forth that is required to authenticate the user securely requires several connections to Twitter’s server: at least twice at the user’s end, and then a cURL connection at my server side which retrieves the authentication data from Twitter using the provided token (I’ve not explained this very well).

If this last connection times out, I can either retry or throw an error message (which is what happens at the moment).

This is really unappealing to the user, who will probably just leave the site now and never come back. I find this pretty frustrating.

What is the answer? I don’t know. Any ideas? If I retry a few times at my server’s side, the user could be sat there for 30 seconds or so, and the process of doing this might invalidate the provided token anyway, causing an error to be thrown on my site anyway.

Hmmm.

Have a listen on MySpace

with thanks to @NixiePixel for the video

Subject: [student-announce] NEWSFLASH: Important information about Swine ‘flu

A message from Dr John Hogan, Registrar

Dear Student

This morning, the University has been notified that a case of swine
‘flu has been confirmed in the city in an individual who has recently
returned from Mexico.

This person is not a Newcastle University student, or a member of
staff. However, they are resident in a house which is shared with two
Newcastle University students. Neither of the students concerned has
so far displayed any ‘flu-like symptoms. Both students have received
the antiviral Tamiflu, and they and the University have been advised
by the Health Protection Agency that there is no need for the
students to isolate themselves from the community unless they show
symptoms.

Further information and government guidelines concerning the current
swine flu outbreak are available on the Occupational Health website
at http://www.ncl.ac.uk/occupationalhealth/

There is also a very simple video from the US Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention explaining swine flu at
http://www2a.cdc.gov/podcasts/player.asp?f=11226#

The University fully understands that students and staff will be very
concerned about Swine Flu in the light of these events and the
ongoing media coverage, and will make every effort to provide regular
updates.

Students and staff with particular concerns, and especially those who
may recently have returned from Mexico, or believe they may otherwise
have been in contact with the virus, are advised to contact the swine
flu information line on 0800 151 3513.

John Hogan
Registrar
30 April 2009

I’m not too worried to be honest…