Report: UK police categorize political activists as ‘domestic extremists’

By Stephen C. Webster
Sunday, October 25th, 2009 -- 8:55 pm
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bigbrotheriswatchingyou Report: UK police categorize political activists as domestic extremistsBritish police inspectors have been building a massive, secret database containing personal information on thousands of otherwise innocent political activists, an investigative report revealed Sunday.

"The hidden apparatus has been constructed to monitor 'domestic extremists', the Guardian can reveal in the first of a three-day series into the policing of protests. Detailed information about the political activities of campaigners is being stored on a number of overlapping IT systems, even if they have not committed a crime."

The UK paper added that the term "domestic extremist" has no legal basis, but is instead intended to tar those who may have participated in something so benign as civil disobedience.

Even merely attending a protest and standing on the outskirts of the crowd can be enough to land one on the National Public Order Intelligence Unit's list of "domestic extremists."

The database, which is operated by some 100 employees, gets £9 million in public funding, the paper reported. In addition to giving officers the ability to search for an "extremist" by name, vehicles associated with individuals tied in to the database are automatically tracked across the country by a system of license plate recognition cameras. In one instance, the paper revealed that a man who attended one protest was stopped by police 25 times in just three years because his vehicle was tagged with a "protest" flag.

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"Police surveillance units, known as Forward Intelligence Teams (FIT) and Evidence Gatherers, record footage and take photographs of campaigners as they enter and leave openly advertised public meetings," the Guardian added.

The paper further noted that the database was first establish to curb legal infractions being committed by animal rights activists, but has grown outward ever since, even though the groups initially targeted are not nearly as active. Activists are divided up into four groups: Extreme right, extreme left, animal rights and anti-war. Groups roped in to the database even include those that have never been associated with any illegal activity.

"The term 'domestic extremism' is now common currency within the police," a Guardian editorial published Sunday explains. "It is a phrase which shapes how forces seek to control demonstrations. It has led to the personal details and photographs of a substantial number of protesters being stored on secret police databases around the country. There is no official or legal definition of the term. Instead, the police have made a vague stab at what they think it means. Senior officers describe domestic extremists as individuals or groups 'that carry out criminal acts of direct action in furtherance of a campaign. These people and activities usually seek to prevent something from happening or to change legislation or domestic policy, but attempt to do so outside of the normal democratic process.' They say they are mostly associated with single issues and suggest the majority of protesters are never considered extremists."

Authorities told the Guardian that the public should not be alarmed at the revelation; that the database is for their own safety. They insisted that spying, compiling data on and tracking the movements of political activists is merely meant to protect businesses from financial harm amid political unrest, and to guard against terrorist attacks.

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  • turnip
    ''''They insisted that spying, compiling data on and tracking the movements of political activists is merely meant to protect businesses from financial harm amid political unrest, and to guard against terrorist attacks. ''''''

    Can't have anyone interrupting commerce with anything as trivial as protesting the current feudal system. . . .
  • srmark
    Damn...sounds like friken scary Orwellian totalitarianism to me! Yes, they'll always say things like "the public should not be alarmed" and "is for their own safety" The British people need to rise up in anger to this frightening development. It's probably happening here too...
  • Elim
    When martial law is declared in the UK, the people in this database will be the ones they go after first.
  • Mike
    Duh, ya think?
  • Mike
    The global elite do not see themselves as evil, rather they consider themselves to be highly enlightened. Nonetheless, they consider themselves the stewards of society. They see, quite correctly, that overpopulation is the root cause of all our problems. Thus they are planning to cull the herd significantly. They will not reveal themselves or their plans until they are convinced that resistance will be futile. As they get closer to achieving this goal, they grow bolder and bolder with their naked power grabs. Due to the militarization of the `police', and through sophisticated psychological manipulation and advanced `crowd control' technology, they are very close to achieving their goal. Rather than disarm the population, they have decided to use demagoguery to convert the most well-armed segment of the population (Wing-Nuts) into modern-day brownshirts, who will do their bidding when called upon by their `Mega Pastors', who clearly serve the elite (who do you think pays for these `Mega Churches'?).

    The final step will involve a declaration of Martial Law, probably under some very real but manufactured crisis. At this point anyone they consider a threat will be quickly neutralized.

    There is very little anyone can do to stop this at this point. By stripping our freedoms in tiny increments, they have managed to do it without triggering a full-fledged revolt. Even a full-fledged general strike will probably just give them the cause the need to trigger Martial Law ahead of schedule. If we are to die, we must die like men, and take as many of them with us as we can.
  • C.P.T.L.
    The person who coined the term 'Domestic Extremist' should be fired, as should all in his or her office who used the term and otherwise did not object to it.

    There must be a thorough government inquiry as this revelation represents an existing threat on the level of a national emergency.

    All those in the chain of command who used the term and otherwise did not object to it, and furthered its use, should be fired, demoted, or reprimanded, or otherwise marked as decided by an inquiry.

    The U.K.'s use of widespread domestic surveillance, especially in the form of cameras, has been rightly criticized and warned against for being the first step towards a Surveillance State.

    The coining of the term 'Domestic Extremist' is the second step taken. Not the action of forming a database, that is the third step taken; and while the two acts might seem disproportionate, the simple use of words vs the immense expenditure and assemblage of a data system and its use in effect, the two acts are equal in dire threat and damage to the country.

    The simple act of forming the words, committing them to 'paper,' codifying them; causing officialdom to have new legal leverage, or what they perceive to be such leverage against innocent citizens, is a vile turn to the extreme and must be dealt with categorically.

    The database itself should be destroyed. The physical apparatus requires decision. For instance, if it is part of an existing proper system to good purpose, then destruction of the data is sufficient. If such a data system is purpose-built, existing on its own, then it should be dismantled if no other good use can be determined or effected.

    It is high time that individuals, institutions and governments acknowledge a plain truth:

    You are not what you say you are, or what you say about what you did, or do, or will do; you are what you do.

    When governments build the machinery of a Police State, of a Totalitarian Government, that will be the result; there will be no other result.
  • horacemanoor
    CITIZENS need to demand that their money is spent more wisely than collecting info in databases or having govt officials spend their time spying on them. Citizens should boot out anyone who is wasting taxpayer money instead of funding schools, roadways, local projects, etc.
  • Kurt_O
    If they were interested in combating terrorism they'd do an honest investigation of the events of 7/7 and admit these crimes trace to the same transnational Zionist bankster mafia that was responsible for 9/11.

    Of course, no such honest investigation will be forthcoming as our spineless public officials are all too aware of who actually runs things and are even more terrified of them than we are.
  • m3t
    1) The "democratic" process is actually plutocratic and some of those making decisions for us aren't even elected. This simple flaw to the notion we're a democracy becomes ever more evident because the government should be in SERVICE to it's nation, but it assumes (and the media echos) that the government is "in POWER".

    2) When the British government uses taxpayers money to pay for the advice of experts about reclassification of laws, and when the reclassifcation of those laws is unpopular with the general public... it is completely UNDEMOCRATIC to ignore the entire nation AND ignore the panel of experts you used our taxes to pay for.

    Britain is NOT a democracy and so expecting us to work within the constraints of the "democratic process" is hypocritical of government and anything related to the government.

    "These people and activities usually seek to prevent something from happening or to change legislation or domestic policy, but attempt to do so outside of the normal democratic process.'"

    The government and it's activities MAKE things happen and CHANGE legislation and domestic policy and DO so outside of a true democratic process... no attempts to subvert a democratic process (or more accurately a plutocratic process disguised as democratic) ...

    No... they just decide and do... to hell with the general public, to hell with democracy.

    F**k the corrupt British government and fuck the retarded police chiefs that are effectively labelling people as criminals simply because they choose to exercise their RIGHT to protest.
  • rts111
    The Brits are world leaders in surveillance technology. Their streets, their cities are the testing ground for these surveillance systems which are being marketed around the world.

    As the majority of the world's working class are squeezed tighter and the audacity of the wealthy has become so outrageously out of balance that eventually the voter is going to realize their is no effective social change through a democratic vote, but only through collective social and mass appeal - or protest.

    In other words, the dream of true social change for the law-abiding citizen whose last recourse is to protest is being thwarted before it can ever mature into a true social movement of the people. This is how our original democracies were partially negotiated - from the bottom up.

    The right of the average man to participate in how a democracy evolves no longer exists in the surveillance-based society. -rts
  • OldAtlantic
    Vote BNP if you want your freedom. Support NumbersUSA in the US. 3rd world immigrants means the loss of freedom. Every politician knows that.
  • patriot
    We're all terrorist now!
  • redhead61
    ANY Citizen who has been accused of being a domestic extremist should create and join a mass lawsuit against the government for breaching their privacy. There has to be a limit of 'big brother'.

    This has already started here in the US as well with the invasion of privacy of phone calls and emails.
    It needs to be STOPPED in its tracks.
  • tjfxh
    As we seeing the rise of fascism in the 21st century? Certainly, it was present in the US under the Bush administration, and unfortunately, the Obama administration has not reversed all those policies. Now the UK?
  • mrneutron
    Eric Blair (better known by his pen name George Orwell), was English.

    He knew exactly how paranoid white, rich, conservative English speaking men can get.

    Can't let something like The People get in the way of a smoothly, profitably run Democracy.
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