Safety no reason to give cops more power

RE: Let the cops do their job

Wow, there are people out there that would hand the police unlimited powers in the interest of 'safety.' I guess it takes all kinds of people to make the world go round, and some of them will be responsible for the tilt.

I have no issues with the police doing their job, but is it their job to stalk pubs and restaurants? If I owned one of those businesses, I would be considering legal action, not just against the police, but also against the person who compared them to drug houses. I certainly wouldn't want the cops to be stopping people who visit the drug house. I would want them to search the drug house itself! However, serving alcohol to adults is not illegal.

The police do this form of 'drift netting' far too often and almost always in conjunction with drinking driving programs, and when anyone complains, there is always those that come out and support their actions. And always with the same attitude, in this case 'If you’re obeying the law and not drinking enough to be intoxicated (and wearing your seat belt), what do you care if they 'stalk' you and pull you over to check on your sobriety.' Well, I care plenty, for this is harassment of the worst kind. The attitude that ALL people may be breaking the law is evident in how the police conduct their business.

Eventually, we will be asked to identify ourselves with the proper papers at checkpoints. Actually, no we won't, the police already have scanners that can read thousands of license plates at a time, and software that can do facial recognition in large crowds. It's just a matter of time before they are tracking us through visual sight, GPS coordinates from our phones, and any year now they'll be issuing drivers licenses and passports with RFID chips. They'll be able to track us easily on a computer screen. Already we are subjected to humiliating body searches and nude scanners at airports 'for our safety.' Yeah, right. How are they protecting us by feeling us up and looking at our naked images?

I am all too reminded of the Ministry of Love from George Orwell's dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. For those who haven't read the book, the very thinking of a crime was illegal (crimethink in Newspeak), and you were under constant observation through the telescreen. Already cameras are being installed to watch our every move. And if you think I'm paranoid, look up sometime and count the cameras that are watching you already. In stores, parking lots, intersections, there is already plenty of evidence of the electronic surveillance controlling our lives. And ask yourself, when was the last time a government that had absolute power over its people, did the right thing for their people? Of course, you are a law-abiding citizen. That will never happen to you. Not here in Canada. After all, you got the time.

Someone asked a while ago when Canada became a police state. I have his answer. It was 4 a.m., October 16, 1970, shortly after Pierre Trudeau and his cabinet requested, on behalf of Premier Robert Bourassa and Montreal Mayor Jean Drapeau, that the Governor General Roland Michner to invoke the War Measures Act and sent the Canadian Military into Quebec to 'support' the police during the FLQ 'crisis.' This suspended Habeas Corpus and allowed the police to arrest and detain, without charges, hundreds of otherwise law-abiding protestors. Since then the police have continually gained powers that circumvent the very laws they are sworn to uphold

Bill Grigg