cannabisnews.com: Ubersnoops Are Your Friends





Ubersnoops Are Your Friends
Posted by CN Staff on August 07, 2002 at 07:53:06 PT
By Paul Sullivan
Source: Globe and Mail 
Liberty. It's a word you don't often hear, unless you're south of the border, where it's a common element of speech, right up there with "God." Here, we'd rather talk about rights and, although one of the rights occasionally defended is "freedom of expression," in polite Canadian circles the idea of personal liberty has acquired an unpleasant odour, like Rush Limbaugh's after-shave.Even Americans are wringing their hands over liberty these days, as they are faced with trading off a significant portion of their personal liberties for protection from terrorists, real or perceived. 
And although the guys in charge, the Republicans, are fond of demonizing big government when big government is run by Democrats, no Democrat ever dreamed up a Department of Homeland Security with its ubersnoop connotations.Back home, meanwhile, the task of eradicating personal liberty and making the streets safe for the kind of people who warn the world that they have a "baby on board" is moving along nicely, especially in Vancouver.The local police have experienced a rebirth of vigilance. Maybe they're embarrassed because the summer edition of High Times ranked Vancouver the No. 1 pot-smoking haven on Earth, higher than Amsterdam, where marijuana is actually legal.Or maybe they're still smarting over the notorious missing-women case, where the evidence indicates that the correct word is "murdered," not "missing." Whatever, by the time they're finished, you won't be able to sneeze without a cop handing you a hanky and a ticket for failing to cover your nose.Last week, for example, while passengers sailed from West Vancouver to Nanaimo on Vancouver Island, the police and their dogs were down on the car deck in force, looking for drugs. It was an impressive operation -- 17 officers and five drug-sniffing dogs from five jurisdictions seized seven kilograms of pot and arrested eight people, three of whom are facing serious trafficking charges.No one except the ferry corporation was warned in advance. While the B.C. Civil Liberties Association has complained that the search was a violation of civil rights because the police did not have a warrant to search the ferry, the police's position is that the ferry is an extension of the public highway system, where, apparently, they rule.To demonstrate the lengths they're prepared to go to rule the road, Burnaby police have launched Operation Squeegee Kid, where officers go undercover as those annoying, green-haired youths who streak your windshields for a donation. In one four-hour period recently, they issued 90 tickets for seat-belt violations. "Frankly," Burnaby's mayor cheerfully told one local reporter, "since this story's happened, I'm snapping mine on all the time."To be really effective, the police are eager to buttress their creative ingenuity with technology. Police in Vancouver want to set up surveillance cameras to spot rowdies at public events such as the Celebration of Light fireworks festival, and city council, in the spirit of peace, order and good government, has voted to grant the request for four new cameras. At this year's event, police managed to arrest 17 people for fighting and public drunkenness without the extra lenspower, but you can't be too cautious.What effect all this activity is having on crime is unclear. Burnaby police said they couldn't keep up with all the seat-belt violators and had to, regrettably, let some go. The ferry raid clipped only a couple of buds from the estimated 15,000 illegal marijuana cultivation operations in B.C.And for the first time in a decade, Statistics Canada reports an increase in crime. There were 2.7 million Criminal Code violations last year. If you're the police, it must look as if everyone's a crook, and anything you suggest is a mere finger in the dike against a tsunami of crime.But how many of those violations are worth the extra surveillance and the invariable loss of personal liberty? Only 13 per cent of the crimes reported were in the violent category. The biggest increase was in bail violations, which, along with prostitution, makes up 35 per cent of reported crimes.No matter, because most citizens are with the woman who wrote her local newspaper calling for "more cameras, and the sooner, the better."So liberty increasingly becomes the exclusive preserve of people with cameras and government-issued squeegees. Who also carry handcuffs, nightsticks and guns. And the rest of us, who can no longer fly from one part of the country to the other without photo ID, never mind stop at a red light without being scrutinized by a mock squeegee kid, should just relax. The police, after all, are our friends.Aren't they? Source: Globe and Mail (Canada)Author: Paul SullivanPublished: Wednesday, August 7, 2002 – Print Edition, Page A15Copyright: 2002 The Globe and Mail CompanyContact: letters globeandmail.caWebsite: http://www.globeandmail.ca/Related Articles:Marijuana Party To Avenge Ferry Pot Busthttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13635.shtmlUndercover Action Ends in Drug Bust on B.C. Ferryhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13612.shtml
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Comment #4 posted by qqqq on August 08, 2002 at 14:31:47 PT
....Gadz!
THE HILL - White House insiders say President Bush may ask Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to
                                                    assume command of the new Department of Homeland Security when Congress completes work on the
                                                    massive government reorganization plan in the months to come. Under this scenario, Rumsfeld's Pentagon
                                                    post would go to his top deputy, Paul Wolfowitz, a veteran administrator who has also held several key
                                                    diplomatic posts.
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Comment #3 posted by BGreen on August 07, 2002 at 21:45:47 PT
TWO WORDS
Power Corrupts!
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Comment #2 posted by freedom fighter on August 07, 2002 at 21:28:23 PT
I agree, John
For most part, police seem like nice people, but never forget this that they are the enemy. That is until when these people finally realize that they are suppose to be PEACE officers! Not POLICE officers! ff
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Comment #1 posted by John Tyler on August 07, 2002 at 09:11:53 PT
Police
The police are not your friends. They are a necessary evil that must be kept in check. Like guard dogs on a short leash. If they are given too much slack, they will run amok.
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