Great Britain and California seem to be in a competition to see who can come up with the most bizarre, senseless, and deranged examples of political correctness gone mad. California has gotten in some good licks lately, like the Food Police in San Francisco handing out tickets in restaurants to people eating too much trans fat. Recently California started introducing stop sign cameras, giving a nasty surprise to people, who thought they could avoid full stops early in the morning –one of whom accumulated seven moving violation tickets before realizing the camera was there. The Brits however seem to be pulling ahead in the intrusive police state competition. They seem absolutely determined to put into practice George Orwell’s “1984”.
The British Daily Mail reports: “Even the most law-abiding driver might feel a shiver down the spine when spotting this speed camera at the roadside. For as well as detecting speeding, it is packed with gizmos that check number plates to make sure insurance and tax are up to date. It also measures the distance between vehicles to spot tailgating and takes pictures of the inside of the car – to make sure you are wearing a seat belt. The latest weapon in speed camera technology can capture footage from 150 feet away. It is the first to detect multiple offences at the same time and is connected to police computers via satellite, so that prosecutions can be started within seconds of any offence.”
Sounds like a politician’s dream and a commuter’s worst nightmare.
The article notes “Development of the system, known as Asset – Advanced Safety and Driver Support for Essential Road Transport – is being funded with around £7million of European money. It is undergoing testing in Finland and is expected to be deployed across Europe from 2013, with each unit costing £50,000.”
My God! Why not just go all the way and put these cameras into people’s homes so the police can watch them 24 hours a day? I really am starting to wonder what is going on in the mind of British politicians; this obsession with spying on their own people is starting to look like some kind of Freudian thing.
Imagine what it must be like living in Britain today knowing that from the moment you step out your front door in the morning, you are being watched by strange little people sitting behind a series of television screens in a police station, who will be carefully observing you to make sure you don’t drop a candy wrapper or put your garbage in the wrong color bag on the curb. Black garbage bags are banned in Labour-controlled council areas in Britain by the way because they are considered racist, and no, I am not making that up.
I understand that the Whitehall regime also has a charming habit of assessing “fines” and “fees” for various alleged infractions, or tax disputes, or tax errors, and simply debiting the victim’s bank account, sometimes for huge sums, and sometimes without the little formality of notifying the person beforehand and allowing them to present a defense. After all, those £50,000 spy cameras have to be paid for somehow.
