Thursday 15 March 2007

STATE BRITAIN

Did you know...
Short-term “jails” are planned for supermarkets and town centres to deal with yobs and shoplifters under Home Office proposals to ease the burden on police. Discussions have already started about building a “retail jail” inside the Selfridges store in Oxford Street, London.

Suspects would be held for up to four hours in a small room with a clear plastic front so they were visible to custody officers at all times during their detention.

Ministers are also proposing a huge expansion of police powers to take fingerprints, DNA and other samples from offenders and store them on national databases. People caught speeding, failing to wear a seat belt, allowing their dog to foul the footpath and dropping litter could be forced to give fingerprints or DNA to police for checking against other databases.
Winston Smith suggests you might care to read the full story...

3 comments:

Anne said...

Yikes!!! I think the government is going a little too far. I hope Bush doesn't hear of this.

Anonymous said...

Which is worse? Nanny state or police state?

Brian Sibley said...

SUZANNE - Do I HAVE to choose?? ;-)

SCROOGE - I wouldn't automatically cry 'Lock 'em up!' with regard to my recent theft...

Prisons, as has been commonly agreed by the enlightened for centuries, probably produces as many hardened criminals as reformed citizens...

Elizabeth Fry, Charles Dickens, Victor Hugo, Oscar Wilde said as much and even after several hundred years of 'prison reform' it is still the case...