This has to be less than ideal as a precedent for civil liberties in schools. Another sign of a fundamental shift in our attitude to the presumption of innocence in the 21st Century, perhaps?
Archive for the '1984' Category
U.S. Supreme Court Judge: ‘absurd’ not to punch suspects in the face, stick things under fingernails
13Feb08In a recent interview, everyone’s favourite extreme right wing U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia remarked that he found it ‘absurd’ to think that authorities couldn’t torture an individual who had information about an imminent terrorist attack (another take). Picking up on the widespread belief that terrorists will hand themselves in for interrogation minutes before […]
I just became aware of this piece of legislation, recently introduced into the South Australian Parliament: the Serious Crime (Control) Bill 2007 (SA). You can see the bill here in Rich Text Format or here in PDF.
This legislation is ostensibly aimed at bikie gangs, but it goes a lot further than that, and doesn’t […]
This is an interesting little example of the current attitude to anonymity in some sections of the community: a type of jacket with a hood and integrated face-mask has apparently become popular amongst “young people” in Britain (more).
Admittedly looking quite intimidating (see link), the jacket does not in fact come with a mind control device […]
verballing 101
08Dec07The South Australian Government has gone ahead with legislation to ban David Hicks from selling his story. He’s still allowed to tell his story, but he’s not allowed to sell it. Lucky him. Presumably he’ll be able to find a job with no problems - after all, he was never convicted of anything by a […]
Confirming that the United States still regards the phrase “war on terror” to mean “license for continuing and willful insanity”, a lawyer representing the U.S. in a high profile case in England has indicated that the U.S. view is that the covert abduction of foreign nationals in order to bring them to America to face […]
abnormal is the new normal
19Sep07This is an excellent piece by Barry Jones in The Australian in which he highlights the extraordinarily dangerous attitude currently being promoted as the “new normal” by politicians and their lackeys in the western world, in which objectivity, rationality and informed debate are completely subsumed by “faith”, expedience and knee-jerk reactivity:
We live in an era […]
demanding equality in pre-crime
07Sep07Britain’s Lord Justice Sedley has caused quite a fuss by suggesting that all Britons (and any visitors to the Isles) should be added to the British criminal DNA database (alternative article).
Unsurprisingly the suggestion has caused all kinds of hysteria which seems to rather miss his Lordship’s point: it’s fundamentally inequitable to have some people in […]
police state: sneak preview
06Sep07Crikey yesterday described the APEC security arrangements thus:
For the cops, APEC is a vision of the world as it should be. Expanded powers, new equipment, media support, and maybe a chance to try out new toys like the water cannon.
If the allegations in this article are even close to true, then that sounds pretty accurate:
cutlery […]
This week is turning into a big week for the notion of the separation of powers in Australia. As you (should) know, the separation of power between the judiciary and the parliament/executive is one of the devices included in our Constitution to prevent abuses of power by those who govern on our behalf.
In addition to the clash […]
This article in The Age is superficially positive - the new British PM is having trouble getting extended detention powers in anti-terrorist legislation implemented in Britain due to rational parliamentary opposition. The reason is a report from the Joint Committee on Human Rights:
The Joint Committee on Human Rights said in a report it had seen no […]
If you are the somewhat paranoid type, at least when it comes to governments, why not scare the hell out of yourself and read this little piece by Paul Craig Roberts (Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan Administration) which attempts to answer the riddle: with George W Bush’s popularity sinking ever lower, why […]
…at least that seems to be the case according to “Let’s Get Ready Sydney“, a disturbingly Cold War-esque (and red, really, really red) website about planning for an ‘emergency’ that might cause you to leave your home in a hurry:
If it is safe to do so, take your pets with you. Put large pets on […]
fence posts
11Jul07More than six out of ten people regularly commit criminal acts (in Britain, at least). Democratic governments seem to regard legislation criminalising particular forms of behaviour as the default, and indeed only, way of dealing with most problems and many things which are only perceived to be problems.
In that context, here are two interesting […]
an enemy of the open society
01Jul07This article from The Australian, entitled “Silencing Our Basic Freedom”, is compulsory reading for anyone who cares about the future of democracy in Australia. This blog is frequently critical of that particular newspaper, but on this issue it is fighting for an extremely important and non-partisan cause - the ability of the media, and […]
