Slashdot Mirror
Major UK Child Porn Investigation Flawed
Oxygen99 writes "The Guardian (UK) is carrying a story on Operation Ore, a major police investigation aimed at catching online pedophiles. This has resulted in several high-profile arrests, such as those of Pete Townshend and Robert Del Naja (both falsely accused), while attracting significant press attention. Yet, the reality of the investigation is one of stolen credit cards, wrongful accusations, and ignorance leading to a significant number of the 7,292 people on the list being wrongfully accused of a very emotionally charged crime. There have been 39 suicides and a number of other people on the list will probably never be investigated. It seems to me this case highlights flaws inherent in the way law enforcement agencies handle evidence that only a small minority of front-line officers fully understand."
Having watched rooms full of English people feeling *so happy* and *so righteous* to be giving another 1% of their income per year to the NHS, I have to say if ever there was a national decline that was the fault of the individual people of the nation, this is it. The UK has got *exactly* what it demanded.
Seriously, I will never forget that budget with the giant tax hike for the NHS. The public really were literally *happy*. They don't pause and think whether giant IT projects with no defined results, buildings endlessly built and rebuilt, and vast dividends for contractors benefit them. They think "OUR FREE HEALTH CARE IS THE ENVY OF THE WORLD!!"
Which brings us to the issue in question -- the culture of ASBO and surveillance. It's closely analogous.
People were happy to give money to the NHS without reflecting on where the money really goes. Health care became scarce (except in politically powerful areas like Scotland) and the NHS became a huge powerful entity. The question became not 'how can we obtain healthcare' but 'how can we manipulate / moderate / survive the NHS which has grown up in the absence of proper health care?' Now people are dependent on the NHS for healthcare building contracts, support contracts, and above all employment.
Similarly with the ASBO/surveillance culture. People were happy to constantly rein in the power of police and courts without thinking of how order would actually be maintained. Convictions became near-impossible -- try getting a conviction for assault or rape without eyewitnesses or camera footage in the UK. Getting bad people out of the way once their badness had been established also became near-impossible. So the question became not 'how can we restore order' but 'how can we leverage the ersatz structure of surveillance and pseudo-legal sanctions that has grown up in the absence of order?' Now people are dependent on cameras and ASBOs and each new problem is solved by adding further layers of special powers, special institutions, and surveillance.
Moral? Meh, I don't know. Mod me off-topic.
Whence? Hence. Whither? Thither.
If you're going to be elitist, it would help to be elite.