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Councils Recruit Unpaid Volunteers To Spy On Their Neighbors
Several readers have written to tell us that a recent move in the UK has councils relying on info from "Citizen Snoopers" to report the transgressions of their neighbors. Currently only implemented as "environment volunteers" designed to keep watch on things like litter, dog habits, and improper trash sorting, there is a certain amount of trepidation that this could grow into something more sinister. "It will fuel fears that Britain is lurching towards a Big Brother society, following the revelation this week that the Home Office is extending some police powers to council staff and private security guards. Critics said the latest scheme could easily be abused and encourage a culture of bin spies and curtain twitchers. Matthew Elliott, of the Taxpayers' Alliance, said: 'Snooping on your neighbors to report recycling infringements sounds like something straight out of the East German Stasi's copybook.'"
I know people hate rules, but from what I've seen, these are the people that hate the idea behaving in a civil manner. Yes, this includes things like keeping up your property and and keeping your pets from crapping on other people's property. I've seen one instance where neighbors with dogs will pick up after their pets, but then stop short of actually disposing of it. Instead, they leave it sitting on their front step, or in little plastic bags right nest to the stair case so that we can ALL enjoy these little gifts. One has even turned their porch into a dog toilet, letting waste pile up over several days before cleaning it up. Others have apportioned parts of the common elements as their own little personal storage areas for junk like barbecues, chairs, and other assorted crap. It's all quite repugnant. I personally think these people would be better off living in a ghetto, since that's exactly how they treat the property. Suffice it to say, as long as there are stupid and lazy people, ordinances like this will be necessary.
Why should we care if Stassi like measures are enacted using as excuse (reasonable or not, that does not really matter) cost cutting?
What happens with such schemes is that they are abused. Have a grudge about somebody? Simple: report that person for any minor offences you can come up with it. If they are actually real ones much the better obviously, we are legislated so much to the tilt that is almost certain everybody is breaking the law at some point or another (the "ignorance is not excuse" when it comes to applying the law becomes hollower and hollower with each passing law that creates new criminal offences).
IANAL but write like a drunk one.