Paramilitary Police State & Private Prisons

Australian Police Forced to Become Carbon Cops

June 11, 2009

Herald and Weekly Times - The Herald Sun can reveal Australian Federal Police agents will have to prosecute a new range of climate offences. But they are yet to be offered extra resources, stretching the thin blue line to breaking point.

“The Government is effectively saying to us, ‘Ignore other crime types’,” Australian Federal Police Association chief Jim Torr said.

The group had been trying for months, without success, to discuss the issue with Climate Change Minister Penny Wong, he said.

Interpol has warned the carbon market will be irresistible to criminal gangs because of the vast amounts of cash to be made. Possible rorts include under-reporting of carbon emissions by firms and bogus carbon offset schemes.

“If someone is rorting it by even 1 per cent a year, we’re talking about many, many millions of dollars,” Mr Torr said...

Police Caught on Tape Trying to Recruit Protester as Spy

April 24, 2009

Guardian - Undercover police are running a network of hundreds of informants inside protest organisations who secretly feed them intelligence in return for cash, according to evidence handed to the Guardian.

They claim to have infiltrated a number of environmental groups and said they are receiving information about leaders, tactics and plans of future demonstrations.

The dramatic disclosures are revealed in almost three hours of secretly recorded discussions between covert officers claiming to be from Strathclyde police, and an activist from the protest group Plane Stupid, whom the officers attempted to recruit as a paid spy after she had been released on bail following a demonstration at Aberdeen airport last month.

Matilda Gifford, 24, said she recorded the meetings in an attempt to expose how police seek to disrupt the legitimate activities of climate change activists. She met the officers twice; they said they were a detective constable and his assistant. During the taped discussions, the officers:

• Indicate that she could receive tens of thousands of pounds to pay off her student loans in return for information about individuals within Plane Stupid.

• Say they will not pay money direct into her bank account because that would leave an audit trail that would leave her compromised. They said the money would be tax-free, and added: "UK plc can afford more than 20 quid."

• Accept that she is a legitimate protester, but warn her that her activity could mean she will struggle to find employment in the future and result in a criminal record.

• Claim they have hundreds of informants feeding them information from protest organisations and "big groupings" from across the political spectrum.

• Explain that spying could assist her if she was arrested. "People would sell their soul to the devil," an officer said.

• Warn her that she could be jailed alongside "hard, evil" people if she received a custodial sentence.

The meetings took place in a Glasgow police station last month and in a supermarket cafe on Tuesday. Gifford used a mobile phone and device sewn into her waistcoat to record what they described as a "business proposal" that she should think of as a job.

They intimated that in return for updates on Plane Stupid's plans she could receive large sums of money in cash.

When lawyers acting for Plane Stupid contacted Strathclyde police this week to establish the identities of the detective constable, they were initially told by the human resources department there was no record of his name. But when the Guardian contacted the force, they acknowledged officers had had meetings with Plane Stupid activists.

In a statement last night, assistant chief constable George Hamilton said the force had "a responsibility to gather intelligence," and such operations were conducted according to the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA). The force would not comment on the identity of the officers...

Gordon Brown: Compulsory National Youth Service “Will Become a Normal Part of Growing Up in Britain”

April 13, 2009

Telegraph - The Prime Minister said a pledge to introduce compulsory community service would be included in Labor’s next general election manifesto...

Senate Rubber Stamps National Enslavement Bill

March 25, 2009

Prison Planet - The Senate last night rubber stamped a nightmare domestic draft bill that legislates mandatory national service and creates an “army” of at least 7 million civilian enforcers working at the the behest of the government, while also containing language that threatens to ban free speech and the right to protest...

Police May Be Privatized by a Foreign Company in Chicago

March 24, 2009

CBS 2 Chicago - Experts say that asking private security guards to conduct police functions is dangerous, and potentially fatal, with most security guards paid much less and receiving less training...

House Passes Mandatory National Service Bill

March 19, 2009

Prison Planet - The House passed a bill yesterday which includes disturbing language indicating young people will be forced to undertake mandatory national service programs as fears about President Barack Obama’s promised “civilian national security force” intensify...

U.S. House Considers Plan for Mandatory ‘Volunteer’ Service Corps

Obama’s Brownshirt Brigade, a ‘Civilian National Security Force’

WorldNetDaily - A civilian national security force “that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded” as the U.S. military - quote from a Colorado Springs campaign speech where Obama described his plans for a civilian security force...

Another program, the Citizen Corps, is “coordinated” by the Department of Homeland Security in association with FEMA, the Department of Education and the Environmental Protection Agency. In February, FEMA announced “a newly-formed affiliation between Citizen Corps and the United States Power Squadrons (US Power Squadrons) to help promote and improve community emergency preparedness, disaster response training for the public and volunteer service.” In 2008, the DHS announced the availability of $3 billion for “preparedness” programs for the states...

Drunk Mobs Mar St. Patrick's Day in Ireland With Riots

March 18, 2009

AP - Cars were torched, firefighters attacked and police bombarded in mayhem spawned by dusk-to-dawn drinking on St. Patrick's Day, Irish authorities said Wednesday...

Police in Northern Ireland clashed with some of the British territory's most privileged youth — hundreds of students at Queen's University, the major college in Belfast — in what authorities called the worst public drinking-related confrontation of any recent St. Patrick's Day. Nineteen teenagers and 20-somethings, mostly Queen's students, were arrested during several hours of clashes with riot police. Belfast police Superintendent Chris Noble said most were still sobering up Wednesday in their cells, while five were arraigned in court on charges of riotous behavior.

Noble said police expected to arrest more students in coming days after analyzing their surveillance TV footage. "We will not abandon an area to drunken thugs," he said.

Officers of the Police Service of Northern Ireland donned full riot gear, including flame-retardant suits, to drive about 1,000 students back into their rented red-brick homes in a neighborhood called the Holy Land directly beside Queen's University...