"(This is NOT a satire.)
The British government announced that it will implant biochips into all its prison inmates (to start with).
The government says this will ease prison overcrowding, since it will allow prisoners to be kept at home under house curfew.
Anyone who gouges the chip from his body, or tries to interfere with its signal, will trigger a nationwide manhunt. Each chip contains complete information about the implantee.
The first chips will be skin deep, but companies plan deeper implants that can never be removed. The devices will vibrate, electroshock the implantee, or serve as a microphone to transmit conversations. They will allow each person to be tracked by GPS satellite."
Click here to see blog artwork at this point.
England has the highest prison population per capita in Western Europe. (The USA has the highest in the world.) Most citizens are jailed on minor drug charges. Over the next six years, the British government plans to build 20,000 new cells at a cost of £3.8bn ($7.4 billion)– including three gigantic new super-jails.
The first targets will be convicted sex offenders. Then the entire prison population will be implanted, plus anyone released on parole or bail.
More than 17,000 British individuals (including suspects released on bail) are forced to wear ankle tags under curfews requiring them to stay at home up to 12 hours a day. The government says biochips will be much more convenient for prisoners. It’s a “win-win” situation for all.
The biotags are already used around the world to track pets and cattle. Now humans will join this group.
The tags are the size of two grains of rice, but carry complete personal information from birth, and allow GPS tracking. They will be jammed into the back of people’s arms with a hypodermic needle. They consist of a toughened glass capsule holding a computer chip, plus a copper antenna, and a capacitor that transmits data stored on the chip when prompted by an electromagnetic reader.
The US market leader VeriChip Corp has been selling radio tags for animals for more than a decade. It says about 2,000 of its chips have been shot into humans in more than 5,000 installations in the fields of healthcare, security, government, and industrial markets. The chips have also been used to verify VIP membership in nightclubs, automatically gaining the carrier entry – and deducting the price of their drinks from a pre-paid account.
The British company Acpo wants to compete with VeriChip.
When the chips are implanted into everyone, each time a person visits a doctor, information will be implanted into the person's chip, which will aid medical insurance companies in deciding who to cover.
Consumer privacy expert Liz McIntyre said a colleague had already proved he could "clone" a chip. "He can bump into a chipped person and siphon the chip's unique signal in a matter of seconds," she said.
Source: UK Times""Government and police under fire for beating up UK..."
" Tue, 01/15/2008 - 13:00 - Wire ServicesThe British government and London's Metropolitan Police came under heavy criticism today for mercilessly beating up Britain's iconic peace protester Brian Haw over the weekend.
In an unprovoked attack by a police officer, Brian was assaulted in the face with his own camera and arrested while observing a demonstration against the ban on unauthorised protest under the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act (SOCPA) which was taking place outside Downing Street.
Mr. Haw, who was bleeding from the assault, was then dragged into the police van where he was further assaulted by policeman, according to witnesses.
"I utterly condemn the aggressive mishandling of Brian Haw during Saturday's demonstration, and his subsequent treatment while in the custody of police," Green MEP Caroline Lucas said. "He is a passionate and peaceful campaigner, and a popular hero following his outstanding efforts to publicly oppose the Iraq war."
According to other protesters arrested along with Mr. Haw, the peace protester was once again badly assaulted before being strip searched and charged under the SOCPA.
"This incident provides yet more proof that police actions taken under the terms of SOCPA are putting a stranglehold on civil liberties and threatening the right to gather in peaceful protest," Lucas added. "It is a sad day for this country when the face of modern democracy is frightened and bloodied and peering out of a police van on a Saturday afternoon."
Mr. Haw came into international prominence when he won the Channel 4 Political Personality of the Year Award 2007 by popular vote.
It is estimated that the British authorities have spent almost half a million pounds (million US dollars) trying to evict Mr. Haw from Parliamentary Square, where he has been since 2nd June 2001.
While the government has succeeded in severely restricting his rights to protest by passing laws specifically against thwarting him, courts have ruled that these pieces of legislation cannot be invoked retroactively, and allowed Mr. Haw to continue to protest.
Lucas called on the Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who promised to look into the SOCPA, to stop these forms of police brutality immediately and prevent any further human rights abuses before the deadline for consultation ends on January 17th."
