Laugh!!?? - I nearly became an urban guerilla. You're right of course:
it simply defies rational response. Not the least of it, is it is all so
predictable. In October, the Telegraph had a front page story about
crime statistics suggesting that black people were disproportionately
responsible for crime and that the Macpherson report was therefore
invalidated (at least that is what the story implied). However, all this
was exactly the same response as the Met had engineered to the Scarman
report of nearly twenty years before - release statistics and claim
aggressive area-policing and stop and search are justified by
disproportionate black crime (regardless of the fact that part of this
"crime" is purely the justified response to these racist tactics).

I do think, that as is the case with surveillance issues, the answer
lies in promoting a human rights culture. We can't expect privacy in the
old sense of the term, but we can expect to have some sort of personal
space that is respected by right. So that people would have access to
your e-mails but not the right to use them against you. You would expect
to have your movements under scrutiny, but you would also have the right
to move freely. This sounds as though its all one-way traffic, but It
would require total transparency. If the security and intelligence
agencies want to monitor absolutely anything, then they should have the
right as long as absolutely everything they do can also be monitored.
The same with companies, if they want to monitor employees then they
have to be fully monitored as well.

I realise this sounds crazy, but it has to happen. There is no privacy
and unless we want the police, intelligence agencies and companies to
completely take control of public life on the basis of the technical
opportunities available to them, we have to develop a radically new
culture. To this end, 'hackers' should not be performing a public
service by testing the security of systems, they should be performing a
public service by placing all and any material in the public domain.
This would require huge changes in the way the world works but they're
going to happen anyway (eg. can anyone imagine copyright still working
the same way in 50 years time) - this way the nature of policing would
change, intelligence agencies would become largely redundant and
companies would be forced to become collaborative.

The alternative is reactionary dystopia.


Nick Hubble,
[log in to unmask]
GRC Humanities, Arts B, University of Sussex
01273 606755 x2139

-- Begin original message --

> From:         Derrick Cameron <[log in to unmask]>
> Date:         Thu, 14 Dec 2000 17:42:43 +0000
> Subject:      Stop me and search one
> To:           [log in to unmask]
> Reply-To:     Derrick Cameron <[log in to unmask]>
> Comments: To: [log in to unmask]
>
> Just had to pass this on, re. Hague's attack on the
> Macpherson report (via Guardian Unlimited):
>
> Earlier the shadow home secretary, Ann
> Widdecombe, said people should show
> "gratitude" when they are stopped by the
> police. Miss Widdecombe said regular
> stop and searches showed that the force
> was doing its job and helping to fight
> crime.
>
> As Ali G might put it: 'Respec' the Met Massive for
> stopping me for the umpteenth time this year - it's
> becos you is doin' your job'
>
> You've gotta laugh...
>
> Love,
> Derrick
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> [log in to unmask]
>

-- End original message --