Knife/Gun/Weapon scanner @ ED Station tonight

[DJKillaQueen]

I don't know anything e-dealer. I was just trying to dispell the idea that use of such a scanner in such a location is an imposition on civil liberties. That the reason for use of such a thing is namely to aid Police in their fight against often already known criminals and gangs.

[the-e-dealer]

DJKillaQueen Wrote:

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> I don't know anything e-dealer.

[Penguin68]

Green Goose wrote:- The silent majority would put up with searches every day of the week so long as it helps reduce stabbings and othe crimes committed with weapons.

I think Dietrich Bonhoeffer had it right about the 'silent majority' when he wrote:-

"First they came for the Communists, but I was not a Communist so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Socialists and the Trade Unionists, but I was neither, so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew so I did not speak out. And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me"

There was a 'silent majority' in 1930s Germany (actually, at times quite a vociferous majority, it has to be said) - and things were done and allowed in their name which no one now would support.

It is the mark of the libertarian (not the liberal) to argue for freedoms which give their enemies the same freedom they claim for themselves. My 'ilk' as you so charmingly put it would rather see the same rule of law applied to all people, however much we personally despise them, than to see partiality in the law applied against those the state have decreed as enemies. That is the price of a free society, and one well worth paying.

I still have a hope that the Supreme Court will determine that the assurances made by Jordan that no evidence obtained through torture will be used are sufficient to return Mr Qatada for trial there. If they don't, however much I don't like it, I will be pleased that we live in a state where the judiciary do not dance to the politicians' piping.

The silent majority, in so many states, have sleep-walked into oppression. Indeed, if you want to see oppression at work anywhere, listen out for the self-satisfied baying of the silent majority.

[Huguenot]

What an important point Penguin68!

If clusterfucks like Qatada are the price of free society and a massive global reduction in violence over the last two centuries then we should be happy to pay.

That being said I don't have any problem with the portable scanners, because they're not being used inappropriately. Knives ARE allowed to be carried in the UK within certain parameters and that makes perfect sense.