http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/oct/25/police-domestic-extremists-databasePolice in £9m scheme to log 'domestic extremists'
Thousands of activists monitored on network of overlapping databasesPolice are gathering the personal details of thousands of activists who attend political meetings and protests, and storing their data on a network of nationwide intelligence databases.
The hidden apparatus has been constructed to monitor "domestic extremists", the Guardian can reveal in the first of a three-day series into the policing of protests. Detailed information about the political activities of campaigners is being stored on a number of overlapping IT systems, even if they have not committed a crime.
Senior officers say domestic extremism, a term coined by police that has no legal basis, can include activists suspected of minor public order offences such as peaceful direct action and civil disobedience....
...Acpo's national infrastructure for dealing with domestic extremism was set up with the backing of the Home Office in an attempt to combat animal rights activists who were committing serious crimes. Senior officers concede the criminal activity associated with these groups has receded, but the units dealing with domestic extremism have expanded their remit to incorporate campaign groups across the political spectrum, including anti-war and environmental groups that have only ever engaged in peaceful direct action.
All three units divide their work into four categories of domestic extremism: animal rights campaigns; far-right groups such as the English Defence League; "extreme leftwing" protest groups, including anti-war campaigners; and "environmental extremism" such as Climate Camp and Plane Stupid campaigns....
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http://antifascist-calling.blogspot.com/Taking a page from America's political police force, the FBI, the British state is beefing-up an ever-growing watch list of "domestic extremists."
As we know, that trend has taken on a Kafkaesque life of its own here in the heimat. Secrecy News reports that during a Q&A last year with the Senate Judiciary Committee, FBI Director Robert S. Mueller told the panel that each day between March 2008 and March 2009, "there were an average of more than 1,600 nominations for inclusion on the
watch list."...
...According to The Guardian, a "hidden apparatus has been constructed to monitor 'domestic extremists'," one that stores this information "on a number of overlapping IT systems, even if they have not committed a crime."...
...As the journalists point out, the phrase "domestic extremism" is not a lawful term. In fact, the widespread use of the term is a demonstration of how powerful constituencies have perverted law, thus creating their own all-embracing interpretation of the role of protest in a democratic society....
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