What next? Mind police on patrol (From Your Local Guardian)

What next? Mind police on patrol

11:41am Thursday 13th November 2008 in Your Say

I have just read Mr Wicks’ letter where he argues for the drinking ban in Feltham with “When the police see someone drinking, how drunk do they know he is going to get? Or how much trouble he will cause”.

What a ridiculous rationale.

You may as well go round and arrest everyone just in case they are thinking about committing a crime. Let’s develop some kind of mind police that would be able to detect an illegal thought and prosecute the perpetrator immediately, thus putting an end to all crime.

That sort of mindset is straight out of an Orwellian novel.

We could argue until the end of time about the difference between freedom and anarchy, but control is where it all starts. We as British residents are being more and more controlled with every new law passed.

I think it was Edward R Murrow who said: “We can not defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home.”

LARRY SPEAR
Feltham