A recent
report states that Richard Branson's Virgin company paid the London
Metropolitan Police more than £5,000 after police raids aimed at
proving television set-boxes were being used to view channels without
paying. It is very likely that the police only conducted the raids
because of the money offered by Virgin. This is a trend that we will
see more of as the state hands over more and more to the corporate
world. The present philosophy of privatising everything from
education to health will continue and there is no ideological reason
why the police can't be run by the highest bidder. Police priorities
will shift according to who is prepared to pay the most, as state
funding dwindles the police force will be obliged to raise money from
its activities and eventually show a profit. What chance will you
have then if your house is burgled, or a member of your family is
ripped of in some scam, if the big paying police customers want them
to spend their time trying to track down those who might be
downloading their stuff for free on the internet. He who pays the
piper calls the tune. Corporate fascism is well and truly embedded.
Why does this article remind me of the corporate police depicted in the Robocop film? Christ, I don't want to live in that type of world. Surely there must be some intelligent Constables who can see where this is heading.
ReplyDeleteWell you would hope so, but I doubt it very much, and even if there is, a couple of intelligent cops will not turn the tide. Think mass grassroots direct action to change the way this whole insane system is heading.
ReplyDeleteIt's good to have some of the government's entities be privatised. But the police is too important to be privatised the government should have the sole control over the police force.
ReplyDeleteIf you believe in capitalism then there is no arguement for exempting anything from the private sector. The basic belief is that you are allowed to create a service and make a profit, be it education, health or security. It has been admitted that the Iraq mis-adventure was dependent on private security firms, that's capitalism. You want the service you pay, if you can't afford to pay, you do without or appeal to charity. any variation from that is not capitalism. So if you think that there are things that shouldn't be in the hands of the greed driven capitalists, why not join an anti-capitalist movement.
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