Do we love Big Brother?

[Rum]

I think it is inevitable actually. What with face recognition technology, algorithms that identity behaviour patters and god knows what else our 'security' resources are developing.

Some years ago now when I was in my late 30s I took a break from my career and tried my hand at the thing I always wanted to do but was never quite good enough to - design. I worked at it for two years from home and it almost make us broke - me and the ex sadly.

I had a desktop set-up which was new at the time - cutting edge stuff with Windows 3.1, incredibly slow graphics processing and an inkjet printer. I got a few jobs and maybe if the recession of the time hadn't come along...anyway.

One day there was a knock at the door and there stood two plain clothes policemen. They were pretty obvious frankly. They asked if they could come in and ask a few questions about the area. We lived in deepest rural Herefordshire at the time.

Having nothing to feel concerned about I asked them in. They told me about an LSD factory that they had busted a mile or two away. Some guys had been producing blotter acid on an industrial scale it seems and when arrested had been found with over half a million tabs - all with a bat printed on each dose.

Wow I said etc.

They then asked me about what I was doing. I told them about the graphic design business.

Then their questions took a bit of a turn. Would it be possible to use the printer to inject LSD into paper - possible make the bat pic with LSD itself? Had I met these guys? D

The sinking feeling I experienced was actually physical. I was totally innocent of anything to do with the drug dealers of course, but I suddenly has a tiny inkling of what it mist be like to be at the mercy of the 'forces of law and order' with no control over what might happen next.

I feared arrest frankly. But they asked me a couple more questions, without actually accusing me directly of anything, but hinting very broadly that it looked like I might be connected to the guys they had busted.

They left without apology or thanks. It really shook me up.

[Audley Strange]

One of my former friends used to play a play by mail game called Mafia. He would phone his brother and they would discuss their bootlegging and prostitution operations and tactics against rivals. This was during the time that cordless phones could occasionally pick up conversations from other phones and his neighbour had, over a series of weeks been snooping and kept tapes and exhaustive notes, which lead to my former friend and his brother being taken down the station "to help with enquiries" and being shown all this "evidence".

Shook him up really badly, not only that he'd been fingered by the police for being the head of an imagined organised criminal group, but that his neighbour rather than just call the police, had decided to play amateur dectective.

I asked him if he was going to press charges against his neighbour and he told me he asked the police that and they told him, it was not a crime but a civil matter.

[Jason]

I'd be more concerned about it if I lived in the UK. Youse guys have CCTV cameras every 10m2. Where the hell do you take a prostitute you just picked up in your 3 wheeled car?

[Rum]

See 'dogging'.

[Thinking Aloud]

I'd be more concerned about it if I lived in the UK. Youse guys have CCTV cameras every 10m2. Where the hell do you take a prostitute you just picked up in your 3 wheeled car?

nor are there any CCTV cameras around here

[Jason]

Ah. Take her to TA's place.

[JimC]

Once a guy gets elected, he tends to have difficulty distinguishing between opposition to him and opposition to the country. This is especially true when that someone convinces himself that he is acting in the best interests of the country and the opposition is destructive.

Agreed, this is often the case...

[JacksSmirkingRevenge]

<snip>
I feared arrest frankly.... <snip>

That would have probably been better for you. - At least then you would have been entitled to compensation. Wankers.

[Trinity]

I was interrogated once in a murder inquiry, really shook me up. A young girl had been murdered near where I used to live with my ex husband we had recently separated. He was under scrutiny because apparently he matched witness descriptions of a man "seen in the area" he had his shoes and clothes taken, DNA testing and lots of "interviews". I knew nothing about this until two police came to my door. They took my coat and shoes and told me to not leave the area. Shit me right up for a while until it was obvious my ex and I were proved innocent. They never found the killer though.

[Rum]

My dad was a police officer in Hong Kong when I was a kid. We lived in quarters in a police station overlooking an inner square when I was a small kid. I just remembered how terrified I was of police men in uniform!

Paging Dr Freud..Paging Dr Freud!

[PsychoSerenity]

They took my coat and shoes and told me to not leave the area. Shit me right up for a while until it was obvious my ex and I were proved innocent. They never found the killer though.

Or maybe they did. J'accuse your shoes!

[Audley Strange]

My dad was a police officer in Hong Kong when I was a kid. We lived in quarters in a police station overlooking an inner square when I was a small kid. I just remembered how terrified I was of police men in uniform!

Paging Dr Freud..Paging Dr Freud!

"Ja... Ja... now tell me, did you have any dezire to have sexz vif your local policeman vile strangling your muzzer? If so, you may vet ze bed..."

[Rum]

My dad let me handle his gun (a pistol) briefly a few times. Do you think that is the root of my problems doctor?

[Tero]

If you're not doing anything wrong then what are you worried about?

I think the fact that you're even bringing this up means we need to look at you a bit more closely.

Worried? Not so much, more I'm not going to be interested in listening to liberals or conservatives complain about their rights being taken away when it affects them personally. In fact I will delight in taking them to internment camps.

Will there be swimming? Tennis? Church service?

When is the bus coming?

[Audley Strange]

If you're not doing anything wrong then what are you worried about?

I think the fact that you're even bringing this up means we need to look at you a bit more closely.

Worried? Not so much, more I'm not going to be interested in listening to liberals or conservatives complain about their rights being taken away when it affects them personally. In fact I will delight in taking them to internment camps.

Will there be swimming? Tennis? Church service?

When is the bus coming?

Bus? What do you think this is Nazi Germany? We'll be offering, in the mainstream press, huge discounts on luxury holidays and then it's just a matter of rendering them at airports.