England swing like a pendulum do, sho’ 'nuff. According to this article, the Brits will soon start entering any child who becomes “cheeky” into a secret database of potential criminals, and he or she will be shadowed throughout his or her childhood years: “Their progress will then be monitored at school and on the streets by special squads of police officers and social workers, even though the children have not committed a crime and will not have been warned that they are being watched.”
God forgive me for blasphemy, but the first words that come to mind are Jesus H. Christ in a chicken basket.
Yo Brits:
(1) What the hell’s going on over there?
(2) Don’t you ever worry about this kind of thing?
Yo 'Merkins:
(1) What do you think of this kind of thing?
(2) Could this ever happen here? ('Course, if the kid doesn’t have American citizenship, Ashcroft might very well lock him up on secret charges indefinitely . . .)
Hell, we Americans are already thinking of maintaining a database of “registered sex offenders” whose names and faces will get plastered all over the nation for the public to see. (Note: under this plan, convicted murderers and drug dealers will continue to remain anonymous once they’re released from prison – it’s only “sex offenders”, which would include voyeurs and stalkers, which would be made publically known.)
Compared to that, what’s a little Juvenille not-quite-Delinquency tracking? :rolleyes:
Uh . . . so publicly identifying and tracking people who have actually been convicted of sex crimes is morally equivalent to compiling secret dossiers and conducting surveillance on children who have never done worse than probably being an ordinary kid? You have an interesting perspective on the world.