Oh, and since when are you so concerned about civil liberties? You’re demending something that goes beyond even what we have in America (where it is perfectly legal for the police to take pictures from helicopters), and we have some of the most generous civil liberties laws in the world.
But, IIRC, you don’t even believe in our concept of freedom of speech, which seems to me to be far more important than protection of criminals.
> Oh, and since when are you so concerned about civil liberties?
I’ve always been concerned with civil liberties, when balanced against civil responsibilities.
When did you stop caring about civil liberties? That’s a much better question.
> You’re demending something that goes beyond even what we have in America (where it is perfectly legal for the police to take pictures from helicopters),
Yup. Here in New Zealand we have The Privacy Act 1993 — a far-reaching and enlightened piece of legislation that provides Kiwis with vastly superior protection against government and private misuse of information. We are also signators to the UN Declaration of Human Rights 1948 and, unlike the US, we have structured much of our body of law around that.
In practical terms we have a right to privacy, except under very narrow, very well defined circumstances. It’s brilliant.
If you are not receiving at least that level of protection in the US (you aren’t) then you, too, ought to be demanding something beyond what you are getting.
> and we have some of the most generous civil liberties laws in the world.
You do, but not generous enough, apparently. If your cops are allowed to do what the British cops were doing to the Gypsies, then they need to be brought into line under Civil Rights violations.
> But, IIRC, you don’t even believe in our concept of freedom of speech,
You do recall correctly. My/our concept of “freedom of speech” is indeed different to yours. I like ours much better: it protects the individual from being aggrieved better.
> which seems to me to be far more important than protection of criminals.
Alleged criminals. Innocent until proven guilty, remember?