Naughtier than ever before? Oh come off it. The major crime rates have gone down dramatically in the US in the past ten years. Everyone is scrambling to take credit. The U.S. jails are full because of the bullshit "war on drugs" which has caused highly repressive and inflexible sentencing for non-violent marijuana users and marketers. (And in some places they gave early release to far more dangerous offenders in order to accommodate the dopers.)

I was in the States for a couple of days this week, and it really struck me: its not a "police state" so much as a highly militarized culture. Interstate highways: a military network. War on Drugs; everywhere. (Yup, the war on weeds. Sheesh.) Even the way they deal with forest fires is very consciously based on a military model (see "Wildlands: The Firefight" by Steven J. Pyne, Whole Earth Review Winter 1999"). Prevalence of camouflage clothes, flags on every lamppost, and of course the national obsession with weaponry. It's just the way y'all are down there; you probably don't even see it. But its the striking difference between small towns in Canada and in the U.S., which in other ways are very similar.

By the way, I learned the hard way that in Canada, not only do we not have a "Miranda" decision, we also have no right not to incriminate ourselves. If you choose to testify at your own trial, which I did at an anti-nuclear trespass charge many years ago, you have to answer all the questions.

(The rules of evidence in Ontario work thus: you can be charged with a crime on the basis of improperly or illegally obtained evidence. You may sue for damages for the violation of your civil rights, but if you were convicted of the offence, you may not collect more than three cents!)

I think there's a major divide in policing systems going on now, in many countries including ours, between "community policing", which is obviously what Mr. Sorcha does, and what's ironically called "quality of life", or more accurately "zero tolerance". And if you think you are safe from unreasonable police intrusion into your law-abiding business, I reckon you're on the lighter side of "racial profiling".

Willie-O