Anarchists should be reported, advises Westminster anti-terror police

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/jul/31/westminster-police-anarchist-whistleblower-advice

What should you do if you discover an anarchist living next door? Dust off your old Sex Pistols albums and hang out a black and red flag to make them feel at home? Invite them round to debate the merits of Peter Kropotkin's anarchist communism versus the individualist anarchism of Emile Armand? No – the answer, according to an official counter-terrorism notice circulated in London last week, is that you must report them to police immediately.

This was the surprising injunction from the Metropolitan Police issued to businesses and members of the public in Westminster last week. There was no warning about other political groups, but next to an image of the anarchist emblem, the City of Westminster police's "counter terrorist focus desk" called for anti-anarchist whistleblowers stating: "Anarchism is a political philosophy which considers the state undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, and instead promotes a stateless society, or anarchy. Any information relating to anarchists should be reported to your local police."

The move angered some anarchists who complained that being an anarchist should not imply criminal behaviour. They said they feel unfairly criminalised for holding a set of political beliefs.

The feeling of disproportion was compounded by the briefing note author making a similar request about Islamist terrorists a few lines further down. Under an image of flag with a gold dot beneath some Arabic script it added: "Often seen used by al-Qaida in Iraq. Any sightings of these images should be reported to your local police."




***the westminster police have gone off the deepend.:eyes:

After all, they are a much larger danger to society.

Most anarchists are harmless idealists who like to get in occasional skirmishes with the police during protests. They haven't been any serious threat to law and order for over a century now, during the more radical labor movement days when they were bombing factories and murdering corrupt politicians and what not.

You'd think England would be focusing more on its right-wing threats, after what happened in nearby Norway, considering there is a sizable anti-foreigner/Muslim movement in their midst...

As the economic and social situation continues to deteriorate in the UK, anarchism will become a rallying point for anti-state sentiment. It looks to me like they're trying to defuse that possibility ahead of time.

Look for the same warnings to be issued in the USA within the next 5 years.