As we’ve noted before, the police are always the first to advocate for a police state. And as we’ve noted before, the IRP scheme is a long step down that slippery slope toward a society governed by the police rather than governed by law.
Emboldened by their power to issue IRPs (on crappy evidence) and seize vehicles on a mere allegation of excessive speeding, the police have now started to warn us about their next move. They want to take your cell phone if they think you were using it while your car is in gear. On the mere allegation of a police officer, the police want to take your phone for at least 5 days.
Without a warrant, and without a hearing they want to take your personal property with all of your personal information in it. They want to seize your mobile phone which you use to respond to calls in the event that you must perform emergency surgery, or you need to attend your child’s school if they unexpectedly become sick, or that you use as the lifeline for your dying friend. You know, that device that has all your contact information, that the people who are arriving from Tokyo tomorrow afternoon planned to call to make sure you meet up at the airport. The one with all of your personal emails in it. That’s the one.
On the one hand, right-minded people should wonder how the police would have the gall to suggest such a thing. On the other hand, when we’ve given up so many of the legal protections we have in our society and handed punishment over to the police, it’s no surprise that they would think that this is somehow okay.
If the Government says that they don’t know about the police plan to seize our property without a warrant or a trial, we don’t believe them for a second. As he explained to us a while back, Jamie Graham is on the phone with the top brass in the OSMV on an almost daily basis. So by the time he is presented to claim that this is simply an idea they’re floating, it’s probably a done deal.
We think this is coming our way soon and the palatable way to present it was through the police rather than by the Government, which is on the ropes in any event.
We lament BC becoming a police state, and we wish we could stop it. But if you look at historic examples, usually the police manage to eliminate opponents (such as ourselves) either by actual elimination or some other form of censorship.
What also pains us greatly is that we’re so often right when we predict the next moves of the police and the Government. Given the direction we’re headed, it’s probably a good time to get out of BC as quickly as possible.