John K. Hill (London): Passing my local shop last night and
seeing a policeman with a handgun on his belt browsing the fruit was quite
unsettling. Routinely arming the police is something I'm very strongly against,
but feel powerless to resist (he, after all, had a gun). This situation brought
together a few ideas that have been written about on OurKingdom in the last
week.
Compared to the French,
the British (or perhaps just the English) can be pretty passive when it comes
to resisting the ever-encroaching police state. The lack
of a public arena where people feel they can effectively resist the actions of
the government means that people either become apathetic or find other ways
to vent their discontent.
