Chief Constable warns against “drift towards police state”
The battle against extremism could lead to a “drift towards a police state” in which officers are turned into “thought police”, one of Britain’s most senior chief constables has warned.
Sir Peter Fahy, chief constable of Greater Manchester, said police were being left to decide what is acceptable free speech as the efforts against radicalisation and a severe threat of terrorist attack intensify.
It is politicians, academics and others in civil society who have to define what counts as extremist ideas, he says…
Speaking to the Guardian, Fahy said: “If these issues [defining extremism] are left to securocrats then there is a danger of a drift to a police state”. He added: “I am a securocrat, it’s people like me, in the security services, people with a narrow responsibility for counter-terrorism. It is better for that to be defined by wider society and not securocrats.”
He’s right – and what he didn’t add is that too many politicians take the opposite attitude, of thinking that whatever securocrats want is what they should get.
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