UK Police tell people to report “extremist” friends and relatives | Hacker News Reader

UK Police tell people to report “extremist” friends and relatives

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Isn't that what's meant to happen? If your kid starts talking about converting to Islam and becoming a jihadist, surely parents should alert the authorities. The interesting thing is why that wasn't the example they used, given it's the biggest extremist threat the UK faces by a country mile.

Depends. Imagine doing so and having him or her be marked for life over a parents overreaction. Kid could end up on every no fly list in the world overnight and never fly their whole lives. The parents surely worry about these things, especially if they think the person will grow out of it. In any case, I can’t imagine how stressful it must be for those parents

That's on the government not to do idiotic things. True, they often do, but acting as if everything they do may be one is a pretty big fallacy. Soon you'll end up jaywalking because you're sure you know better.

> acting as if everything they do may be [idiotic] is a pretty big fallacy.

Have you not... seen... the UK government in action in the last 5 years?

I jaywalk.

I wouldn't turn in a relative or friend based on suspicions.

Because I don't trust the incentives that law enforcement has coincide in any way with mine.

Because UKIP is a larger organisation

Converting to Islam seems legit to me, I have doubts though the kid is still living at the same place with the parents once it became a jihadist. To me this seems like a well-intended idea from the UK but it's not how reality works. I would even go so far and argue that people develop and engage in extremist views only once they have actually broken ties to any 'normal' people. That said, all documentaries I remember watching about the topic, e.g. the people who did the 9/11 attacks, they were basically living solitude lives, and extremists were welcoming them with open arms.

This is such a privileged take though.

Law enforcement...and basically a good portion of the population are at complete odds with eachother.

I'm good fam. We don't need China's report your neighbors bullshit.

Also, converting to Islam isn't an "extremist" thing. Thanks.

I find it interesting how I got down voted for pointing out the same thing as you basically (just you did it with regards to China's report your neighbor program, while I pointed towards East Germany's report your neighbor and family program).

Now I totally get why I was down voted because obviously what East Germany and by extension the Russians did there was obviously bad and the UK has legitimate reasons and no ill intentions. After all its terrorism, right?

But look at it from a different perspective and it quickly becomes quite different. The East German state actors would have seen themselves exactly as the UK does now, completely in the right because they definitely are trying to find terrorists that are trying to undermine the East German state.

From there on it's a slippery slope and no doubts that the two are quite different cases in the end. But there's way too many parallels and if you want to tell me that there's not way too much potential for abuse, be my guest.

In case it was for lack of references here you go everyone: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stasi

Unlike China where this is current we have access to the "internals" with the Stasi and Germans can request their "Stasi Akte" (their Stasi case file to see what info the state had on them back when).

If you're into theatrical documentary style instead try to find a copy of "The Lives of Others" to watch: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lives_of_Others

> Isn't that what's meant to happen? If your kid starts talking about converting to Islam and becoming a jihadist, surely parents should alert the authorities.

Err..., definitely not. I would hope most parents have a word with the child instead, and certainly not because the child is interested in Islam, as others have also stated. I find this thinking rather bizarre, to be honest - dobbing your own children in to the authorities, for thought crime.

Seems Tom Scott's "Oversight: Thank you for volunteering, citizen."[0] (00:02:14) was ahead of it's time.

[0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIuf1V1FhpY

Isn't it extremist to report friends and relatives to the police, just because they subjectively meet this criteria?

Isn't that what the PREVENT strategy is about, which has been around since 2006. This is nothing new, my mother who worked in a school was given instructional material as to how to report extremists under PREVENT.

Reminds me of the Soviet Union

I was thinking the GDR

https://www.dw.com/en/east-german-stasi-had-189000-informers...

UK Police is a private company and they can do whate... oh wait.

Go back and read https://xkcd.com/1357/ agai...oh.

Orwell was a prophet.

You know all of this was going on while Orwell was alive, right?

You realize the good old UK is also apparently taking cues from the East German Stasi here?

Is this website trustworthy?

If only it applied those politicians and media moguls who have been peddling hate against other countries, the EU, the disadvantaged and even scientists and economists for many many years.

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