process of setting up either a Secret Police force, or a Gestapo type political
organisation in Britain?. Whether intentional or not, lets explore the similarities
between what we already know went before, and where this country is going now.
The GESTAPO
was the political police force of the Reich. Much of its personnel consisted of
transferees from former police forces of the States.
Membership in the
GESTAPO was voluntary, and it had a membership of about 40,000 or 50,000 in
1943-45. The GESTAPO was founded in April 1933 by Goering to serve as a
political police force in
GESTAPO in
The GESTAPO,
through its great power of arrest and confinement to concentration camps
without recourse to law, was the principal means for eliminating enemies of the
Nazi regime.
The headquarters
organization of the GESTAPO (Amt IV of the RSHA) was set up on a functional
basis.
In 1943 it
contained six sub-sections.
- Section A dealt with opponents,
sabotage, and protective service. - Section B dealt with political
churches, sects and Jews, and was subdivided into four offices, including
B4, which was responsible for Jewish affairs, matters of evacuation, means
of suppressing enemies of the people and State, dispossession of rights of
German citizenship. (Eichmann was head of this office). - Section C dealt with card files,
protective custody, and matters of press and Party. - Section D dealt with regions under
greater German influence. - Section E dealt with security.
- Section F dealt with passport matters
alien police.
Subordinate
offices of the GESTAPO were established throughout the Reich and designated as
Staats Polizeileitstellen or Staats Polizeistellen, depending upon the size of
the office. These offices reported directly to the RSHA in
Inspekteurs of the Security Police in the various provinces. In the occupied
territories the regional offices of the GESTAPO were coordinated with the
Criminal Police and the SD under Kommandeurs of the Security Police and SD.
The great power
of the GESTAPO was “Schutzhaft” — the power to imprison people
without judicial proceedings on the theory of “protective custody.”
This power was based upon the law of
Constitution guaranteeing civil liberties to the German people. The actions and
orders of the GESTAPO were not subject to judicial review. Under the law of
November 1933
only redress available was by appeal to the next higher authority within the
GESTAPO itself.
Now, if we put this into a modern and British
scenario, lets see what we could see.
The GESTAPO was the political police force of the
Reich. Much of its personnel consisted of transferees from former police forces
of the States.
The SOCA is the
political police force of the UK Government. Much of its personnel consist of
transferees from police forces, the HMRC and Immigration.
Membership in the GESTAPO was voluntary, and it had a
membership of about 40,000 or 50,000 in 1943-45. (10 years after its
establishment).
Membership of
SOCA is voluntary, and it currently has a membership of about 4,200 in year
one, expected to grow substantially over 5-10 years. Recruitment is currently
underway.
The GESTAPO was founded in April 1933 by Goering to
serve as a political police force in
Himmler was named Deputy Chief of the GESTAPO in
1934.
The SOCA was
founded in 2006 by Charles Clarke the then Home secretary, as an Executive
Non-Departmental Public Body sponsored by and operationally reporting to the
Home Office.
Unlike
conventional Police forces, The SOCA does not have a chief constable, but has a
Chair and Director General who are appointed by the Home
Secretary, and are responsible for everything SOCA does operationally and
administratively.
The GESTAPO, through its great power of arrest and
confinement to prisons and concentration camps without recourse to law, was the
principal means for eliminating enemies of the Nazi regime. Enemies not only included
the millions of Jews who suffered at the hands of the Nazi’s, it must also be
remembered that hundreds of thousands of Blacks, Gypsies, mentally ill,
disabled, trade unionists, political opponents, homosexuals, child molesters, fraudsters,
organised criminals, smugglers, petty criminals and social misfits also
suffered along side them.
The
SOCA through its great power of arrest and confinement under the Serious and Organised
Crime Act 2005, is the principal means to removing political protest to
Government, which restricts
the right to demonstrate within an exclusion zone of up to one kilometre from
any point in Parliament Square, including Whitehall, Downing Street,
Westminster Abbey, the Middlesex Guildhall, New Scotland Yard, and the Home
Office. It also covers a sliver of land on the other bank of the River Thames,
including County Hall, the
is currently planning new political restriction areas across the
The headquarters organization of the GESTAPO (Amt IV
of the RSHA) was set up on a functional basis.
In 1943 it contained six sub-sections. (by then it
had 10 years development).
- Section A dealt with opponents, sabotage, and protective service.
- Section B dealt with political churches, sects and Jews, and was
subdivided into four offices, including B4, which was responsible for
Jewish affairs, matters of evacuation, means of suppressing enemies of the
people and State, dispossession of rights of German citizenship. (Eichmann
was head of this office). - Section C dealt with card files, protective custody, and matters of
press and Party. - Section D dealt with regions under greater German influence.
- Section E dealt with security.
- Section F dealt with passport matters and police.
The SOCA has
several functions. Although SOCA is primarily a police force, so was the
Gestapo during its formation, and the list above comes after the Gestapo had
been in existence for 10 years, but as we see with section 132 of the Serious
Organised Crime and Police Act, it is already being used for political
purposes, and we expect new Statutory Instruments to change its makeup over
subsequent years.
Remember that 64
years have passed since the Gestapo structure above, and technology now plays a
major part in our lives, paper systems are replaced by electronic systems, so
one Gestapo can now equate to multiple electronically connected government agencies.
Look at the other
enabled statutes that have come into force over the past 10 years (many listed below) and include
the working links from SOCA to other enforcement agencies,
such as HMRC, DWP, Police forces, Immigration, SIS, MI5, Passport, DVLA, Child
Protection, Prison Service, and the Cabinet Office, now include the Government
plans for Data Sharing between all of these agencies, change card files to ID
Card, instead of Jews substitute Muslims, then the list above looks remarkably
and frighteningly similar.
The National Identity Register (NIR), and the ID card
scheme will tie all the above together.
Subordinate offices of the GESTAPO were established
throughout the Reich and designated as Staats Polizeileitstellen or Staats
Polizeistellen, depending upon the size of the office. These offices reported
directly to the RSHA in
but were subject to the supervision of Inspekteurs of the Security Police in
the various provinces. In the occupied territories the regional offices of the
GESTAPO were coordinated with the Criminal Police and the SD under Kommandeurs
of the Security Police and SD.
The UK government
is in the process of setting up ID interrogation centres, to begin with there
will be 69, plus existing Passport Offices, and will be housed primarily within
a Revenue Enquiry Centre or other HMRC building. See here for a list, and
will work closely with Police forces and security services.
Once in these
Interrogation Centres, people will be subjected to background checks,
questioning to test their story against official records, photographs and
fingerprinting. Registration on the national ID database(s) – the 'National
Identity Register' will begin sometime this year. (Note that the Government
call them ‘Interrogation Centres’).
The great power of the GESTAPO was
“Schutzhaft” — the power to imprison people without judicial
proceedings on the theory of “protective custody.” This power was
based upon the law of
February 1933
Constitution guaranteeing civil liberties to the German people. The actions and
orders of the GESTAPO were not subject to judicial review. Under the law of
the only redress available was by appeal to the next higher authority within
the GESTAPO itself.
The changes to
the Mental Health Act will give SOCA and the Police almost the same power.
There are changes
underway at present to allow trial without Jury, currently limited to
complicated fraud cases and parts of the Terrorism Act, but once established as
a legal precedent, it will be possible to enabled it across other Acts.
The Acts and
amendments listed below give unprecedented powers to the Police, SOCA, HMRC,
FSA, Local Authorities, BAA, Weights and Measures, DWP and many other agencies,
to arrest without evidence, many without warrant, and virtually every one of
them excludes itself from the Freedom of Information Act. This means that we will never be able to know
how many people have been arrested under some of these Acts, or how many people
have been ‘disappeared’ into custody or, if John Reid and Sir Ian Blair get
their way ‘Camps’.
I do believe that
this adds weight to the argument that we are sleepwalking into both a surveillance
society and a police state.
And remember,
Adolf Hitler convinced his people that all of this consolidation of power was
needed for their security, because they were being terrorised and under threat
from the nations around them.
The big lie then
was Security, the big lie now is exactly the same.
The list below is
by no means definitive, further references can be found on the UK Statute Law
Database here.
Legislative
and Regulatory Reform Act 2006 What the Liberals call The Removal of
Parliament Act.
Serious
Organised Crime and Police Act 2005
The
Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 (Delegation under section 43) Order
2006
Immigration,
Asylum and Nationality Act 2006,
Safeguarding
Vulnerable Groups Act 2006
Prevention
of Terrorism Act 2005
The
Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005 (Continuance in force of sections 1 to 9)
Order 2006
Anti-social
Behaviour Act 2003
Nationality,
Immigration and Asylum Act 2002
Social
Security Fraud Act 2001
Criminal
Justice and Police Act 2001
Anti-terrorism,
Crime and Security Act 2001
The
Terrorism Act 2000 (Business in the Regulated Sector) Order 2007
Regulation
of Investigatory Powers Act 2000
Youth
Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999
Criminal
Justice (Terrorism and Conspiracy) Act 1998
Racial
and Religious Hatred Act 2006
Terrorism (United Nations
Measures) Order 2006
Violent
Crime Reduction Act 2006
The
Crime Prevention (Designated Areas) Order 2006
The
Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 and Money Laundering Regulations 2003 (Amendment)
Order 2006
The
Fines Collection Regulations 2006
The
Information Sharing Index (England) Regulations 2006
The
Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (Business in the Regulated Sector) Order 2007
The
Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (References to Financial Investigators) (Amendment)
Order 2006
Police
and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 – The Act
Below are SI’s or
Statutory Instruments that have been applied since 1984 to change the PACE Act to
suit policy.
The
Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (Code of Practice C and Code of Practice
H) Order 2006
The
Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (Application to the Armed Forces) Order
2006
The
Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (Codes of Practice) (Revisions to Code A)
Order 2006
The
Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (Codes of Practice) (Revisions to Code C)
Order 2005
The
Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (Codes of Practice) Order 2005
The
Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (Codes of Practice) Order 2004
The
Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (Codes of Practice) (Codes B to E) (No.
2) Order 2003
The
Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (Codes of Practice) (Code E) Order 2003
The
Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (Codes of Practice) (Armed Forces) Order
2003
The
Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (Codes of Practice) (Modification) Order
2001
The
Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (Tape-recording of Interviews)
(Amendment) Order 2001
The
Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (Codes of Practice No. 5) Order 1999.
The
Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (Application to the Armed Forces) Order
1997.
The
Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (Codes of Practice) (Armed Forces) Order
1997.
The
Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (Application to Customs and Excise)
(Amendment) Order 1996
