Crimint those varmints

I guess, living in Britain, there's always a part of you that understands these sorts of things happen routinely. However, to find out that it's real is still a bit shocking:

Police are targeting thousands of political campaigners in surveillance operations and storing their details on a database for at least seven years, an investigation by the Guardian can reveal.

Photographs, names and video ­footage of people attending protests are ­routinely obtained by surveillance units and stored on an "intelligence system". The ­Metropolitan police, which has ­pioneered surveillance at demonstrations and advises other forces on the tactic, stores details of protesters on Crimint, the general database used daily by all police staff to catalogue criminal intelligence.

One of the worst things is that when heavyhanded police tactics and surveillance are revealed, it's almost always the case that they've previously denied it or lied about it. Further:

Police surveillance teams are also ­targeting journalists who cover demonstrations, and are believed to have ­monitored members of the press during at least eight protests over the last year.

That seems like a sign of a healthy democracy.

Activists "seen on a regular basis" as well as those deemed on the "periphery" of demonstrations are included on the police databases, regardless of whether they have been convicted or arrested. Names, political associations and photographs of protesters from across the political spectrum – from campaigners against the third runway at Heathrow to anti-war activists – are catalogued.

Well, it's surely nothing to worry about. After all, the government is good. This is a free country. The government is only looking out for our safety. You've got to keep track of peoples' "political associations", right? Political activism is just one step away from terrorism, don't you know.