Terrorizing critical sociology in Germany

German police used anti "terror" laws to arrest an urban sociologist from the Department for Sociology, Humboldt University Berlin. He was arrested because he writes on gentrification, a term used by a militant group that set fire to military vehicles, and he has met several suspected members during public meetings in which urban policy is discussed and criticized. Although the warrant was finally rejected by the courts, the anti terrorist law is still in effect and the threat to critical intellectuals has been made clear. Read more at ozean blogs.

This is a world-wide problem. In the past I have written about the use of anti-terrorist laws and surveillence in England and El Salvador. Up to what point are people willing to give up their civil liberities in the name of security?

Beware of using dangerous terms like "gentrification"

British Police to use terror laws on protesters

To paraphrase Tom Robbins: We once had a rat problem. So we imported mongooses to control the rats. Now we have a mongoose problem. Mongooses are known to attack pets, small children, lawnmowers and moving bicycles.

Here we have a population afraid of terrorists, so we give the police, secret service and military powers to legally abuse civil and human rights. Now they use it against the general population.

In England, after using their new stop and search powers on the random members of the general population, the Guardian reports that they plan to use the anti terrorist laws against global warming protesters. El Salvador has already beaten them it to by using its terror law to imprison protesters against the privatization of water services.