A police state does not happen overnight. It comes in tiny steps as the safeguards to civil liberties are abandoned - one by one - for what seems to be good and valid reasons at that time !
Many were concerned when restrictions on the planting of listening and tracking devices allowed police unrestricted action for five days without a warrant.
Previously, each application had to be made before a judge or a magistrate with the reasons for the application given - and approved.
We now learn that the emergency measures put in place following the Cronulla race riots are to become a permanent police power. Police will have discretion to summarily order a pub, club or a bar to cease trading and close it's doors, set up roadblocks and halt traffic - and stop and search any person or vehicle without giving a reason.
No police jurisdiction in the world is entirely free of corruption. The very reason there are safeguards to limit police excesses is because of the enormous opportunity for individual police to use the power invested in them for personal gain - or to influence the outcome of events they are overseeing.
The freedom to place listening devices at will can lead to police " fishing expeditions " and the right to stop and search a vehicle or an individual for no stated reason can lead to persecution at the whim of a police officer.
The erosion of civil liberties has accelerated since the advent of terrorism - but the danger is that these new powers will simply be widely used to create a police state in which individuals no longer have the protection of the rule of law - but will be subject to the whim of police who have the power to interpret the law according to their own view and advantage.
A government who abandons public protection is the enemy of the people it governs !
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