It's called the "Fixated Threat Assessment" and, like the law that had climate change "deniers" <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/nov/27/paris-climate-activists-put-under-house-arrest-using-emergency-laws">put on house arrest in France</a> ahead of a climate change conference despite no wrongdoing. It's another sign we're moving towards a "pre-crime" enforcement world like that described in Philip K. Dick's short story Minority Report. The Queensland Fixated Threat Assessment Centre (QFTAC) is a department staffed by Queensland Police officers working alongside clinicians from Queensland Forensic Mental Health Services. It's job is to identify persons who they feel "fixate" on certain government officials or other public persons.
<a href="https://www.mhrt.qld.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/QFTAC-brochure-original.pdf">The QFTAC brochure</a> gets straight to the point and asks the hard question that should be on readers' minds already. The explanation is less than fully convincing.
"Isn't this just a means of locking away political dissidents?
Assessing concerning, disordered communications or approaches to politicians is simply a means of identifying mentally ill people with unmet mental health needs. QFTAC does not have any interest or indeed capacity, to intervene with individuals who merely hold divergent political views."
QFTAC is the only program of its type in Australasia and, indeed, outside of Europe and is modelled on a program from the UK.
And who is decade what are merely "divergent political views" and which are the comments of potentially dangerous stalkers with "unmet mental health needs" who perhaps need to be preempted before they <i>can</i> do something genuinely dangerous or illegal. Remember, where there's a smoke bomb, there's no fire necessary for smoke.
The Queensland task force aggregates data from the Queensland Police Service and other law enforcement agencies, regional and national ministry records, electoral and other government offices and with that information accrued sets out to track down thought criminals who send too many letters to government or media. Well, that's one way to streamline the "Democratic Process," I guess.
https://thegoldwater.com/news/8573-Taser-Suggest-Little-Brother-Style-Civilian-Surveillance
According to the brochure they're "proactive rather than reactive," which I take refers to the fact that they catch the offenders before they actually commit any crime. Once you get profiled as a potential loony, you're singled out for home visits and weekly reviews. The whole program is on a "need to know" basis.
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Even more interesting, the <a href="https://www.nexusnewsfeed.com/article/geopolitics/queensland-police-s-orwellian-fixated-persons-unit/">Queensland Police Special Branch's history</a> includes being brought into being as a means to monitor German and Japanese subversives in World War II. In the 80's, the same department came under fire for treatment of political dissidents and protestors and was officially disbanded due to recommendation of the Fitzgerald Inquiry into Police Corruption.
Apparently Vermont seems interested in a pilot program of their own with apparent test subject Christopher M. Hayden. <a href="http://digital.vpr.net/post/burlington-man-fills-lawmakers-inboxes-racist-emails">Christopher is currently facing charges that he sent "hate speech" and "threats." In June, Chris was charged with disturbing the peace by electronic means with a hate-crimes enhancement for writing a series of letters to Democratic Party Chairman Faisal Gill, who Hayden called a "creeping agent for sharia law" and warned he should "get out" (of Vermont) "or we will make you wish that you had." Hayden wrote several Vermont and Burlington public officials, generally cc'd to dozens of members of the media so the entire chain of information was available for anyone willing to look.
“I do hope that he gets a sentence that makes him realize that he cannot do these kind of things any more,” Faisal Gill has said.
Well, if the programs continue to do well in Queensland and Vermont, you might see more wrongthink pre-crime units popping up here and there.
Twitter: #Australia #profiling #surveillance
