Speelgoedmannetje wrote:
I know the ausweis is forced upon me. But I don't give a sh*t. I do not support stasi methods. I don't give a rat's a*se about people feeling 'unsafe'.
Unfortunately, the government must take a different viewpoint. It has the welfare of an entire nation to think of, and not just your own puny life.
You may not give a rat's a*se about people feeling 'unsafe': that does not mean that the government should.
Now whether the people
are genuinely unsafe, and whether carrying ID around
does solve something, is another discussion. There is a lot of silly nonsense floating around, as you are never safe: some determined nutjob can always go on a wild killing spree where you least expect it. There is no defense against this, but people still like to pretend there is. As for carrying ID around: I don't think it solves anything, but as most people already carry driver's licenses, mobile telephones, agendas and lots of other personal identifying equipment with them, I really don't see what all the uproar is about. Oh, people are quick to shout 'fascist practice' or 'police state', and then dream up tons of wildly speculative scenarios where the cops are forming checkpoints on busy streets to filter out people who reside in this country without a permit. Well, if that were indeed the case, what makes you think that having a proper ID would make you 'safe' in the first place?
Either way, I have no qualms with presenting a form of ID when asked politely by a law enforcement officer in circumstances which are indeed tense or unusual---uproar, demonstration, murder investigation in the house next to me, and so forth. I have never been asked to do so. In fact, I have to present more ID at the post office to claim
my mail, or at the gates of companies I visit even to have a quick conversation with someone---and noone has a problem with
that. But behold the outcry once the
government asks you to carry it around. Then all of a sudden the most dreaded scenarios well up from the depths of human imagination.
In short: I side with moto. It doesn't solve anything; it makes the society only a little more safe, but there really is no harm in carrying it with you. Chances are you'll be happy to have it with you in case you do need it all of a sudden.
Now what is
really scary is this nation's decision to track mobile and internet usage for 18 months, a full year longer than the EU-recommended 6, and then expect all data carriers to make the investments
themselves to comply with the law. There is no known program which can sift through these
mountains of data, even if it is just the routing information (and not the actual data). You'd need a very powerful supercomputer to analyse it, too. Who has and controls access to this huge haystack is hazy to say the least; it most certainly is not decided nor verified democratically. Personally, I think that several shadowy agencies will set up honeypots around known religious or political hotspots, and then work their way from there. They cannot single these out---protected by freedom of speech laws---so instead, everyone now becomes a suspect. Orwell would have been proud.
