Report: UK police categorize political activists as ‘domestic extremists’

Article here. Excerpt:

'British police inspectors have been building a massive, secret database containing personal information on thousands of otherwise innocent political activists, an investigative report revealed Sunday.

"The hidden apparatus has been constructed to monitor 'domestic extremists', the Guardian can reveal in the first of a three-day series into the policing of protests. Detailed information about the political activities of campaigners is being stored on a number of overlapping IT systems, even if they have not committed a crime."

The UK paper added that the term "domestic extremist" has no legal basis, but is instead intended to tar those who may have participated in something so benign as civil disobedience.

Even merely attending a protest and standing on the outskirts of the crowd can be enough to land one on the National Public Order Intelligence Unit's list of "domestic extremists."
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The paper further noted that the database was first establish to curb legal infractions being committed by animal rights activists, but has grown outward ever since, even though the groups initially targeted are not nearly as active. Activists are divided up into four groups: Extreme right, extreme left, animal rights and anti-war. Groups roped in to the database even include those that have never been associated with any illegal activity.'