National Security (1)

German conservative politician Roland Pofalla has accused Wolfang Thiers of not being a serious president of the German Bundestag anymore. The reason for that has been Thierse's criticism of the methods German police is using to track down potential participants of protests against next week's G8 meeting (which in fact was shared by justice secretary Brigitte Zypries).

I'm convinced that Wolfgang Thierse was right. Taking smell probes of innocent people is definitely a sign of the state misusing its power, even if this is covered by laws. Reading people's mail is a sign of misuse. Preventing people from making use of their civil right to stand up when things go wrong, is also a sign of misuse. This was fortunately relaxed by a court today. All this is definitely near to the methods used by dictators and authoritarian states.

I definitely do not agree with all the criticism and the points that are made by G8 opponents. But in a democratic society we should respect their rights and not criminalize them for having a different opinion.