Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site ucbvax.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxl!ihnp4!zehntel!dual!ucbvax!faustus From: faustus@ucbvax.UUCP (Wayne Christopher) Newsgroups: net.auto,net.consumers,net.politics Subject: Re: Re: ID Message-ID: <1592@ucbvax.UUCP> Date: Mon, 20-Aug-84 02:56:39 EDT Article-I.D.: ucbvax.1592 Posted: Mon Aug 20 02:56:39 1984 Date-Received: Thu, 16-Aug-84 02:34:52 EDT References: <707@pyuxhh.UUCP> Organization: U.C. Berkeley Lines: 19 In West Germany you can be put in jail for not carrying your ID card with you. A few years ago there was a major effort to decrease terrorism, and the police compiled profiles of the activities of many suspected terrorists. Many people were arrested only because they happened to have rather suspicious habits. Most Germans accepted this sort of control without much complaint. However, a proposal for mandatory ID's in France was recently rejected, and the rationale was that if some dictator like Hitler were to arise, it would make it easier for him if such a system were already in place. (It's ironic that this should be a worry for the French and not the Germans.) But all this sort of thing depends on the character and traditions of the people involved, and I think if any people are likely to reject this sort of control it is the American people. (Whether you want to call it love of freedom or pathological intractibility is up to you...) Wayne