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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