Morpheus Eludes Police at Heathrow Airport

On a sunny warm Friday morning, 22 July 2005, Jean Charles de Menezes was chased down and brutally executed by a pack of plainclothes London police agents. His crime: wearing a bulky coat, while displaying a somewhat foreign appearance. This may be the post-9/11 twist on DWB (Driving While Black). But in this new order, exhibiting anomalous behaviour provides just as much probable cause as possessing a minority skin colour.

The company I work for recently hired a Facility Security Officer. And one of the first actions of this FSO was to send out a memo explaining how we engineers are to fill out the Adverse Information Reports on our fellow employees. The AIR itself contains the following language:

ADVERSE INFORMATION. Employees are encouraged to report to the FSO, ([FSO NAME]), any information reflecting adversely on the integrity or character of any [COMPANY NAME] employee that suggests that his/her ability to safeguard classified information has been impared. The following examples are not all-inclusive; but are only examples of information (based on incidents inside or outside the facility) which should be reported:

• Criminal activities
• Bizarre or nororiously disgraceful conduct
• Treatment for mental or emotional disorders
• Excessive use of intoxicants
• Use of illegal, controlled substances such as marijuana, hashish, cocaine or heroin
• Excessive indebtedness or recurring financial difficulties
• Unexplained affluence or marked "life-style" changes

So this is how the road to the modern American Black Iron Prison is paved.