London's Impending Police State

Would you like anti-aircraft missiles stationed on the roof of your home? How about finding them just lying around outside your front door? As this map of East London’s Olympic missile bases shows, this is a reality now facing Londoners, some of whom are fighting British army plans to use residential buildings as locations for gun turrets during the Games.

Intended to guard London’s skies against the threat of aerial attack, these proposed turrets have been the most contested issue faced by London’s Olympics security program so far. Last weekend, residents demonstrated against this proposed anti-terrorist "Ring of Steel" around the Olympic Park, while locals are also fighting the decision in the courts, afraid that the rockets could accidentally explode or even make their homes into terrorist targets. Not everyone is actively fighting the plans, it should be admitted – this weekend’s demonstrators numbered in their hundreds, not their thousands. But the army’s ham-fisted management of the issue – they left dummy missiles lying around outside an apartment building during an exercise, for example – has done little to assure residents that their concerns are paramount.