police « Talking Bollocks

Posts Tagged ‘police

Feb

Police campaign to intimidate photographers

Categories: Politics, Social comment, democracy and police intimidation
Tags: terrorism, police, police harassment, photography, Section 44

Completely ignoring the guidance given by Chief Constable Andrew Trotter ( Head of ACPO Media Advisory Group ) the police are now running a campaign encouraging the public to report photographers and “let experienced officers decide what action to take”.

Experienced officers? Like the experienced officers who arrested a guy taking picture of Christmas celebrations in Accrington? Like the experienced officers at the G20 summit who beat Ian Tomlinson?

Older readers may remember the IRA campaign of bombing in the UK in the 80s. The IRA were far more successful in bombing England than the current batch of islamists yet the police then did not resort to inducing paranoia in the population and encouraging us all to fear and spy on each other.

The truth is that the natural inclination of anyone who joins an organisation such as the police force will be to govern human behaviour by restricting everything and then allowing action by exception. That is not in accord with democratic values. Democracy requires that everything is allowed unless it is specifically proscribed.

The trouble with this police campaign is it ramps up the pressure. The police claim they will only use power to counter terrorism but we already have evidence that police are using all sorts of excuses to harrass photographers from anti-social behaviour to suspected pedophilia. Those given powers over others always abuse those powers. It’s a rule.

As yet the United Kingdom is not a police state and we do not restrict public photography. We should not allow ourselves to be frightened into giving the police authoritarian powers. Slippery slope and all that.

Feb

Arrested for photographing Accrington Christmas celebrations

By jonesxxx 1 Comment

Categories: News, Politics, Social comment and police intimidation
Tags: terrorism, police, photography, antisocial behaviour

This is amazing. A police community support officer tries to get the details of a photographer Bob Patefield. Originally the police say this is because of the anti-terror legislation but when Mr. Patefield refuses to give his details as he rightly claims that he is not obliged to the police change their excuse to anti-social behaviour. Mr. Patefield was arrested and held for 8 hours before being released without charge.

This is straight intimidation of photographers.

Police attempt to intimidate Bob Patefield

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/feb/21/photographer-films-anti-terror-arrest

Police harass man for taking photo of his son in shopping mall

Dec

YOU’RE FILMING! – YES I AM!

By jonesxxx 1 Comment

Categories: Politics, Social comment, democracy, images and london
Tags: anti terror legislation, camera, CCTV, filiming, filing, freedom, fucking hypocrites, hypocrites, hypocritical police, London Underground, photograph, photography, police, police hypocrites, section 404, Terrorism Act, Terrorism Act 2000

"YOU'RE FILMING!" - "YES I AM!"

I was up in London again last night for another Christmas drink. On the way back I saw a group of police in the tube and took a photo of them. It seems that they have not taken on board the recent guidance by the chief constable of the British transport police to the Association of Chief Police Officers. His guidance states that anti terror legislation (known as Section 44) “gives officers no specific powers in relation to photography ….”.

This didn’t stop one officer yelling “YOU’RE FILMING!” at me and raising his hand in a attempt to stop me. This seems incredibly hypocritical given the thousands of CCTV cameras throughout the London Underground. The establishment seems bent on introducing more and more big brother methods for policing and it seems that the only people who, they think, should be exempt are themselves. The picture I took is not very good but I reproduce it here as a minor assertion of a freedom which the police seem intent on erasing.

A demonstration is taking place in London to protest police heavy handedness with photographers. Be there.

Just to emphasise the point the picture below shows what happens when a peaceful demonstration takes place. The police turn up and film everyone. Fucking hypocrites!

Hypocrite!

anti terror laws misused to hassle photographers

Dec

Anti Terror Laws misused to hassle photographers

By jonesxxx 1 Comment

Anti Terror laws used to stop photographers

There was an interesting article on the Guardian web site on friday about police using the anti terror laws to prevent people taking photographs in public spaces. More evidence for keeping the powers of the state under tight control.

This follows a letter of guidance sent on the 4th December by the chief constable of the British transport police to the Association of Chief Police Officers in which he states that the anti terror legislation (known as Section 44) “gives officers no specific powers in relation to photography and there is no provision in law for the confiscation of equipment or the destruction of images, either digital or on film”.

A campaign group called I’m a photographer not a terrorist are planning a Mass Photo Gathering at 12 Noon on Saturday 23rd January 2010 in Trafalgar Square. There is a facebook event for this too.

It’s also interesting that, while we are theoretically free to take photographs in public spaces, more and more of our urban space is being privatised. Shopping centres, for example, are owned by private companies and so the owners can impose restrictions on the behaviour of the general public who visit the centres.

Dec

If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear – 2

By jonesxxx Leave a Comment

Categories: Bollocks, Politics, democracy and new labour
Tags: abuse, new labour, nothing to fear, nothing to hide, personal freedom, photographers, photography, police, state control, talking bollocks, The Independent

I wrote a blog article in November 2008. This argued that New Labour are introducing too many laws to increases state control and erode personal freedom and listed a few such as identity cards and mass interception of Emails.

The argument in favour of these laws is usually “If you have nothing to hide, then you have nothing to fear” but the people who use this argument are Talking Bollocks! The British establishment has a long history of abusing laws and another example of this was reported in The Independent today. It seems that police are using laws designed to prevent terrorism to harass photographers.

This seems a little hypocritical since, these days, the police seem to be pretty avid photographers themselves! I myself have witnessed the obtrusively abusing their policy on filming demonstrations to film a discussion between a bunch of pro Israeli oldies and a bunch of pro Palestinian hippies.

hypocrites?

Aug

Police Bullshit

By jonesxxx 1 Comment

Categories: Bollocks, Politics and Social comment
Tags: “Drugs have an involuntary effect on the eyes that you can’t control”, “the police can spot this” coercion, bullshit, dilate, Drugs, establishment, eyes, oppressive, police, Police Bullshit, pupils, scare tactics, talking bollocks, TV advert

I just watched a TV advert with a bunch of youngsters driving along in a car. The eyes of the people have been altered to appear large and the voice over says “Drugs have an involuntary effect on the eyes that you can’t control, the police can spot this.” and a police car drives by while the guy with enormous eyes gapes out of the window.

Ignore the ignorance of “an involuntary effect …that you can’t control”.

This is bullshit scare tactics. They are talking about the fact that some drugs cause the pupils to dilate, ie enlarge. Not the whole eye, just the pupil.

The police, or anyone else for that matter, can NOT see if your pupils are dilated through two panes of glass at a distance of several feet. Furthermore it is normal for pupils to dilate in the dark and for other reasons such as eye drops.

Remember the ad run a few months ago telling everyone that if you see something suspicious you should report it and showing two men standing under a street light?

This is yet another example of bullshit scare tactics by the establishment.

The atmosphere of the UK is becoming more and more oppressive as the establishment resort to coercion to solve every problem.

They are TALKING BOLLOCKS!