You can't trust a copper

Civil Liberties, activism, laws, photography, police No Responses »
Jul 272010

It’s true it seems you can’t trust a copper to actually know the law they’re meant to be enforcing. The Metropolitan police commissioner has admitted that his police sometimes forget the law on photography (not that it’s been a high profile issue or anything), and of course the plastic police have been found to delete photographs unlawfully. None of which of course is particularly news, and is hardly surprising given that the chief constables are ignoring the Home Secretary.

But why should they worry about the law when the chances of any individual officer getting prosecuted for anything is so small they could probably take their identification numbers off and beat an innocent man causing his death in front of video camera’s and get away with it.. oh wait they did that already.

There’s a ptotest about that decision this
Friday · 12:00 – 14:30
outside the Office of Department of Public Prosecution
Rose Court, 2 Southwark Bridge, SE1 9HS
London.

come along.

You probably won’t end up locked up for 28 days, though you might be illegally stopped and searched as that’s another law the police seem to have trouble remembering. So do be prepared.

Posted by Giolla at 23:27 Tagged with: , , ,

Liberty is what they say it is

Civil Liberties, bloggers, laws No Responses »
Jul 132010

This topic has already been covered incredibly well by other people so I’m actually going to just link to them, adding my voice to the many disappointed but not at all surprised voices responding to Mr Cleggs “shock” revelation that having asked the public for comment on what laws to repeal/amend he’s as much intention of listening as the last lot did with the “petitions to number 10″. Which is of course to say none at all – it would seem that the consultation is once more just a way to have some useful “quotes from the public” to wave around when they impose what ever they’ve already decided to impose on us – though not of course themselves as the most popular law to amend is the smoking ban which doesn’t apply in the palace of Westminster.

Anyway go and read the following for far better commentary.
Dick Puddlecote – Great repeal swindle
Taking Liberties – Your Freedom, His choice
and of course:
LegIron – Nick’s Nasties get a boost from their master

update: Snowolf’s – the one that was waiting is also a good read on the matter.

Posted by Giolla at 12:44 Tagged with: , ,

Brian Haw update

Civil Liberties, activism, follow up No Responses »
May 272010

Via Dizzy Thinks – a video of Brian Haws arrest and the minutes before:

Having seen this I must say the Police do seem to be being quite reasonable and friendly about things, and I’m not entirely sure what it matters if he’s part of the other protest or not. Also interesting that he refers to his tent as his home. Did he need to be arrested I’m not entirely sure, held out of the way certainly, arrested well other protesters probably would have been for the same behaviour from the video it doesn’t look that unreasonable. The more telling question will be if he’s allowed back or not, I suspect if this arrest results in him being absent from his protest for an extended period of time that the answer will be probably not, which would be a shame.

Of course if he’s not then I quite like the idea of a flash mob of people wearing Brian Haw masks, but that may be just me.

Posted by Giolla at 11:18 Tagged with: , ,

Tidying Parliament Square

Civil Liberties, activism 2 Responses »
May 252010

Lots of other people have already commented on the arrest of Brian Haw during the “tidy up” of Parliament Square – as Iain Dale would have it.

From what details have been reported it seems he was arrested not for being there but for not allowing the police to search his camp before the state opening of parliament. Which of course may be a pretext and it’s not clear just how the police went about it, but it does make things slightly less clear cut… except. It was surely within the police’s capability to just hold him out of the way whilst they searched assuming the search was legitimate. What will be interesting to see is what happens to his protest and if he’ll be allowed to resume it, or will they claim his protest has ended so now he needs permission to protest like the rest of us?

Some people have suggested that it’s not a proper protest as that would involve just going down there now and again to shout a few slogans and be ignored and that as he’s been there so long it’s no longer a proper protest. This seems ludicrous given the situation he’s protesting about is still on going, and there are numerous precedents of protesters camping outside embassies for years to protest human rights abuses – which generally have been allowed to continue un-harassed.

One interesting point picked up by a friend of mine is that Councillor Colin Barrow, Leader of Westminster City Council, backed the legal action said:

“We felt that the hijacking of Parliament Square, one of London’s historic public spaces, needed to be brought to an end,”

But who is Brian Haw and the other protesters but members of the public. If as has been reported some of their actions did need to be dealt with (pissing against statues and the like) then there are already laws to deal with that, but they weren’t used and weren’t enforced prior to this raid. Which suggests that the protests themselves were the problem and not the behaviour of the protesters.

It has been suggested to me that there are bigger problems to worry about than the arrest of one man and the interruption of his protest. A point of view I really can’t agree with as the way the state gains it’s control and sells us all down the river is by getting us to ignore what happens to “just one” person due to bigger issues, and it’s just one person and there’s probably good reason and… How the state treats the individual sets the foundation for how it treats the rest of us, and what we suffer the state to do to the individual paves the way for the state to treat us all the same way.

I’ll leave the last word to The Appalling Strangeness who has written a far more erudite piece on the matter.

Posted by Giolla at 21:59 Tagged with: , ,

Everybody Research the Holocaust Day

Free Speach, Sparticus, activism No Responses »
May 252010

Hot on the heels of the First Annual Everybody Draw Mohammad Day comes… Everybody Research the Holocaust Day.

This it seems is a response from someone who got a teense upset about people drawing pictures of Mohammad (and to be fair many of them mine included really weren’t great works of art).

However as Harry’s place has a plan:

“Now it seems to me that a bit of lesson in free speech is very much in order here, so if its an ‘Everybody Research the Holocaust Day’ that the members of this Facebook group want then let’s give them exactly what they’re asking for.

Between now and the 30th June, I’d like as many bloggers as possible to spend just a little bit of time researching the Holocaust.

This should not be too onerous a task as there’s no great shortage of fantastic online resources to draw on – just to get you started you could try the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, the USC Shoah Foundation Institute, the Holocaust History Project, the Holocaust Cybrary, HolocaustSurvivors.org and the Holocaust section of the Jewish Virtual Library and, of course, there’s a wealth of other information out there on teh Interwebs, only a Google/Bing/Yahoo search away.

And then, on the 30th June, I’d like you all to write and publish a blog post telling the world what you’ve found out, turning the day into a real Holocaust Research Day.

As for the Holocaust deniers and their childish little Facebook group, all I ask is that you leave them alone – so, please, no complaints to Facebook, no protests and no abusive comments either publicly or by email/personal messages. If you want to take any direct action against this group and its members then I’d suggest you do no more than look out for any conspiracist nonsense posted to the group and, if you have time, subject it to a good old-fashioned fisking.”

Anyway go read the whole article, join the facebook group and then on the 30th post something.

Posted by Giolla at 19:48 Tagged with: , ,

Starting as they mean to go on?

Civil Liberties, politicians No Responses »
May 122010

This is being widely reported elsewhere (Dizzy> and Old Holborn) but good news is worth repeating. It appears as though steps are already being taken to scrap ID cards. The Identity and passport Service website is advising people to not get ID cards at them moment:

“Both Parties that now form the new Government stated in their manifestos that they will cancel Identity Cards and the National Identity Register. We will announce in due course how this will be achieved. Applications can continue to be made for ID cards but we would advise anyone thinking of applying to wait for further announcements.

Until Parliament agrees otherwise, identity cards remain valid and as such can still be used as an identity document and for travel within Europe. We will update you with further information as soon as we have it.”

Hopefully this is the start of a trend of repeal and keeping manifesto promises. I’m sure it won’t be but for the moment I’m going to enjoy the thought that it might be.

Posted by Giolla at 13:13 Tagged with: , ,

Erasing David - someone should

Civil Liberties, anonymity No Responses »
May 042010

If you’ve not seen the film “Erasing David” and intend to watch it and don’t want it spoilt then please stop reading now, as I’ve just finished watching it and really the man problem couldn’t erase an etcha-sketch without assistance – so I feel the need to rant and highlight a “few” of the mistakes he made.

Continue reading »

Posted by Giolla at 23:30 Tagged with: , , ,

They really don't like photographers do they

Civil Liberties, photography No Responses »
Mar 312010

The original of this article is over on Copyright Action, but they seem to be having bandwidth issues so I reproduce it in it’s entirety here. (reproduced with permission and all copyright and content remains © Copyright Action 2008 – 2009).

When you’ve finished reading this consider a few things:
1) The police are generally unhappy at being photographed
2) How likely is it that the ICO provisions won’t be extended to all photographers after a suitable pause?
3) If we have our photographic copyrights removed today, what protects any of our other creative rights?
4) How much luck do you think you’ll have proving a picture was yours when trying to get the fees out of the Government?

If you’ve not done so already write to your MP it may not do any good but there is an election coming so they might listen for a change.

UK Gov nationalises orphans and bans non-consensual photography in public

The Digital Economy Bill : what’s yours is ours

The end game is now in sight. The Digital Economy Bill is now expected to become law within the next 6 weeks. It introduces orphan works usage rights, which – unless amended, which HMG says it will not – will allow the commercial use of any photograph whose author cannot be identified through a suitably negligent search. That is potentially about 90% of the photos on the internet.
Continue reading »

Posted by Giolla at 11:42 Tagged with: , ,

Strange days indeed

Civil Liberties, EU, Must read post No Responses »
Mar 302010

The end of the world must surely be coming, that or I’ve fallen into some odd alternate reality, for today we have:
Tom Harris saying Daniel Hannan is right (which he is) and elsewhere Peter Tatchell is defending homophobes (well their right to free speech). All these attacks on our liberties and sovereignty do make for some strange alliances.

Posted by Giolla at 11:48 Tagged with: , ,

Viewscreens are coming

Civil Liberties, anonymity, internet, technology, terrorism No Responses »
Mar 292010

This post is going to link to quite a few old articles as every time I’m about to write it something new adds to the pile of stuff that needs to be included. So it’s time I accepted the pace of things happening is just too fast and I should try to tie a few bits together knowing it’s all going to be out of date before I hit publish.

The Government has a love hate relationship with the Internet, it loves the amount of data and control it could give over us but hates the fact that it allows people to talk to each other and exchange ideas. As such they have to pursue a multi-pronged approach to the Internet, make sure that everyone is connected and then make sure they control what we do and see. It sounds fanciful I’ll admit but sadly it does rather add up.

Consider that the Government wants as many people on line as possible which makes sense as they also want us all to have our very own personalised website for dealing with the government (H/T Old Holborn) – perhaps with links to online terrorist reporting or other such important civic tools. If you’ve not got a computer they’ll buy a laptop for you, which will probably have webcams which if activities in the US are anything to go by, which will be used to monitor you for “improper behaviour”. Perhaps as is already happening with CCTV cameras operators monitoring your behaviour will issue a warning. Of course I’d fully expect these personal websites to feed into CRB checks, and for security purposes you’ll no doubt (after a few suitable scares) need an ID card to login.

To make things even more like ” 1984″ housing estates are being built with their own Broadcasting channels and giant TV screens, to go with all those screens being installed in schools and doctors surgeries (along with yet more CCTV cameras), showing government information films.

The other main prong as mentioned is control, well:

Falling back to using old fashioned post to communicate and thus avoiding the internet won’t I’m afraid help.

Meanwhile out in the real world we’re already being made to walk through check points when wandering around our cities during police “lock downs”. To put aside any concerns over exaggeration as to how bad things have got even the Information Commissioners Office are saying “that we are in fact waking up to a surveillance society that is already all around us.”. Just to make that surveillance easier the Government is working on tracking us via our mobile phones, even with out that it’s already very difficult to disappear.

All in all it does rather add up to a quite unpleasant state of affairs

Posted by Giolla at 21:05 Tagged with: , , , , ,
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