The indomitable LegIron has been talking about the methods the righteous have used to attack smokers for sometime now, and pointing out repeatedly how they are starting to use the same methods on drinkers, fat people and people that like salt (to name but a few). I keep meaning to link to these posts and add some erudite comment of my own and never getting round to it. However today he brought to my attention that things seem to have actually progressed to the point where it seems that smokers are being attacked with police sanction.
Now of course it having happened once for one disapproved of activity, it will be so much easier for more attacks for more reasons to happen. Even if it started as a bit of street theatre it sets a precedent and “show trials” do have a good record for getting the mob going. The one bright side is that the initial video has been taken down and most comments to it are negative.
As the police where informed, even if they did believe it to be just street theatre as it seems to have gone beyond that I trust we’ll soon be reading of charges being brought against the students carrying out the attacks.
For those of you that already read the tech news site The Register, sorry for drawing your attention to three rather interesting articles on there today.
Following on from Anna Raccoon’s article on ASBO’s given to prostitutes/a> the register observes that the police normally object to people publishing details of suspects under investigation. One would assume that unless caught actually in the act by the police, or even then, that a decent lawyer would be able to weaken the value of any witness statements if the ladies concerned ever get taken to trial on the grounds of all the publicity the accusations have received. They also point out the oddity of ASBO’s in that they can be issued easily without the full weight of a trial but as soon as you breach the arbitrary conditions attached (something easier to do when the whole world has been told you have an ASBO) you automatically get a criminal record.
Moving over to the US a shopping mall is appealing its right to prevent you talking to people you’ve just met in their mall. I’m actually torn on this one, on the one hand their mall their rules and if people object they can go elsewhere (though if they do have such rules they better be very well advertised) on the other hand it does seem incredibly draconian and stupid. On balance they should be allowed to ban whatever they like on their premises and hopefully be suitably punished by their customers if the bans are this stupid. Mind if such a ban was in place you could have great fun with a flash mob.
Finally on the subject of stupid yet again it seems that Eco-freindly enthusiasts have no idea what they’re on about, with many of the advocated green things to do being either pointless of actively counter-productive. I didn’t know (assuming the report is accurate) that energy wise aluminium is more eco-friendly than glass. Though I’d assume that not to be true if the old 10p-deposit on returned bottles came back allowing bottles to be cleaned and re-used without being melted down in between uses.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Apparently Devils Kitchen has been on telly, I missed it and I still don’t trust iPlayer so I’m probably going to continue to have missed it. However there have been some excellent write ups of it. Including especially the one by Boatang & Demetriou , it’s well worth the read both for it’s take on the TV appearance but also for it’s wider discussion of Libertarianism and where we’re going to end up unless we somehow get the state to back off, before all liberty is lost for the sake of the Children and to protect us from minute unavoidable risks.
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 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 »
