little brother

[Eugen Leitl]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/apr/12/privacy-media-ian-tomlinson 

The police should take note: little brother's watching you

John Naughton
    
The Observer, Sunday 12 April 2009

Video of police assault on Ian Tomlinson Link to this video

The attack on Ian Tomlinson was the Metropolitan Police's "Rodney King
moment". King, you may recall, is a black American who, in March 1991, was
savagely beaten by Los Angeles Police Department officers after being stopped
for a speeding offence. A resident videotaped the proceedings from his
apartment. The Los Angeles District Attorney charged four officers with use
of excessive force. A jury acquitted three of them and failed to agree about
a verdict on the fourth. Six days of rioting followed, in which more than 50
people died and $1bn of property was destroyed.

The assault on Tomlinson will not spark off a riot, but nobody should
underestimate the outrage it has generated. And from the instant the video
footage - shot by an American bystander using his digital still camera -
appeared on the Guardian website, it was clear that we had reached a pivotal
moment. Consumer technology had given citizens a serious tool for recording
how policemen behave.

It also brought to mind the case of Blair Peach, the young New Zealand
teacher who, on a demonstration 30 years ago, was clubbed by a police officer
and died the day after of his injuries. Nobody was ever tried for the assault
and the coroner recorded a verdict of "death by misadventure".

There was no "citizen journalism" at the time of the Peach case. Nobody had a
cameraphone or a digital camcorder, because they hadn't been invented. And
the incident wasn't recorded by any press photographer or film crew. So the
cop who attacked the young teacher escaped scot-free.

In a normal democracy we would expect that the technology which revealed what
really happened to Tomlinson would stimulate a reassessment by the police
about how they conduct themselves. Accidents will happen, terrible things are
sometimes done in the heat of the moment, and political demonstrations
attract their share of violent and disturbed people, but from now on the
police will have to reckon with the possibility that anything they do will be
recorded and globally published. At one time, they - and the authorities they
serve - were the only ones with CCTV and face-recognition technology, the
ones with the sole prerogative to videotape and photograph demonstrators. Now
this technology is in the hands of consumers.

The police have two choices. Accept that digital technology will make them
accountable for their actions or try to control the technology. In any normal
society there would be no decision to be made. But since 9/11 the threat of
global terrorism has given the state - and its security apparatus - carte
blanche to take whatever measures it deems necessary. And it has imbued in
every uniformed operative, from "Community Support" officers and the bobby on
the beat to the bored guy in the airport checking your toothpaste, the kind
of arrogance we once associated only with authoritarian regimes.

You think I jest? Talk to any keen amateur photographer. As a group,
photographers have been subjected to increasingly outrageous harassment by
police and security operatives. (For a partial list of incidents see
bit.ly/22VFRX). Try photographing a bridge, public building or a police car
parked on a double-yellow line and you will have a goon demanding your
camera, image card or film.

Better still, ask John Randall, a Tory MP who recently told the Commons how
one of his Uxbridge constituents, a Mr Wusche, photographed properties he
thought were in bad repair to pass on to the council. In front of one
building was a police car containing police community support officers who
had parked on a double yellow line as they popped into a sandwich bar.

Randall told MPs that "one of the PCSOs went over to Mr Wusche" - who fled
fascist Italy in his youth - "and told him that he must immediately delete
the photographs. When Mr Wusche asked why, he was handed a notice and pretty
much cautioned. That upset him a great deal".

It upsets me too. And I expect that when the fuss over Ian Tomlinson's tragic
death has died down, we will find that the Nokia N82 and the Canon Digital
Ixus have joined flick-knives, knuckledusters and coshes on the list of
"offensive weapons". Welcome to New Labour's National Surveillance State.