Posts Tagged ‘section 44’

Watching you, watching me

Thursday, July 16th, 2009

Authorities of all flavours are capturing our lives every day. Our esteemed government du jour, with its pathetic “OMG! Terrorists everywhere!!” mentality decided to try and outlaw photographing police. The police, naturally, have run around arresting every photographer who happen to train a lens on them – using (abusing) section 44 as the catch-all to subvert civil liberties. Had it not been for the plethora of mobile phone cameras at the G20 protests, the truth would have remained inside their dim helmets. Check out this as an classic example of small minded fools with too much authority.

It’s been well documented that London is the most surveyed city in the world – the ubiquity of CCTV cameras is astonishing and something that the vast majority of Londoners seem to accept.

Recently, I’ve noticed something quite disgusting prowling the streets of London, cutesy little smart cars with CTTV cameras strapped on top – filming us all going about our boring little lives. To what purpose? I’ve no idea and I don’t care. It’s bad enough having CCTV dripping from every lamppost – at least we know where they are, but it’s another to have these insidious things tracking our every move.

So, enough’s enough.

If they want to spy on us, I want to spy on them.

Every time I see one of these wretched contraptions, I’m gonna whip my camera out and shove it right in their face. Call it retribution, justice, whatever – it’s about time the tables were turned.

I encourage you to do the same. Send me photos of these twerps in their cars and I’ll bung them on this blog. photos@innerhippy.com

Just to remind you –

  • it is NOT illegal to take photographs of the police
  • police do NOT have the power to delete any images or destroy film