Mayday Media War: Police spin Internet angle
meeja hor | 23.02.2001 18:54
The same internet story as last year (and post j18) being used by police to keep the 'they're organising a violent mayday riot' story infront of the press.
I mean look at the url they've given the story for fucks sake and mayday 2001 is still months away!
It's also amazing that they keep refering to 'mayday riots' - which let's face it is not what happened last year.
more on mayday media propaganda at:
http://uk.indymedia.org/display.php3?article_id=1726
I mean look at the url they've given the story for fucks sake and mayday 2001 is still months away!
It's also amazing that they keep refering to 'mayday riots' - which let's face it is not what happened last year.
more on mayday media propaganda at:
http://uk.indymedia.org/display.php3?article_id=1726
Police chief fears May Day violence
http://www.itn.co.uk/news/20010223/britain/18riot.shtml
(tv video version at:
http://itn.co.uk/news/20010223/video/riotvt.ram)
London's top police officer has warned anarchists are using the Internet to plan a repeat of last year's May Day riots, reports ITN's new media correspondent Fergus Sheppard.
Metropolitan Commissioner Sir John Stevens said: "There's intelligence to suggest that a variety of anarchists and other groups are organising anti-capitalism protests on May Day.
"There are strong indications to suggest that planning by protest groups is well advanced and that their intention is to disrupt the everyday workings of London life."
Last year dozens of people were arrested after shops were smashed and protesters clashed with police.
A number of London landmarks - including the Cenotaph - were vandalised during the riots.
One former top policeman, ex-Flying Squad commander John O'Connor, said the Internet was a fertile recruiting ground for hard-core activists.
He said: "I think it is a recruiting ground. Certainly, the main organisers won't be discussing tactics and plans over the Internet.
"That stuff is being fed out for the benefit of those who may want to get involved, and also for the benefit of the police - they are telling them one thing whereas what they do on the day may be something totally and utterly different."
However, some campaigners said the London police chief was overreacting.
Phil Carr, a director of GreenNet - which hosts the Reclaim the Streets website - said: "I think that's an enormous exaggeration.
"I think that the Internet is used to organise demonstrations, and I could think of hundreds of demonstrations that are organised every week in the UK, and thousands world-wide, that's don't involve any violence whatsoever."
http://www.itn.co.uk/news/20010223/britain/18riot.shtml (tv video version at:
http://itn.co.uk/news/20010223/video/riotvt.ram) London's top police officer has warned anarchists are using the Internet to plan a repeat of last year's May Day riots, reports ITN's new media correspondent Fergus Sheppard.
Metropolitan Commissioner Sir John Stevens said: "There's intelligence to suggest that a variety of anarchists and other groups are organising anti-capitalism protests on May Day.
"There are strong indications to suggest that planning by protest groups is well advanced and that their intention is to disrupt the everyday workings of London life."
Last year dozens of people were arrested after shops were smashed and protesters clashed with police.
A number of London landmarks - including the Cenotaph - were vandalised during the riots.
One former top policeman, ex-Flying Squad commander John O'Connor, said the Internet was a fertile recruiting ground for hard-core activists.
He said: "I think it is a recruiting ground. Certainly, the main organisers won't be discussing tactics and plans over the Internet.
"That stuff is being fed out for the benefit of those who may want to get involved, and also for the benefit of the police - they are telling them one thing whereas what they do on the day may be something totally and utterly different."
However, some campaigners said the London police chief was overreacting.
Phil Carr, a director of GreenNet - which hosts the Reclaim the Streets website - said: "I think that's an enormous exaggeration.
"I think that the Internet is used to organise demonstrations, and I could think of hundreds of demonstrations that are organised every week in the UK, and thousands world-wide, that's don't involve any violence whatsoever."
meeja hor
Comments
Hide the following 10 comments
Tourist
23.02.2001 22:03
Ms Average
Cam-corder don't be silly!
24.02.2001 15:30
BUTTERSCOTCH
Butterscotch
e-mail:
jsg@farts.com
bring on the camcordas
24.02.2001 16:03
I think the phrase "anyone on that film is going to get a right seeing to" is slightly exagarated and intimadatory. Protestors with cameras are not gonna go away just because you want them to... However protestors with cameras / video activists should be aware of the implications of filming actions/protests. Its imporatant to show the Stasi like tactics that the cops are using on peaceful protestors - dont be intimadated by them or their draconian legislation. Go out and get that footage but know the score before you do. Check out undercurrents online guide to Video activism for more info [ www.undercurrents.org ]. It would be advisable to contact them or i-Contact or Conscious cinema as there is safety in numbers and they can advise you on the legal ins and outs.
you can call me dubja
e-mail:
georgedubjabush@hotmail.com
Look Mum - No Camcorders!
24.02.2001 19:27
like getting laid, but it isn't useful at demos (anymore).
Firstly if you are desperate to show your grandkids that you weren't always a wrinkly in slippers and did have the rage once, then just telling them is enough and sparing the personal touch is more than any hours of jerky footage of paving stones.
If you think that footage at a demo will prove police brutality is rife and met with impunity then just camcordery wont do anything.
I agree Rodney King got a whiff of justice through that great guy who filmed it and didn't flog it to the FBI but I've never seen camcordery on British news programming that EVER shows the Police in the true light.
Anyway for true protesting - one needs both hands!
Butterscotch
e-mail:
jsg@farts.com
Mums the word
24.02.2001 21:44
Ms Average
Keeping Mum...
25.02.2001 11:25
If you saw the Mark Thomas episode on Information Rights
particularly CCTV footage, you'll know that if you really want footage of Mayday you can request CCTV footage. HONEST!
Every cctv owner has to be registered and if they are not they "get done". So you don't even need the sketch pad.
Britain has over 1,000,000 cctv cameras. That is more per capita than any country in the world!
I'm sure London has the most...
Butterscotch
e-mail:
jsg@farts.com
BIG BROTHER
25.02.2001 11:32
Ms. Average
Dear Butterscotch
26.02.2001 12:20
You are saying that such visual records are of no use, but I would strongly disagree.
Yes it is rare that 'good' camcorder footage makes it onto the news or mainstream tv but it does happen sometimes - and that is valuable.
What is also (and more) valuable is having documentation of events which can refute police evidence in court when someone is up on a made up or hugely exaggerated charge.
Also very valuable is the production of our own media - like indymedia here. And the production of videos - I wasn't in prague, but seeing the imc video of everything that went on was really inspiring - more so than reading it (maybe that's because of the generation I'm in having grown up with TV and all - but it makes it all come alive seeing the images and hearing the sounds).
Hi Mum!!
Ms Average and Hi Mum...sort it aaaaaat!!!!!!
26.02.2001 15:18
Yes I know we are constantly being filmed on cctv. That's why I suggested the point of not needing a camcorder at demos. -They are already there!
Hi Mum,
I didn't say film footage is no use- far from it. CCTV footage is an invaluable piece of coverage and aside from the obtaining rights (a fee of £10.) it's free.
I don't know of anyone (protesters like me and maybe even you!) who have benefitted from camcordery. You'll never see real news on mainstream tv (I've stated this already) as we all know Undercurrents is watched by 3 anoraks in Oxfordshire and a couple of students in Brighton.
The best way to encourage people is not to say "woah look what I did aren't I great" but to explain that there is a state that is utterly corrupt in this country and we all live off the blood and sweat of the worlds poor. Go to Angola, Tibet, Turkey Kurdistan, East Timor, Anywhere in S. America and so on and get the old 3 chip Sony out there. Bring back footage of the direct results of Capitalism.
Slavery/sweatshops, torture (tautology!), corrupt regimes, dodgy artillery, barbarism/rape, abject poverty, high infant mortality rates, etc etc. That'll win over the toryist tory I'm sure. Look at LiveAid!
Butterscotch
Almost spot on :-)
03.04.2001 07:23
m hor