I’ve heard people ask the FITS why they do what the do and if their proud of themselves and they always give naff reply’s, worryingly it seems that the Met pays them double for what they do. No wonder there always smiling

Unless required by law to be photographed in police custody, you have every right to block your face from being filmed by the police or anyone else.

So long as you do not obstruct an officer who is trying to get past you, do not touch the officer in a way that could be construed as assault or obstruction, do not use abusive language, you are at liberty to hold a placard or other device between you and the camera.

Make sure that you are not in a location where you could be construed as obstructing the highway by standing still with your placard in front of the camera. Asking the police questions about what they are doing while standing in front of the camera will usually avoid any claims of obstruction of the highway.

I have found that the best tactic is to go right up to the officers who are filming (face to face), staring at the camera and keep asking them why they are filming me and the other demonstrators and pointing out that their intimidatory tactics will never work. Keep doing this until, very quickly usually, they stop filming at that point and they move on. Repeat tactic as often as you feel able and encourage others to do so. Normally, their senior officers will get the team to back off if enough people constantly stand immediately in front of their cameras. I know its a bit tiresome, but its important to constantly confront these intimidatory big brother police tactics.

Under this you can request, from the Met police, copies of any photos they take of you. See the Info Commissioners Website fir details, which includes a draft letter for you to use. Now imagine if everybidy who was photogarphed yesterday did this!!

Why are demos getting smaller? Because many people are intimidated by FIT. This is just one technique they are using to restrict our fundamental rights. But its hardly surprising they feel they can do this as recent legislation, eg SOCA, reinforces this attitude. WE ARE NOW LIVING IN A POLICE STATE.

I have listened to the police talking while trapped in a kettle couple of years ago and was disgusted by what I heard. They were passing the time by describing to each other which of the young women protesters they were going to manhandle, pointing to one young women, one said to his colleague ‘no she’s not dirty enough’. The FIT closed in on a number of brightly dressed women and demonstrated by their actions that this was not just offensive banter. I have witnessed a slightly perverted attitude to young, small female protesters on many occasions since. I have also heard other people making the same observation.

It would seem to be indicative of the sort of mind set sought after in recruits to this particular team and their subsequent training. Those of us who have unwittingly formed the fat buffer zone around the London based international financial district, have often contrasted the policing of demonstrations here, in comparison to less ‘developed’ countries, and congratulated ourselves on our tradition of free speech. However both here and globally we are exploited by corporate interest. Just as multinational businesses extracts natural resources from impoverished countries to maximise their profits, they extract consent from those in countries kept wealthy and stable, those that house their administration, to minimize their risk.

As global neo-liberal economics establishes a greater hold, and surveillance technology becomes more sophisticated giving the same freedoms to all citizens of this country is no longer cost effective. This is bringing about a change in the methods of policing dissent, exaggerating the inequalities that have always existed covertly. The increasing ghetto-ization, into rich and poor, this or that culture, the investment of ‘community leader’s with power and resources to control the splintered inhabitants of our cities, enables easy classification into who is treated roughly and who is not. All you then have to do is experiment with a dedicated police team, recruit those with a predisposition to bully and build on their latent prejudices, and you have the FIT team. In the light of the numerous deaths in custody, particularly black people, the death of Jean Charles de Menezes, greater police powers, perhaps the responce ‘just doing my job’, begs a question, rather than forms a defence.

Shame about the first caption, with a little more effort it could have read:

Plucky pensioner's placard prevents police photographer photographing prats poncing pathetically, piss-poor parade postponed.

In "FIT withdraw humiliated", I strongly suspect the the (ironically named) FIT photographer is called Neill. If anyone from the St. Matthias Convergence Centre remembers, he was the diminutive slightly weaselly plod who took all the best shots of us. Legend has it that he whacked a girl with his camera in Edinburgh when the Met went for an outing up there.