'East London Advertiser' aiding ‘Big Brother CCTV Councillor’ condemning community

By © Muhammad Haque
1212 Hrs GMT
London Monday 22 December 2008


The East London Advertiser has been running an online piece which is reproduced below.



I have just in the past few minutes posted an inline reply to it.


I reproduce the pieces in full below.


First my own comment

"Your online item dated 15 December 2008 is headed in a way that clearly sates that people going about our business are presumed to be guilty of some offence! KHOODEELAAR! campaign members have raised the issue of cctv with Tower Hamlets Council. The response we have so far received from officials directly contradict what you have quoted one councillor to be saying. Also, you must refer to the legal position regarding the use, the control and the agenda behind cctv. What law, for instance, allows even the making of the supposition that is in your online headline? Because if people are presumed to be guilty simply for being out and about then society has been abolished already! Was there a debate on that at the local council? And in the UK parliament? If so when was such a debate held in each place and with what coverage in the East London Advertiser?"



THE E L A online piece:

 http://www.eastlondonadvertiser.co.uk/content/towerhamlets/advertiser/news/story.aspx?brand=ELAOnline&category=news&tBrand=northlondon24&tCategory=newsela&itemid=WeED15%20Dec%202008%2019%3A47%3A50%3A787

Big Brother is watching you—if you’re up to no good


15 December 2008

Mike Brooke

AT LEAST one arrest a day results from a surveillance camera in a street near you.

That makes an average of one for every six cameras operated by Tower Hamlets council on the streets of London’s East End for the month of November, according to figures released today (Monday).

“If you’re up to no good, it’s worth remembering there might just be someone watching you,” said council cabinet member Abdal Ullah. “The cameras are there to keep the law abiding majority safe.”

There are 230 CCTV cameras on the streets of Tower Hamlets with 70 on direct view at any one time.

Operators manning the council’s monitoring centre at Blackwall have been tipping the police if they spot what they think is a crime.

They alerted police to criminal activity which led to 39 arrests during November.

Among the crimes detected were seven assaults, five public order offences, four robberies, four criminal damage offences and three people caught possessing drugs.

The control room opened in 2006 and has been developing since then, with operators now on duty 24 hours a day.