'Court curtails Met surveillance' of protesters
McQn | 21.05.2009 11:56 | Analysis | Repression
Judges have ruled that the Met. must destroy photos of arms trade campaigner Andrew Wood, according to the BBC.
Judges have ruled that the Met. must destroy photos of arms trade campaigner Andrew Wood, according to the BBC. Andrew Wood, like many protesters these days, was photographed, asked questions and harassed by police whilst attending the AGM of an arms company (which, as a token shareholder, he was entitled to attend). He was not arrested or charged with any crime so judges have ruled the retention by the police of photos of him at the AGM is wrong. Please see the original MSM article below:
'Court curtails Met surveillance', BBC news online, 21/05/09
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8061050.stm
This may be a turning point in protest movements fighting back through the courts at invasive and unjustified surveillance, however, as in the parallel situation of innocent people seeking to remove their DNA from police databases, I expect the police to appeal, drag their feet and finally agree to remove data, photo's etc from the databases years, even decades, later by which time the damage is most certainly done.
'Court curtails Met surveillance', BBC news online, 21/05/09

This may be a turning point in protest movements fighting back through the courts at invasive and unjustified surveillance, however, as in the parallel situation of innocent people seeking to remove their DNA from police databases, I expect the police to appeal, drag their feet and finally agree to remove data, photo's etc from the databases years, even decades, later by which time the damage is most certainly done.
McQn
Comments
Hide the following 7 comments
Discrimination
21.05.2009 12:14
It is not normal for the police to go following and photographing people going about their lawful business in any other walk of society and then argue it is to "detect crimes that may have occurred in the past or may do so in the future". So to single out protesters is open discrimination.
Anonymous
Delays
21.05.2009 12:32
By the way Reed Elsevier are a seriously dodgy company. They have their own internet hub in Amsterdam that they use to monitor internet communications, according to two of their drunk, stoned but credible staff I met while I was still a suit.
Danny
The poliec haven't appealed yet
21.05.2009 12:36
Jebedee
Or
21.05.2009 13:14
Except of course there's no way to check that they *have* destroyed them without writing to the Met giving your name, address, places you were that you might have been photographed and a photograph of yourself so they can check they don't have any photos of you...
hmm
How MI5 blackmails British Muslims
21.05.2009 13:24
'Work for us or we will say you are a terrorist'
Five Muslim community workers have accused MI5 of waging a campaign of blackmail and harassment in an attempt to recruit them as informants.
The men claim they were given a choice of working for the Security Service or face detention and harassment in the UK and overseas.
They have made official complaints to the police, to the body which oversees the work of the Security Service and to their local MP Frank Dobson. Now they have decided to speak publicly about their experiences in the hope that publicity will stop similar tactics being used in the future.
Danny
good judgement
21.05.2009 13:52
It all went a bit wrong for the Met when they admitted to keeping images and personal details of protesters on a database during a FITwatch trial. After this was published in the Guardian, Liberty started asking questions about why the Met mislead the court in the first hearing of the Wood case, when they claimed that they did not retain images. "it's not about compiling some secret national database" the Met's lawyers said.
When of course, that is exactly what it is about...
Fighting Fit
e-mail:
defycops@yahoo.co.uk
Homepage:
http://www.fitwatch.org.uk
The police are not appealing
25.05.2009 11:35
Andrew Wood
e-mail:
judicialreview@gn.apc.org
Homepage:
http://www.judicialreview.org.uk