UK Repression Newswire Archive
USA: Turn Off That Camera! Filming The Police At Work
16-06-2011 10:01
Dashboard cams in police cars are ubiquitous. Yet police are pushing back against Americans capturing them at work on cell phone cameras. Arresting people filming arrests. Is that right?
You see police arresting someone. Maybe it looks right and by the book. Maybe it doesn’t.
You pull out your cell phone and start to record. To make a video. And the next thing you know, you are arrested. The video-making bystander, in handcuffs. Facing charges.
It’s happening all around the country. Cell phones and their cameras are now everywhere. Police often don’t like to be recorded doing their work. It’s not always pretty.
But in the era of the citizen journalist, should making a video mean an arrest? Who’s the watchdog then?
This hour On Point: the battle over citizens videoing police.
- Tom Ashbrook
Full article | 1 addition | 5 comments
Former undercover cop’s media circus is just a big show
16-06-2011 09:02
Yesterday morning BBC Radio Five Live demonstrated, once again, the utter futility of interviewing former undercover police officer Mark Kennedy. Mr Kennedy is a man who has carved out a career as a professional liar. Pouring his heart out to Victoria Derbyshire, he apparently deeply regrets the endless lies he had to tell in his former role. However, he seems to show no sign of giving untruths a rest.
When asked whether he ever acted as an agent provocateur, Kennedy claimed he had “never encouraged anyone to do anything they weren’t already going to do”, and that he only ever came in at a very late stage to planned direct actions.
However, in the case of the 114 people arrested for conspiring to commit aggravated trespass at Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station in April 2009, we know this to be far from the truth.
Public Rally in Support of Victims of Torture, 26 June, Trafalgar Square, 2-4pm
15-06-2011 14:46
26 June is UN International Day in Support of Victims of Torture. In spite of laws to protect them, men, women, children and entire communities all around the world have to live with the consequences of torture meted out by state authorities. Torture is illegal. Join us on this day to show solidarity with victims. Also the final day of Refugee Week 2011, it should not be forgotten that many refugees have fled torture.The Truth About Libya !
15-06-2011 13:14
Kingsley Burrell - March for Justice - 2nd July 2011
14-06-2011 21:45
2nd July: March for Justice In Birmingham. We can make this as big as the march in London. It will be a peaceful March
Fear of Freedom:collectivist bill of rights reducing NZers to dependency.
14-06-2011 19:45
Australia could be landed with a dependent NZ if we become part of Australia. In my view, we will be like 'an anchor their your neck'. Our collectivist bill of rights, Australia is also seriously considering a bill of rights, is reducing the population to a state of dependency. I consider, if we join with Australia it should be a matter of mutual choice and not out of our desperation by our being reduced to 'third world status' and the 'begging bowl'. But I do think God is defending New Zealand so the people can have a choice.Babar Ahmad Police Trial: A Verdict Based on Fear, not Fact?
14-06-2011 18:35
They say a week is a long time in politics. How about almost eight years, and counting, in the criminal “justice” system, with no end in sight. For Babar Ahmad, last Friday (3 June) saw the end of the trial of four police officers accused of assaulting him.
FBI to Expand Domestic Surveillance Powers as Details Emerge of Its Spy Campaign Targeting Activists
14-06-2011 18:15
Civil liberties advocates are raising alarm over news the FBI is giving agents more leeway to conduct domestic surveillance. According to the New York Times, new guidelines will allow FBI agents to investigate people and organizations "proactively" without firm evidence for suspecting criminal activity. We speak to former FBI agent Mike German, who now works at the American Civil Liberties Union, and Texas activist Scott Crow, who has been the focus of intense FBI surveillance from 2001 until at least 2008. Using the Freedom of Information Act, Crow received 440 pages of heavily redacted documents revealing the FBI had set up a video camera outside his house, traced the license plates of cars parked in front of his home, recorded the arrival and departure of his guests, and observed gatherings that Crow attended at bookstores and cafes. The agency also tracked Crow’s emails and phone conversations and picked through his trash to identify his bank and mortgage companies. “It’s been definitely traumatizing at different points,” says Crow. “But if we don’t come out and be open about this, then they’ve already won, and the surveillance and the ‘war on terror’ wins against us.”
Letter from imprisoned anarchist Damiano Bolano
14-06-2011 12:36
SpanishRevolution: Graphics 2_ Videos and Txt
14-06-2011 12:02
texts, videos and graphs on SpanishRevolutionFull article | 1 addition | 4 comments
Peaceful protestors arrested. Cut the TSG!
14-06-2011 07:58
I am livid, for one very simple reason: I have just watched four peaceful protestors be violently arrested by the Metropolitan Police. Countless others I watched get pushed, shoved, and punched. Subsequently another was arrested at a demo outside Holborn Police Station against the initial arrests. Several vans of TSG were deployed to this, again entirely peaceful, in front of a fortified police station to which a couple of dozen students and academics could pose no meaningful threat. A dog section was present, both at SOAS and outside the Police Station.
Let's Stop a Bad Drugs Law Getting on the Books in the UK!
14-06-2011 02:42
The so-called Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill, currently under discussion in the House of Lords, is already under scrutiny for various suspected threats to civil liberties, most notoriously clamp-downs on rights of public assembly and protest in response to the actions at Parliament Square. But let's not overlook the section that would actually REMOVE the need for experts of any kind to advise the government about drugs policy!No Justice in Kafka’s America
13-06-2011 23:39
In Franz Kafka’s short story “Before the Law”
http://records.viu.ca/~johnstoi/kafka/beforethelaw.htm a tireless supplicant spends his life praying for admittance into the courts of justice. He sits outside the law court for days, months and years. He makes many attempts to be admitted. He sacrifices everything he owns to sway or bribe the stern doorkeeper. He ages, grows feeble and finally childish. He is told as he nears death that the entrance was constructed solely for him and it will now be closed.
Government Orders You Tube To Censor Protest Videos
13-06-2011 23:31
free Internet, it has emerged that You Tube is complying with thousands of
requests from governments to censor and remove videos that show protests and
other examples of citizens simply asserting their rights, while also
deleting search terms by government mandate.
Beautiful South Korea
13-06-2011 11:58
Int'l Petition urging that the 10 Vietnamese Migrant Workers be found Not Guilty and Released (effective 2011.6.07)P.s.... this is highlighting the situation in South Korea, not North Korea, as there is lots on North Korea , most people think they know..via amnesty etc. Lots of people think the south is paradise...but its not....
Stand Up, Be Counted, Slut Walk
13-06-2011 08:45
As we stormed the London streets on Saturday, a defining moment for me was when we walked past a group of builders. They downed tools and just stared at us, open mouthed. No cat calls, no wolf whistles, no smarmy comments – they read the signs, they shut up. I’m sure for many women there it was the first time we’ve managed to walk past a building site and not had our anatomy dissected by men who are often older than us, probably with daughters our age.
This is what I think gets misunderstood. There’s a difference between someone paying you a compliment and someone wolf whistling or saying ‘nice tits’. I have had men say to me in the street ‘you look nice today’ and been bowled over by the fact they seem to have manners. It’s such a rarity. The majority of the time, I get hissed at, whistled at (you know, like you would an animal), told I have nice tits, nice legs, told I should wear my skirt a little shorter, told how nice my ass looks. When your first comment to me is sexual, how am I to know you’ll just leave it at a comment? What may be an innocent comment to you, I have no choice but to take a a possible threat.
Arrested to Prevent a breach of a peace?
12-06-2011 21:46
A woman is reportedly arrested "to prevent a further breach of the peace", after she began filming a Council meeting.Photos of two suspected undercover cops
12-06-2011 20:35
Strathclyde police step up repression and target anti-rape event organisers
12-06-2011 15:25
Organisers of an anti sexual violence demonstration in Glasgow city centre on Saturday 4 June are facing possible charges after Strathclyde Police reported two individuals to the Procurator Fiscal for what they claim was an 'unauthorised' march. This follows a huge police operation which was mounted on the day of the 'Slutwalk', which saw around 200 mostly young people taking part in a completely peaceful march against rape and victim blaming, in light of recent comments by various Tory politicians on the matter.
london slutwalk - pics and report
12-06-2011 14:55
organisers estimated 3000 people took part in yesterday's 'slutwalk' anti-rape protest yesterday in central london. the crowd filled trafalgar square to hear from a wide variety of speakers, and the event was seen by them as a success. it has certainly opened up a debate about attitudes to women, rape, dress, and misogyny, although not all agree with the premise of the march.
click on image for larger version. all images are 'some rights reserved' - free for credited non-commercial use, otherwise contact author for permission
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as the crowd assembled outside the 'hard rock cafe' at the west end of picadilly, it became clear this was going to be much bigger than most people had imagined. the london slutwalk, follows similar uk marches in edinburgh, newcastle, cardiff and glasgow, and these in turn were part of an emergence of currently more than 70 similar events around the globe.
it all began in toronto, after an ill-judged, and later reprimanded, comment by a toronto cop, michael sanguinetti, in a rape case. he was quoted as saying that "women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimised". there have been similar comments in british courts from ill-witted judges, and rape victims are routinely asked what they were wearing at the time. so the 'slutwalk' response is that women should be free to wear whatever they wish, and that rape is thus never invited or 'asked for'. infact, one particularly incisive banner at yesterday's protest simply pointed out that "by definition, you cannot ASK to be raped".
some feminists have opined that the protest doesn't address deeper concerns over the commercial sexualisation of the female in society, and that the word 'slut' is not one worth reclaiming. on a side note, etymologically, 'slut' doesn't originally appear to suggest any sexual connotation, rather being associated with dirt, and applied to women, often servants, who didn't clean properly.
all controversy aside, the trafalgar square speeches, from organisers and invitees, kept returning to a simple single-issue point to be made, and 'slutwalk' might be strongest and least divisive if it continues to be clear about that one issue.
i thought it was best summed up by one speaker who invited us to imagine the case of a man appearing in the witness stand after being the victim of a rape where some penis-like object had been shoved up his arse. the first question he is asked by the sympathetic judge is "can you describe what you were wearing at the time?". the farcical unlikeliness of this scenario brought laughter and a huge cheer from the crowd. and yet female rape victims are routinely asked this question.
a young muslim woman pointed out that her religious dress is under fire for too much coverage, while rape victims are under fire for too little dress. why does (patriarchal) authority believe it should interfere in this area at all? 'slutwalk' invited people to come dressed in any way they wished, and although many took up the challenge to dress 'provocatively' (isn't that word in itself a sign of how deep this problem is entrenched?), others rose to the call in other ways.
a trans-gender speaker spoke of her previous life as a man, never experiencing any sexual abuse, but that since dressing as a woman, she receives anything ranging from stupid comments to serious threats on a shockingly regular basis. sex workers spoke of their experiences at the hands of the police - claims of abuse or rape are routinely met with indifference because of the nature of their work, and the level of protection is minimal, non-existent or indeed negative. she told how she was currently fighting a conviction for 'running a brothel', when her only motive was to work in a flat communally with a couple of friends for safety after being brutally attacked herself (without any subsequent justice) when she previously worked on her own.
other speakers did of course make connections to wider women's issues, such as the use of rape as a weapon in war, the plight of women in AIDS ravaged countries, and the rights of women globally. one particularly eloquent speaker on global issues was crystal from 'global women's strike'.
but ultimately and simply 'slutwalk' is about challenging the arbitrary and ill-conceived connection between dress or appearance and the crime of rape. it is about fighting the perception among, mostly male, police, prosecuters, and judges, that rape can be invited by signals and implied consent. it is about raising these issues publicly and in the press, and pushing it into the judicial agenda.
it certainly seems to have captured the imagination of a wide cross-section of the public, and yesterday's london march and rally had men and women in all states of dress and undress, in unexpectedly large numbers, with a serious aim and as part of a global phenomenon.
quite by chance, yesterday's event coincided with the yearly 'world naked bike ride', and as the speeches were drawing to a close, hundreds and more hundreds of naked men and women rode past the square as part of that event, not one of them inviting rape - a delicious synchronicity on a sunny afternoon.