Forgive me for opening my new blog with such a heavy subject, but this is close to heart and I need to vent.
A heavy bone on contention among photographers:
There is a tedency for UK police and PCSOs to misunderstand anti-terror statutes in relation to photography in a public place. They belive they have the right to stop anyone from taking photos in a public place in the name of national security. Although I have no personal experience of this, it has made it very difficult for anyone to take photographs of architecture and landmarks, especially in UK cities, without harrassment from the police forces. I have heard one story of an old couple on a day out in Cambridge being asked to stop taking pictures, quoting terror law as the reason, someone please tell me the harm in snapshots...
The law is that they can only stop people taking photographs if they believe without a shadow of a doubt that the pictures taken are a part of terrorist surveillance activities. They can not force you to delete photos and in fact their guidelines state not to do this as it destroys any evidence, they have to take the camera as evidence and turn it in. They cannot even ask you to turn it on in order to view the pictures forgoing the same risk.
It is said that if the guidelines are correctly followed then it provides an extra element of protection from terrorists, but is this not what the terrorists want? For us to live in fear and change our way of life as a result? Maybe we should think about whether such sacrifice is for the common good. We are slowly losing our rights to freedom and privacy in the name of terror, is this really what we want for us and future generations? I would say no, why should we change because an extremist cleric thinks we live in a way that defies his method of worship? If we can learn to live in harmony with every other culture why can't they?
We have fought for our freedom from repression several times in the last 100 years and we shouldn't be just about to roll over in the face of terror, my grandparents and yours fought for the freedom of our generation and theirs and their blood will have been spilled for nothing if we do.
In my humble opinion, I think we should be more vigilant, but why change the law for us, the people who live, work and play in this country to stopping us enjoying our lives the way we want to when it is people from outside this country that are the problem? If we improved our immigration law then we would all but solve the issue, but as our border controls continue to fail us, it is easy for would be terrorists to come to our shores, again thanks to our perennial do-gooders who, incidentally, always seem to do us the most damage.
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An interesting point of view about one of the many pieces of legislation brought in to protect us. Have you thought about how the police are meant to distinguish between a terrorist and dear old granny taking a picture. If they don’t get it right they are nailed to the wall by the press. Perhaps, instead of criticising the legislator you should consider the public in general. Everyone these days is so apathetic, they barely raise the eyes and look at what is happening around them. Maybe if Joe Bloggs was encouraged to take an active role in his community then the legislator wouldn’t be forced to have to take such measures.
ReplyDeleteIt is a fair comment, I'm also not suggesting anyone bury their head in the sand or pining for the good old days. What I am pro though is encouraging people to be more vigilant instead of confusing the authorities with ever changing legislation.
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