Just sent this as a response to the news that amazingly CPS has dropped
all charges against the officer that hit and pushed Ian Tomlinson:

You can add your comment at the CPS website:

I am disgusted at the CPS verdict re: Ian Tomlinson. It’s amazing that an
officer of the law can baton and then push over a member of the public -
not even a protester – and this considered not an injury.

I understand the verdict re: the differences between the coroners that a
manslaughter verdict is not possible, but the idea and the message that
police officers can behave like an petulant child and shove the public out
of their way (when said public might be ill, drunk, mentally disabled or
otherwise incapable to comply, their lack of compliance does not
automatically equal defiance) and such aggression SHOULD be dealt with.

Otherwise myself and others lose trust in the actions of the police force,
that they will use undue violence and then excuse it because there was a
few far away and unrelated that were violent to property – a dangerous
message to send out, and like Blair Peach before him there is a general
feeling that the CPS and the Metropolitan Police protect their own; that
the very lack of reply denied in the case of these deaths and the very
tangible fear of police (see the reports that statistics in young people
the majority do not trust a policeman or woman with a gun; after Charles
De Menenez this is not surprising).

The corroding effect of this decision will be seen in such losses of trust
- which is damaging for those in the police force who are trying to do
good and as we know rely the help of the public to do their work. Also the
reinforced ‘them vs us’ – it’s certain to my mind that a member of the
public in a similar position would almost certainly be prosecuted.

I hope you reverse this decision and decide to prosecute – even if
unsuccessful it would reinforce the idea that the police are there to
serve us; that they aren’t immune and that they are being watched for such
infractions.

yours sincerley,

Tim

(incidentally tried to send this earlier and failed partly due to evil web nanny software called WebMarshal at work…this software takes it back to the 1950′s, where  this entire blog got banned for using the word ‘bitch’ and this post banzored my email domain and webmail client, and wouldn’t let me submit this to the CPS for I dunno what (CPS and police references? How are those ‘Illegal or Obscene’?) – the irony is that they were using my personal email at work because it takes so long to – you guessed it – get IT to setup anything including an email address for a temp. Hmm.)

This is pitiful – young NUJ photojournalist Jules Mattsson takes pictures of an army cadet parade and gets aggro from the police for doing so – maybe they should bone up on the law and the recent cases they’ve lost re: photography in public places. Nice that the NUJ and BJP are behind this photographer – and amazing that apparently to even question the law is to create a breach of the peace – ones created by the police. Nice logic there.

Of course you’ll get the people saying ‘why didn’t he comply?’ – well as a working NUJ photojournalist and in a public place, he has a right to take pictures. Also if we off-limit ANY pictures of children, even at official display events or parades where photography will obviously happen then that not only begets a future where children are going to be edited out or avoided from any future event shots, but also makes children feel uneasy and think that every photographer is a paedophile or terrorist, which is absolute bolocks.

And also when it affects photojournalists, like the Guardian journalist that was attacked and detained in Toronto this weekend at G20 – then you’re getting into censorship issues – it starts to be a special pleading excuse to stop any coverage at all to hide what’s really going on (doubt that would happen at an Army Cadet parade, but if this was extended to other events it would).

As an aside re: the G20 – 1) Black Bloc Tactic is a tactic not an official group afaik – and 2) like with the ‘anarchists’ at London’s G20 although not prone to conspiracy theories I’m really suspect that these people are really who they appear to be, especially as they (in London, as seem to in Toronto) were given free reign and the police stayed back while press stayed on hand to conveniently document – like in London with the conveniently empty-at-the-last-minute bank? It wouldn’t be the first time the police have used agent provocateurs. Might be tinfoil hat territory, but police and security services do infiltrate all groups, even have been shown to break the law and even allow murder…so who knows. if they are anarchists, they are fools because although it’s kind of heartening to see burning police cars, it falls exactly into what those G20 leaders want.

Back to photography and this guy – really this kind of thing is partly why I think I stopped taking pictures, I just don’t feel comfortable doing so anymore – it’s a worry in the back of my mind that some Stasi oik will take offence at some innocuous shot in public (I never take pictures of anyone without permission, rarely even crowd scenes) but when the likes of fish and chip shops, Xmas decorations and CCTV cameras are all off-limits apparently, who knows what is a ‘terrorist’ thing to do as the police are making it up on the spot.

Credit: REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

Toki Wright from Rhymesayers has made a timely and topical remake of the Public Enemy classic, referring to the recent sad events in Arizona re: immigration, making stop and search possible even if you ‘look’ illegal (you know how I hate those ‘sus’ stop and searches, be it photographers, muslims, latinos, whatever). As all good hiphop should be it’s right on the button, political, funky and also paying due to a classic track.

As Toki said:

Yesterday at approximately 1:30pm I was having a conversation with my community organizer/poet friend Emmanuel Ortiz about the Senate Bill 1070 (SB 1070) that recently was signed into law in the state of Arizona. The bill says that “all immigrants must carry documentation verifying their immigration status. It also stipulates that police officers have the authority to ask to see the information from any individual that is deemed “suspicious” or when there is “reasonable suspicion” that the person may not be legally in the country.” This new bill signed into law in a nutshell legalizes racial profiling. If you “look like an immigrant” you can get hauled off to jail.

Emmanuel says, “somebody needs to redo By The Time I Get To Arizona” by Public Enemy. Arizona is that same state the didn’t want to recognize Martin Luther King Day when Chuck D originally wrote the song. For years I wanted to write a “By The Time I Get To Minnesota” version but never got around to it. I started doing more research on the new bill and was outraged….

All day I’ve been saying “hell…I’m going to get in trouble for this one.” But you know what? The truth needs to be told. Biting your tongue only makes you hungry and your mouth hurt. Hope you enjoy it. Pass it along.

In Solidarity,

Toki Wright

Yo heard the man – pass it along – so here it is to download: By The Time I Get to Arizona 2010 by Toki Wright

MP3 via 2DopeBoyz & Impose magazine who write about the whole thing far better than I could from here in li’l ol blighty, or you can stream from SFR below.

And like others I’m just waiting for the ‘What Would Chuck D Do?’ Tshirts and merch to pop up after this…;-) Hey I’d buy one…

By The Time I Get To Arizona 2010 Reduex by Strange Famous Records

Oh and if you haven’t gone and downloaded the excellent free track ‘Best of Times’ from Sage Francis with Yann Tiersen (yes, THAT Yann Tiersen) then GO DO IT NOW.

Conveniently religious, on Easter Sunday and on Christmas,
the television went from being our baby-sitter to a mistress,
technology made it easy for us to stay in touch while keeping our distance.
Til we just stayed distant and never touched, now all we do is text to much…

…steamed open a couple of envelopes like I was in private detective mode,
if you snoop around long enough for something in particular you’re guaranteed to find it,
for better or worse that’s how I learned it’s best to just keep some things private.

It’s amazing, and I know it’s an emo thing to say but pretty much describes a lot of my childhood (apart from a funeral and girlfriend thing, of course – but predictably similar remote-crushes-from-afar played heavily on my late teens…didn’t have a speech impediment but I needed glasses, made up voices and had asthma and spent a lot of time off school – it does resonant even with some of the details different). It’s from his forthcoming album LI(F)E.

Although the identities of the 6 SPG officers, one of which killed Blair Peach have been published before in David Ransom’s book and in the Sunday Times, it’s worth repeating the names as they were redacted in the recently released Cass report (after the police sat on it for 31 years!):

Inspector Alan Murray was in charge of Number One Unit SPG on the day of Peach’s death. He resigned from the force in the Summer of 1980 to join his brother in a jewelery business in Scotland. He is now now a lecturer in corporate social responsibility at Sheffield University.

The other officers in the van were PC Anthony Richardson who had been with the SPG for six months; PC Michael Freestone, who claimed he was transferred out of the unit because it was “politically expedient; PC Raymond ‘Chalkie’ White, the van driver; PC James Scottow believed to have told Peach to get ‘on your bike’ after the blow and Sgt Anthony Lake who was driving a second van.

A PC Greville Bint, part of Unit One, is understood not to have been among the officers whose identities was redacted. He gave conflicting evidence to the original inquest about where he got in and out of the van at the time of Peach’s death.

During a search of SPG lockers Bint was found to have been in possession of a lead weighed plaited leather covered stick, Nazi regalia, bayonets, German awards and medals from the first and second world wars. he was transferred out of the riot squad to Brixton in June 1979.

fromThe Sause

Note: Alan Murray has come out as ‘almost certainly’ Officer E, the one thought to land the blow, although he denies that. Obviously Blair just headbutted a random flyby cosh then?

And sadly although the Met claim it is a different police force now, the sad assault and death last year of Ian Tomlinson and the actions of the police like Derek Smellie at G20 tell otherwise – from the SPG morphing into the Territorial Support Group to new ‘sus’ laws, kettling, terrorist Islamaphobia and restrictions for photographers.

Maybe one day we’ll get justice for Kevin Gately too – a student killed by again a head injury during an anti-NF protest rally in Red Lion Square – one where the SPG where in attendance too.

More reading also at Modernity Blog.

Inevitable, and given the silly responses to open P2P and bittorrent, the way it’s going…and very hard if not possible to police, and yes supports all kinds of groups including the ones you’d rather not play with (military and child pr0n, hmm) but still…publicly offline is the new online!

See you there? I wonder if there is a mashup darknet…;-) DISOBEY.

Also private filesharing systems are now making a comeback, like Dropbox – reminding me of the old KDX. And private Virtual Private Networks making a mockery of the DEAct – will their sooper-dooper ability to change the law keep up? I doubt it…without making a lot of people using them for business purposes upset.

When you tell geeks they cannot download their mashups or funny videos or video mashups and creative stuff as well as crappy Hollywood movies that no-one really want to buy (ditto albums – or using them as a preview – that’s shifting now Spotify and YT is available if they are on there) and acapellas and multitracks and those ‘grey area’ files – well g*d help you!

BTW this was why MI5 and security groups were against the now Digital Economy Act – they knew that people would go dark and darknets and VPNs would become more widespread – making their jobs harder…ahh diddums.