I PWOTEST

There is a bit of a hoo har about todays Guardian front page which has pictures from Police "Spotter cards" of activists who were well known in 2005. This is old news which I can't take too seriously.

These guys used to take pictures of me, which I have been a bit indignant about here on occasion but I am not really too bothered. I can totally justify everything I am doing, it is all within the law and with the intentions of making the world a better more informed place, so if "intelligence" people in uniform who exhibit limited intelligence want to behave like paparazzi, you know, fuck them. I don't care.

I know a couple of the people on this card. They aren't violent or dangerous, they are quite principled though. Someone on facebook was saying they were annoyed about The Guardian printing their photographs. She got this letter back:

We're sorry that you have a concern about our publication of the police spotter card today. We did consider all the issues very carefully before deciding it was the correct thing to do. The response has been overwhelmingly positive, and that feedback from people whose faces appeared on the front-page, but this email is adderssed to people who have questioned the decision.

We made it clear that no-one pictured on this card had done anything amiss other than attend demonstrations, which is their right.

It is extremely important to be able to show the general public just what the police are doing by way of stigmatising demonstrators.

These are all pictures of people who have decided to attend public demonstrations, precisely in order to make public their own political views. They are therefore people who have voluntarily gone into the public arena to engage in political action.

Naturally, we don't want anyone to suffer any detriment for their beliefs. We believe that many of the people on that card will be pleased to have now contributed towards exposing and helping stop this kind of police behaviour. They will not primarily have been thinking of themselves, but of the benefit to the causes they believe in.

It is important to bear in mind that no-one personally asked us to black out their faces beforehand, although we circulated our plans to those members of the protest community we could find. A few people claimed that unidentified third parties might object, which is not a basis on which we could proceed.

The other important factor is that the faces on this card have already been published in the media before. They were shown in detailed close-up in the film 'Taking Liberties', which was distributed in cinemas and is available to buy as a DVD. The makers of the film describe the film as a "surprise box office hit". As many will be aware, one of the people on the screen holds up the "spotter card" to the camera and there is a clear view of everybody on it.

http://www.noliberties.com/index.htm

http://www.noliberties.com/release.htm

Most if not all the people on this card would have been well aware of that.

Some on the card say there was some sort of agreement that we would not publish the "spotter card" unless there was permission from all of you and failing that, we would blur some of the images.

Some background - we have carrying out research for this series since June. A few months ago, there was an idea that we should try to contact all the people on the card and interview them. At that time, the idea was to print some biographies of the individuals on the card to draw out various points - such as - the obviously important issue of how many people had criminal records. As it turned out, seven people on the card called me. It was clear that we were not going to be able speak to all on the card. As the project evolved, we abandoned the idea. During that process, we spoke to people on the card on the understanding that we would not name people if they did not want to be. As it turned out, we did not name anyone on the card, except Mark Thomas who wrote a comment piece about the card - http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/libertycentral/2009/oct/25/doth-i-protest-too-much

It should be clear from the general thrust of the articles that we are looking to highlight the wrong-doing of the police, not the protesters. The publication of the card helps to tell many in the wider public what is actually going on here. Many in the protest community have complained that the mainstream media have ignored what the police have been doing. We hope that you will recognise that the Guardian has in the past year published a series of articles which have helped to expose police wrong-doing. The articles on Ian Tomlinson and the treatment of protesters at Kingsnorth are two examples of these.

We recognise that some of you are upset but we hope that you will have a better understanding of why we published the card.

Yours,
Rob Evans
Paul Lewis
Reporters,.
The Guardian

UPDATE: Hoo-Har here

UPDATE: Suspect "A"

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UN-ARSED CLIMATE CAMP

Day Two Guardian
Climate Camp and The Police Guardian
Whitechapel Anarchist group
Police adopt low profile as 1,000 Climate Camp activists set up base- Guardian


Just before 7pm the Met's chief superintendent Julia Pendry, silver commander in charge of tactics for the operation, walked on to the site to talk to organisers, sparking a hostile response from a crowd of around a dozen anarchists. Apparently against the wishes of the rest of the camp, they shouted "scum", "kill the pigs" and "you murdered Ian Tomlinson" at Pendry as she left the site with a colleague.

But she struck a conciliatory note, apparently undeterred by the taunts. "The meeting was extremely useful. I have been extremely impressed by the number of people who are calm, welcoming. I got offered a cup of tea and that is how it should be," she said.

Asked if the insults had bothered her, she said: "It's the sort of thing any experienced police officer has seen before. I hope the camp is successful."


Well I thought day two was great from what I could see. I was up there for the afternoon. It is massive. Seriously I was really surprised how big it was and wandering around I could only feel a positive atmosphere except for some silly masks who were obviously so disappointed that there wasn't a ruck with the cops. What is the excitement? I don't get it.

Being a bit of a yesteryear protester myself I was really pleased to see so many fresh young faces I didn't recognise, and none of the moany old moss covered fuckers going on about their personal squabbles and what went wrong with "The Movement". The only old faces I saw up there were the people who were positive then and I am glad to see they are still positive now.

There were some photographers wandering round and I saw a couple of heated debates about them taking photos which was a bit annoying. I just demanded that they take pictures of us. Fuck it. How are you going to get society to change? Interest people? Maybe? Like real people outisde of your little group? Maybe? People who don't look like you maybe?

Ridiculous.

People can arse-ache on about corporate media blah all they like I don't give a fuck. If the Guardian are employing Hannah Kuchler, as far as I am concerned they have "the movement" right there. I will always remember her and her friends on Day-X when the Iraq war started.

It is nothing to do with me, but personally I am quite happy that SOME of the Climate Camp invited the Chief of Police Operations on site. They should be proud to justify and demonstrate what they are up to to all who will listen. Last time there was a big protest in Kingsnorth the Police action was heavy handed and over the top. This time, so far it isn't. That is only going to disappoint people in black wearing masks and probably a few on the other side also wearing black and holding truncheons who will have to go and kill the atmosphere at Notting Hill carnival instead. Fuck all of them. They aren't interested in Climate camp anyway.

Trouble is, if there isn't trouble the mainstream news will blank it as usual. There has to be the right balance between teaching, learning and pushing for things to change eh. I like the newsround (for kids)coverage here.

If you are thinking of heading up, go. I couldn't believe the effort people have gone to, errecting massive marquees, building toilets and stages all for free and for the sharing of positive knowledge.

Which is a good thing.

Strange Adventures in Copland:
...So it was with all this in mind that I stood up in front of a crowd of seventy police officers on Thursday afternoon, and explained to them why the Climate Camp was happening, how non-hierarchical decision-making works, and what this year's Camp will probably look like. I then described what it was like to be charged by a line of riot cops for no discernible reason, to watch your friends being beaten over the head and arrested on meaningless charges, to see people in front of you being pepper-sprayed in the face, and to know you have to stand your ground anyway with your hands in the air because the alternative is to let a beautiful Camp be trampled under their steel-toecapped boots. They listened, in silence. It was one of the weirdest things I've ever done in my life. Whether or not it will make any difference, I really couldn't say; but it felt oddly liberating all the same...

Climate campers get a lesson in citizen journalism- Guardian

from Hamish Campell and Richard Hering who was the voice of the pre-camp video posted below and who was briefly going to be involved in my project with the mad Muslims at one point some years ago.

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