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Last night's riots, looting and arson in Tottenham High Street and in the nearby Tottenham Hale Retail Park sends a dismal message to any potential visitors or investors, who might have been attracted to the area by the London 2012 Olympics - stay well away!

The Olympic Stadium site is only 7 kilometres away, but Tottenham might as well be on the moon, for all the "regeneration" benefit the billions wasted on the Olympics project will have locally.

The local (Labour) politicians and "community leaders" are appealing for calm etc., but they all have an air of failure and despair about them - they know that this riot will make local life even bleaker than it was before.

Why should there be any sympathetic media coverage of these riots whatsoever ?

There are several reports of press photographers and video camera crews being attacked by the gangs of looters:

The BBC reports:

Riots in Tottenham after Mark Duggan shooting protest

A BBC TV news crew and satellite truck also came under attack from youths throwing missiles.

The Mail on Sunday reports:

Riot blaze: North London in flames as police cars, bus and shops burn over police shooting of 'gangster'

Meanwhile, two Mail on Sunday photographers were viciously beaten and robbed by masked youths armed with crowbars and other makeshift weapons and reporters on the scene were threatened by looters in balaclavas.

The photographers said there was 'total lawlessness' in the area with the contents of shops strewn across the streets and the police unable to gain access.

One said: 'It is utter carnage out there. We have been beaten up quite badly and had about £8,000 of equipment stolen. We were quite discreet but as soon as we got a camera out we were set on by youths with masks who were armed with crowbars.'

In a separate incident, a Mail on Sunday reporter was chased down a side street and struck on the back of the head with a rock.

The criminals also even attacked (white) left wing , anti-police violence sympathisers, accusing them of being undercover policemen.

PoliceStateUk twitters:

12:54 AM August 7th 2011

@PoliceStateUK
For a refreshing change of pace, just got beaten up by rioters instead of riot police. Apparently I look like an undercover cop.

12:56 AM August 7th 2011

@PoliceStateUK
... Mark Kennedy has a lot to answer for :-) Some older onlookers kindly waded in and rescued me from the lads that didn't like me.

Also

1:03 AM August 7th 201

@FortisGreen75 Pete Mellows
#Tottenham: Back from the High Road having been attacked for looking like an undercover cop!? Literally owe my life to 3 or 4 guys.

No doubt their will be months of investigations and perhaps an Inquiry, into the original shooting incident and into the police riot response.

  • Why was there no initial rapid Police response when the Tottenham Hale retail park stores burglar alarms went off ?

  • Was the Metropolitan Police Service really so overstretched, or did they delay their response for political reasons to put pressure on the Government against the cuts in their massive budget ?

  • Will political extremists try to exploit this riot for their own evil purposes ?

  • How much has the stupid "gangsta" culture contributed to turning previously innocent youths into real criminals during this riot ?

  • Will this all happen again next summer, during the Olympics ?


What is it with the Metropolitan Police Service and public CCTV cameras ?

Not content with trying to force them on to every licensed premises, as part of the alcohol or entertainment license application process, something for which the Information Commissioner has had to criticise them for, their latest anti-terrorism poster campaign is peddling nonsensical falsehoods about terrorist bombs and CCTV cameras.

See Spy Blog: Metropolitan Police terrorism fear Propaganda Poster lies about bombs, reconnaissance and CCTV cameras

This campaign includes this false and misleading poster, which claims a non existent link between public CCTV and protection against terrorist bombs:

"A bomb won't go off here because weeks before a shopper reported someone studying the CCTV cameras"

street_chemicals_cctv_450.jpg

There is no evidence that any Islamic extremist or Irish terrorists or Animal Rights extremists or neo-Nazi extremists, who have exploded, or tried to explode bombs, or set off incendiary devices, have been deterred from doing so by the presence of CCTV cameras. Some may have been tracked down partially through the help of CCTV footage, after their attacks or attempted attacks, but that is not what this poster is implying.

There is no evidence that any of them who have actually had access to any explosives, have ever been caught in the act of "terrorist reconnaissance" of CCTV cameras, neither by members of the public (which is what this poster misleadingly claims), nor by regular Police street patrols, nor even by any covert surveillance of known suspects.

Since you do not need any equipment to check out where public CCTV cameras are, just your eyes and your memory, it is unlikely that any real terrorism or criminal reconnaissance of CCTV camera systems will ever be detected in the way that this poster implies.

This poster is just Climate of Fear propaganda, and it will no doubt be used to justify the harassment of photographers taking photos, perfectly legally in public places, which have been infested with CCTV spy cameras, something for which there is plenty of evidence for.

See Matt Wardman's Official Harassment of Photographers in the UK: I have a Little List

We are reporting this misleading poster to the Advertising Standards Authority, and urge you all to do the same.

Will Mayor of London Boris Johnson tolerate this ineffective, wasteful and repressive propaganda nonsense or not ?

The NO2ID Campaign organised Mayoral hustings meeting yesterday 8th April 2008 at the Friends Meeting House opposite Euston Station was interesting.

Candidates_8Apr08_NO2ID_London_Mayoral_hustings_300.jpg

From left to right:

Jenny Jones (Green - deputising for Siân Berry), Lyndsey German (Left List / Respect), Boris Johnson (Conservative) NO2ID moderator Christina Zaba - brian Paddick (Liberal Democrat), Gerard Batten (UK Independence Party).

The arrogant authoritarian incumbent Labour candidate Ken Livingstone, refused to turn up to this hustings meeting. Neither did he send a deputy, nor did he or his spin doctors dare to send any Answers to the 4 Questions which NO2ID had sent to each of th invited Candidates beforehand.

His malign "database state" influence was represented by a Cardboard Cut Out Ken, to much amusement from the audience.

Cardboard_Ken_08Apr08_NO2ID_London_Mayoral_husting_300.jpg

Boris Johnson said that this absence confirmed Ken's identity as a chicken.

If, as reported in the media, a car bomb is defused in Haymarket, at 2 am in the morning, why on earth have the idiotic jobsworths shut access to Leicester Square and to Piccadilly Tube station ?

Why are they letting the terrorists win a victory by causing so much unnecessary disruption ?

Is this any way for the National Express staff at Victoria Coach Station to treat any customer, let alone a frail pensioner ?

Is this really the best that the Metropolitan Police can do about an incident literally across the road from Belgravia Police Station ?

Subject: threatening behaviour.

Yesterday, 11 April 07 I was transiting London en route from Cambridge to Southampton. Because there were engineering works on the railway at Basingstoke, and all trains were being diverted via Guildford, Havant, Fareham, I opted to travel by coach, changing at Victoria Coach Station. I did not have a through ticket, and had to book onwards on arrival at Victoria.

I am a pensioner and entitled to book a concessionary fare for the over 60's. Unusually, the booking clerk required proof of entitlement, and I produced my senior citizen's free bus pass issued by my own local authority, and a current Senior Citizen's Railcard. Although neither show a date of birth, neither can be obtained without providing proof of entitlement at the time of issue. These cards do not show a date of birth for the very good reason that bus drivers and counter clerks are not usually suitably vetted to have access to their passenger's personal data.

The Victoria Coach Station employee rejected both. I then asked to see a supervisor. The employee resisted. He required me to state my reasons for asking to speak with his supervisor. I responded that I intended to complain both about his flawed decision and his bad attitude. The employee took my bus pass and disappeared for some time, perhaps 5-10 minutes. When he returned with the supervisor, she merely stonewalled, would not accept either the bus pass or railcard as proof of entitlement. Nevertheless, after some discussion, and noting my statement of intention to write to her CEO and the MD of National Express on return home, she relented and issued me a ticket. I left the ticket hall and went to the boarding area.

Some time later, I noted the presence in the boarding area of the VCS ticket counter employee. He moved around the area holding discussions with various other staff, who appeared to be coach drivers. His conduct included some finger-pointing in my direction, and it became obvious that he was identifying me to others as a troublemaker. Someone who had the temerity to complain. When he approached the driver of my intended coach, the 032 service identified in the photograph.

I took out my camera and photographed him and the coach from some distance away.

A National Express official identified in the second photograph was sitting in the driver's seat at the time. That official, with her two burly helpers, the VCS employee and the coach driver then approached me from a distance of some 50m. The three surrounded me on all sides, standing so close that they brushed against me, and so close I could smell their body odour. Their demeanour was aggressive and menacing, and two, the NX official and the VCS counter clerk demanded that I hand over my film and my camera. I replied with a firm refusal. Their demands were unlawful. I was going about my lawful business of travelling through London. If I chose to photograph events en route that was no business of theirs. Furthermore, if they had nothing to hide, they have nothing to fear.

They were aware that I was frail, and not in a position to defend myself, and I sincerely feared for my safety. So when the NX official broke away to make a mobile phone call I pointed out to the VCS counter clerk that his presence so close was menacing, and being not at his usual place of work his behaviour could be described as harassment, for which he could be arrested. The coach driver took the hint and moved him away. I seized my opportunity to move away also. I left the coach station and walked the short distance to Belgravia Police Station where I lodged a complaint. And by that time, the stress levels were sufficient to induce a severe attack of angina that your Belgravia desk officer was aware of.

The desk officer at Belgravia Police Station took note of what I had to say and viewed the image on the camera, but declined to take any action, while endorsing my decision to move away from a face-to-face confrontation.

Although I had a valid ticket I feared for my safety at Victoria Coach Station, so I made my way on foot and by tube to Waterloo Station and returned home by rail.

Why have the Metropolitan Police not "seized" the CCTV surveillance camera footage , of which there must be plenty of at Victoria Coach Station ?

coach_300.jpg


supervisor_300.jpg

N.B we have pixellated the faces in these images. The annotations are by the pensioner himself. The much higher quality images were attached to the email sent by the aggrieved pensioner to the Metropolitan Police.

Sousveillance by members of the public who now commonly carry digital cameras or mobile phone cameras for stills or video shots, directed against petty bureaucrats and jobsworth officials, is still quite rare.

To quote the Corporal Jones character from the Dad's Army comedies: "They don't like it up 'em!"

See the full text of the email:

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Campaign Button Links

Watching Them, Watching Us, UK Public CCTV Surveillance Regulation Campaign
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NO2ID - opposition to NuLabour's plans for Compulsory Biometric ID Card and National Identity Register centralised database.

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MI5 encrypted contact web form use 999 or 112 to report immediate threats
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