Photographer films his own 'anti-terror' arrest

[RAF-N]

Man held in police station for eight hours after taking pictures of Christmas celebrations in Accrington.

Link from 'Sleepycity' with the comment as follpows "UK photographer arrested for refusing to give his details, by police who say he was photographing antisocially. Well done UK! I feel safer already now those no good photographing terrorists are off the streets. How ridiculous."


http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/feb/21/photographer-films-anti-terror-arrest

1:32 & 2:55 made me laugh hard

OFFICER OF THE LAW!

[diehardlove]

atleast he knew his rights just a shame the police dont properly understand the law only the common bits

[clebby]

My blood slowly but surely boiled during that video, but it was the police statement at the end that made it spray everywhere.

:mad:

[Herbivore]

The way I'd like to position my camera would definately be construde as anti-social by the pig with the bruised arse.

[Alan-one]

Do Leica's have LiveView, or does he still have to hold it up to his face? Unless he had it poking out from beneath clothing then I'm failing to see how he could be taking pictures in a "suspicious" or "antisocial" way.

Luckily for him he has the video to back up that it was clearly the results of sour grapes from the Section 44 attempt failing.

[goan]

an·ti·so·cial
1.
unwilling or unable to associate in a normal or friendly way with other people: He's not antisocial, just shy.
2.
antagonistic, hostile, or unfriendly toward others; menacing; threatening: an antisocial act.
3.
opposed or detrimental to social order or the principles on which society is constituted: antisocial behavior.
4.
Psychiatry. of or pertaining to a pattern of behavior in which social norms and the rights of others are persistently violated.

From Dictionary.com /\

Err I dont think that conforms to any of them statements in anayway though correct me if you disagree or Im wrong. This sort of stuff really pisses me off it gets worse and worse

[mrjonesybop]

I wonder what the amateur photographers in the Police think about these goings on. Do you think they suffer the same injustices when they are out taking photos in their spare time? :crazy

[BenCooper]

They're not photographers, but police officers I know get at least as pissed off about stuff like this as we do. They know a few officious idiots make them all look bad, and there are far more important things these officers should be doing.

[troglodyte]

I feel truly discusted by that video!
"due to the fact that we believe you have been ivolved in anti-social behavior, Ie taking photographs" WTF! its Revolting.

[MattRaizoku]

I feel truly discusted by that video!
"due to the fact that we believe you have been ivolved in anti-social behavior, Ie taking photographs" WTF! its Revolting.

Most the police force in the UK are revolting and stupid like this anyway.

[Alias]

Most the police force in the UK are revolting and stupid like this anyway.

well thats just not true is it? lets not turn this into a slagging off the police thread. There are very good police officers and tehn there are bad ones.

[Blunders500]

So the police cannot detain him under Sect 44, but can under Sect 2 of The Police Act citing Antisocial Behavior?
Sounds to me if they just wanted to nick the guy for knowing his rights and being slightly obstructive. Each of the three sucessive officers were more senior and stuck up for each other getting more heavy handed in their response.

Either way the fella stood his ground and managed to get it all recorded and will hopefully highlight the inconsistecy in the way the law is applied.


Does anybody know what you have to do to be 'stopped and searched', is that another case of 'reasonible suspicion'?

[flasher]

I watched that video with my jaw slowly dropping to the floor. :eek:
What a joke!

[fatty-arbuckle]

Thats fukin shockin.

These type of incidents are clearly on the rise - and if anybody knows a way to get the government to change the law, they better speak up.

As the longer they have this power, the worse it will get.

[spungletrumpet]

These type of incidents are clearly on the rise - and if anybody knows a way to get the government to change the law, they better speak up.

As the longer they have this power, the worse it will get.

It is already too late. Most people either don't care or they actively support this kind of policing (It protects us from terrorists and paedophiles, after all :banghead ).
It is very unlikely that any country going down this route will ever backtrack. This kind of stuff will become more and more common, until it is accepted as the norm.

It's here to stay, we'd better start getting used to it.

[Bigjobs]

From what I could see, he was quite within his rights to with hold his details right up until the point the police pulled the section 2.

Wether or not they had the right to do that is questionable, but once they did, I would have complied, and made every complaint I could, requesting what complaints of antisocial behaviour had been made against me.

Once they get it together and use the right legislation, there's little you can do but comply

[spungletrumpet]

I think there may be a little more to this than a random guy being stopped.

The language he used in dealing with the police is, almost to the letter, the approach used by people who follow the freeman concept. He was well clued-up.

His arrest was the result of him standing his ground as a 'Freeman on the land', he had already considered the consequences.

[Alan-one]

Photography magazines have articles on dealing with the police and your rights on photographing in public in pretty much every issue now. An amateur photographer knowing about Section 44 these days is no indication of someone working within law or having any special education.

What I still don't get is that the Association of Chief Police Officers keep releasing statements, and issuing memos to forces confirming that this treatment is wrong, and in some cases unlawful, and yet the regional forces ignore them.

[Herbivore]

It seems to me, after looking at this, that officers are just making a new excuse to stick their noses in. They know they can't do anything about us taking photos, so the 'way' we take photos is the new winning top-trump card.

[MattRaizoku]

Most the police force in the UK are revolting and stupid like this anyway.

Sorry sorry I meant to say alot.

[hardleyouth]

Everyone needs to read the book 1984, its scary how it all works in the book, and you can witness it turning that way right now.