Where are the protests about the surveillance state

[jake-the-peg]

As I recall last year there was a huge fuss about how Britain was becoming a surveillance state under Labour.

There was a big protest about all the CCTV cameras - I recall David Davis being particularly vocal about it.

Now after the student protests in London CCTV footage is being used to find and prosecute people committing offences during it.

Have people changed their minds and if so should we thank Labour for increasing the number of camers - or should we be pulling them down ahead ofthe next set of protests?

[New Judge]

For once, jake, we're in total agreement (at least I think we are).

We cannot have it both ways. Whether or not one agrees with CCTV cameras it is hypocritical to criticise their growth and then praise the authorities when they use them to catch miscreants.

[R1Geezer]

I've never moaned about the Cameras, I do moan about other nanny state/civil liberties issues but the cameras are very useful in tracking down miscreants etc.

[craft1948]

I have no problem with surveillance cameras............

[jake-the-peg]

http://www.theanswerb...s/Question508833.html

I wonder if the Telegraph would like to comment

[rov1200]

Typically the British public feel paranoid when they get caught up in surveillance cameras not realising to catch the bad guys means a blanket coverage of all the population.

Maybe they should invent a camera that can detect a person with anti lawful tendences first so allowing the innocent to proceed unwatched.

[naomi24]

Oh deary, deary me, Jake. I've seen you twist words and situations in futile efforts to endow a modicum of credibility, and respectability, upon the utter shambles that was New Labour, but you've really excelled yourself this time. Nothing like grasping at straws! How long did it take you to think that one up?

Thanks for the laugh. :o)

[optics2b]

What cameras are they then ?

[optics2b]

Do they ? how do you know that /

[birdie1971]

They go very, very faulty when four muslims allegedly blow up tube trains and a bus. London is (and was in 2005) the CCTV surveillance capital of the world. And yet when the most appalling terrorist attack that this country has ever seen in peace-time occurs, we're told that the CCTV network failed to record any of it.

Anyone would think that their recording capabilities are somehow selective... but of course, that would be absurd.

[sammmo]

selective surveillance ..The surveillance during the student protest has shown us all the bad bits..police pulling people out of wheelchairs etc.. what about showing the police being nice to people for a change.. surely there must be footage of police helping some of these students or being friendly to them..or does the media only show the bad bits for a reason?

[anotheoldgit]

http://tinyurl.com/3xe63je

If one belongs to the 'mustn't offend brigade', one can get them closed down even before they go into operation.

[youngmafbog]

I've never moaned about them. I've moaned about speed cameras but that is a differnt issue.

CCTV helped clear my missus when some foreign idiot wearing headphones literally ran out right into her. One look at the CCTV and the Old Bill were right off the case.

[anotheoldgit]

sammmo

/// police pulling people out of wheelchairs etc.///

I think you will find that the newspapers are saying "video ALLEGEDLY shows police pulling man out of wheelchair"

Until the results of the inquiry are known. we have only Mr McIntyre's word for it.

/// Mr McIntyre, who has cerebral palsy, had attended all the previous student demonstrations in central London, even managing, with the help of friends, to get on to the roof of Millbank Tower, where the Conservative Party has its headquarters, on November 10.///

For a person in a wheelchair, that is a 'no mean task'.

[HabDabs]

Some video of him being dragged across the road from the wheelchair

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUHzSQgayXY

[birdie1971]

Clearly, it's not in the media's interest to show Police Officers acting in an magnanimous manner. Such things do not sell newspapers nor do they increase viewing figures on TV.

Showing the Police hitting civilians with fists or batons is a great sensationalist story because it can be taken out of context and reported as police brutality – there is often no exposition that explains why the police did what they did, only the recorded act of them arresting a suspect using force.

Until we know precisely why these Police Officers felt the need to arrest the chap in the wheelchair and why they felt the need to arrest him in such a manner, then judgement should be reserved.

[SizzleSquid]

never heard the term miscreant b4 is it new or something

[jaydah]

costs money to pull 'em down & labour have left us cash-strapped