New Law to Stop Photographing Police

I do not want my blogsite to become a political site and I realise that a good few of my last posts have been political. The Gospel is what we should preach at all times, 'in season and out of season'. However, I am becoming more and more concerned by the new laws being enacted under the guise of 'counter-terrorism' and public 'security'.

I just read an interesting piece on a new law making it an offence to photograph police officers in the UK. Kate Day has a good Telegraph Blog piece here, which is attracting concerned comment. To those who wish to see the police unphotograble as enshrined in UK law, I have two words: Rodney King. The great argument put forward by enthusiasts of CCTV is this: "Well, if you are against CCTV, what have you got to hide?"

Yet, regardless of whether we wanted to be watched when we are in the town centre, on buses and trains, on the underground, on stations and in underground stations the Government have placed cameras everywhere without our consent. Apparently this is all for our protection. However, history has borne witness to the fact that when the State gets too much power, it is not from the external threat or the internal threat that citizens need protection - but from the State itself!

So, then, if you are a police officer and you don't like being photographed...what have you got to hide? While we're on the subject, it is worth mentioning, courtesy of Catholic Online that...

On February 12, nine members of the Campus Life Tour team were arrested while handing out literature on the public sidewalk outside of Parker High School in Birmingham. They were held overnight in Birmingham City Jail and charged with trespassing.

At the time of the arrests, a member of the Campus Life Tour overheard police officers saying, "we need to wipe the cameras", because of the evidence contained on the video - the Survivors were not trespassing on school property at any time during their literature distribution, as the video footage will clearly show.

Following the release of the young people from Birmingham City Jail on Friday, the group attempted to recover their video cameras from the Central Headquarters. They were told that the property was logged as evidence and needed to be released by the officer who checked it in, Officer C. Smith.

Officer Smith's normal shift was 3:00 - 11:00 pm, the Survivors were informed. When they called at 3:00 pm to speak with Smith, they were told she was running late and would not arrive until 5:00 pm, at which time the property department would be closed and the Survivors' cameras would be inaccessible.

"How convenient. The property department closed at 5:00 pm and Officer Smith just happened to arrive late to work the day she was needed to release our cameras," said Blythe. "It is clear the Birmingham Police Department is playing a game with our personal property, and I am going to the Central Headquarters tomorrow to demand an end to this charade. We are confident that the video footage contained on our cameras will prove that the Survivors were not trespassing, and that the Birmingham police officers' actions were unlawful and abusive.

"It is imperative that we recover the camera equipment and data, and we will not rest until the Birmingham Police Department returns our property intact."