Mastermind and the road to Damascus

[Pete Mitchell]

Roland Perry wrote  on 25-02-09 20:02:
> We are talking about a community of professional photographers. They 
> should be organised enough to see through this issue.
> 
>> If someone does say "why not?" the answer used to be, more or less, 
>> "because I say so" (maybe dressed up in jargon about security or 
>> safety). The worry is that now the answer is going to be "because of 
>> the wibble-wobble Terrorism Act of 200x" - whether or not that or any 
>> other law is at all relevant.
> 
> Perhaps they could persuade one of their journalist colleagues to write 
> up a fact sheet to hand to the police in such circumstances? It could 
> include some of the quotes from the Home Office.

Roland, do you think all this hasn't been done already? Photographers 
both professional and amateur have been fighting this corner for years, 
and the only result is that the police have persuaded the Home Office to 
change the law so as to prevent their own misdeeds being recorded.

I am sure we would all like to think that the public "should" be able to
make a government behave justly. Even making them behave rationally
would be a step forward from what we have, but both are hopeless so long
as the War on Terrrrrrrr can continue to be used as an excuse to extend
police powers.


-- 
Pete Mitchell