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On the day of the G20 protests, I was in two places at once.\u00a0 At home working and listening to Radio 5\u2019s somewhat hysterical coverage, and also watching the Twitter #g20 hashtag and following the tweets of people I know and others from the protests.<\/p>\n
The \u2018coverage\u2019 aggregation I was able to do was amazing.\u00a0 In particular (until his battery ran out!) Steve Lawson<\/a> (@solobasssteve) was using Qik<\/a> to report in near realtime from outside the Bank of England where the Police were involved in the bizarre and, I consider, unlawful tactic of \u2018kettling\u2019; constraining peaceful protestors and not allowing them free passage through the streets of the City of London.<\/p>\n Watch Steve Lawson\u2019s footage and you will see what I mean – you can hear the stress in his voice and others\u2019 around him as they realise they are hemmed in by Police.<\/p>\n The footage which everyone knows about is of the sad death of Ian Tomlinson.\u00a0 Brought back to mind yesterday again by the failure of the Police to obtain an injunction against Channel 4 News.\u00a0 But the thing I keep remembering is the statement made by the IPCC and immediately carried without any question by conventional media – that \u201cthere were no cameras in the locations he was assualted\u201d.\u00a0 I felt cold when I heard that. Close to the Bank of England, in the heart of the City in a country where there is a CCTV camera for every 14 people?\u00a0 Not credible.\u00a0 And the IPCC subsequently admitted they\u2019d \u2018mis-spoken\u2019.<\/p>\n I used to agree with Lloyd Davis<\/a>\u2019 views of the CCTV infrastructure as a \u2018civil rights car crash\u2019<\/a> but now I\u2019m not so sure.<\/p>\n Most people must think CCTV cameras in all our towns, cities and villages is a \u2018good thing\u2019.\u00a0 Few seem to object and, for example, the residents of a village near ours actually petitioned to have one installed.\u00a0 And then we see the objections to Google Streetview – while I think it sensible for faces to be obscured in Streetview; I don\u2019t know of any reason why the faces of people in a public street taken incidentally to a more general view should not be shown?\u00a0 Should we be bothered that out-of-date images of the street we live in should be available globally to all but happy that live video of us is being monitored locally by people we don\u2019t know – but it\u2019s ok because they\u2019re the Police?<\/p>\n We\u2019re seeing the unintended consequences of pervasive social and new media.\u00a0 We all have cameras, all the time and many of us can upload \u2018feed\u2019 from live events immediately.\u00a0\u00a0 So now the watched become the watchers; we all have our own ‘CCTV’ and we have a new set of tools which could, I hope, be used for positive change and digital engagement but are, if needed, available to watch our own backs.<\/p>\nCCTV good – StreetView bad?<\/h2>\n
The watched are becoming the watchers<\/h2>\n
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