back to article Get snapping for Freedom

If you have a camera, are ever so slightly worried about the burgeoning surveillance society in the UK, and are prepared to brave the hostility of police and passers-by, then you too could take part in "Freedom Not Fear Day" this weekend. FNF Day will be celebrated primarily across Europe, in a wave of actions ranging from …

COMMENTS

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  1. Paul Murphy
    Coat

    LCD protest panel

    I wonder if this is a good idea:

    A light-weight LCD screen, like an e-reader, which flashes a message for what ... 1/3rd of a second or whatever a blipvert was.

    It could cycle through a range of blank screens, inane messages (like 'this sign is intentionally blank') or whatever as well as the real messages.

    You could even have a panic button to wipe the memory of whatever the 'naughty' message might be.

    Vive la quiet and restrained revolution, where we all get to go home for tea and biscuits afterwards.

    mines the one with 'I'm a conformist' written on the back.

    ttfn

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Black Helicopters

    Don't forget your right

    To replace an oppressive govenment with one that governs by the will of the people and not by the will of large corporations and the military.

  3. Scott

    Head Down

    If you r going to these events and want to keep your head down i would suggest NOT photographing the police, then again if you feel like taking photos remeber ITS NOT AGAINST THE LAW (yet).

  4. jimbarter

    snap

    http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3008/2898832458_c66f30fe3f_m.jpg

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I wonder how the rozzers feel about this

    I wonder how rank and file officers feel about this? It's tempting to conflate all police with Jacqui Smiths obsessive micromanaging nature, but in reality I bet a lot of them are are unhappy with the way government is monitoring innocent people too.

    Then there's the Labour party, Brown was so sure he would lose a leadership election, he prevented the nomination papers from being issued at the party conference. It's like the old Soviet Union where opposing candidates are prevented from standing. So in theory Labour are backing it, but in reality they are prevented from opposing it.

  6. Jolyon Ralph
    Thumb Up

    How about following the advice from XKCD?

    and do an anti-protest?

    http://xkcd.com/470/

    Surely you can't be arrested for saying how content you are with everything, even if it's obviously being sarcastic.

    Jolyon

  7. John Imrie
    Happy

    An anti-protest

    How about every one turns up at parliament square with a placard saying 'this is not a mass protest, I came here on my own'

  8. Blitheringeejit

    SOCPA

    If you're really wondering how the rozzers feel about SOCPA, or are just interested in it, or indeed if you just want a serious laugh, I cannot recommend Mark Thomas's work too highly. See the "Serious Organised Criminal" section on his website, and/or buy the book:

    http://www.markthomasinfo.com/

    http://www.indexoncensorship.org/?p=310

    @Jolyon Ralph - I think you'll find that the law prohibits demonstration, not protest. So being overtly happy with a mile of the Houses of Parliament is just as likely to land you in chokey as being overtly pissed off. Which is yet another reason why I never go near f***ing London if I can help it.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    Cameras

    Someone should rig up some cameras on cars and drive them around public places, taking pictures of everything.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Democracy

    It has the word Demo in it - a contraction of Demonstration - and we are told we live in a Democracy.

    So, why the hell is it now not possible to Demonstrate, oh we don't live in a democracy and they are just lying about it. Right got it, business as usual, in gaol Britain.

    I do think that people who are interested in hacking, but not the immoral criminal side, could find interest in mapping the surveillance systems, analysing their weaknesses and perhaps grabbing patent on solutions.

    They have number plate readers on most of the major roads coming in and out of towns, no doubt at some point the speed cameras will get linked up to always on, and the motorways have been covered by cameras for a long time. That is actually what makes the number of times you get camera'd in a day so high, just head out on the motorway.

    I suspect they still don't like people wearing hoodies, but you know our pagan past, has the legend of the hooded man. And it is crazy, once the weather returns to normal, and it is raining all the time a hood is a necessary piece of wear to avoid getting the sniffles.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    In the place where there is no darkness.

    Actually, someone already described it.

    He said "Imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever"

  12. Wayland Sothcott

    re: Democracy

    With Hoodies, if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear. With cameras if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear. These things do work both ways, but there is a difference if the state does it to if I do it.

    The state could use cameras to make the roads safer. I could use a camera to make my home safer. A crook could use a camera to help them steal from me. A Crooked government could use a camera in a system of fines to take money from me, that's not a crime since they make the laws.

    If one of the sheeple stands up to the sheepledog then the other sheeple watch the rogue sheeple get put in it's place. If all of the sheeple stood up to the sheepledogs then we would win, there are more of us.

  13. Roger Lancefield
    Stop

    Will be applying for my liberty permit on Sarturday

    The very fact that people are nervous about demonstrating, and are even nervous about using their cameras in front of the police is clear proof (if any more were really needed), that we are indeed entering a very authoritarian era.

    I'm going to the events on Saturday and it seriously concerns me that many people clearly feel that the only "safe" way to protest is by using the Internet. If the exercise of our civil liberties depends on being able to access the network, then we really are in trouble and our liberties have effectively been corralled into a place where they can be snuffed out at the throw of a switch.

    It should go without saying that the optimal time to object to someone forcing you to wear a straightjacket is *before* they put it on you and start tightening the straps!

    On Saturday, I will not be threatening or intimidating anyone, I will not be hurling abuse at the police or rocks at MacDonalds restaurants. I will not be causing trouble in any way (unless "trouble" is now defined as an ordinary, middle-class bloke and his female partner swanning around the capital with a camera and a rucksack containing their packed lunch.)

    My seditious activities might, however, stretch to taking a few photographs, but then this isn't North Korea, what's the worst that could happen? /sarcasm.

    Hope to see some of you there.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    It takes two to get arrested

    I recently had a short break in the UK during which I decided to carry out my intention to try and get arrested for taking photographs. Even with a rather obvious camera I failed miserably, there was one thing sadly missing, a policeman. I can't remember seeing a single one anywhere.

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