Flashpoint 2010: Mass Photography Shoot Out
January 30, 2010 12:00
Published:
January 13, 2010 13:21
by
DBS
Meet at London Eye, Minster Court
Westminster Bridge Road, London, SE1 7JB
12 noon
Places: westminster
Flashpoint 2010
Bring still/video/digital cameras and mobile phones for a mass photography shoot-out to challenge the use of Section 44 to detain and arrest photographers shooting so called 'iconic' buildings.
Photography students and journalists have been detained, fined and arrested for suspected 'hostile reconnaissance' for pointing their cameras at city architecture, including billboards, shopping centres and, in one memorable case, a fish and chip shop. Student Simona Bonomo was stopped by Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) and Guardian journalist Paul Lewis was apprehended by security guards while photographing buildings in London. In both cases, police officers were called who used powers granted them under anti-terrorist legislation to demand sight of their photographs and threaten them with arrest when they refused. Bonomo was arrested and accused of a public order offence.
Assistant commissioner Frank Armstrong reckons London has 'the politest police force in the country'. Flashpoint 2010 will use the power of mass action to challenge the polite force and draw attention to the erosion of civil liberties under the name of 'anti-terrorism' and 'security'. The recent defeat of Section 44 in the European Court doesn't mean it's all over. An appeal is planned. We need to protect our creative freedoms.
Join us for banner making at Lift'n'Hoist, 1 Queens Row, SE17 on Sunday, January 24th at 2pm and photoshop your masterpieces for 'Domestic Extremism' an exhibition/cafe evening in a London location in February. Full details tba.
Contact email: rampart@mutualaid.org
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