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London police tell Austrian tourists to delete photos
An Austrian photographer interested in public transport is told by Metropolitan police to delete pictures of buses, trains and stations
I've never had these experiences anywhere, never in the world, not even in Communist countries." This was what Klaus Matzka, a 69-year-old Austrian tourist, had to say of his experiences with the police on a recent visit to London. Matzka had come to England with his teenage son, but came to grief on an excursion to Walthamstow.
The north-eastern suburb is not an obvious place for a tourist, but he had his justification: "We typically crisscross cities from the end of railway terminals, we like to go to places not visited by other tourists. You get to know a city by going to places like this, not central squares. Buckingham Palace is also necessary, but you need to go elsewhere to get to know the city," Matzka told the Guardian.
This nasty incident has killed interest in any further trips to the city for Matzka
But while in Walthamstow, Matzka, a retired cameraman who has an interest in modern architecture, was forced by two policemen to delete every photo with anything to do with transport. This included pictures of Vauxhall underground station, and of London's trademark red buses.
The two policemen also took down the details of the hotel where he and his son were staying, and their passport numbers. Now back in Vienna, Matzka said that this "nasty incident" had "killed interest in any further trips to the city".
"Google Street View is allowed to show any details of our cities on the world wide web. But a father and his son are not allowed to take pictures of famous London landmarks," he complained.
This is not the only recent incident in which the police have used their powers to act against people taking photographs in public spaces.
When Bob Quick paraded his top-secret document in front of Downing Street paparazzi, the police made twelve hurried arrests, 10 of whom were Pakistanis who'd come to England on student visas, over an alleged al-Qaeda terrorist plot.
The police, who have yet to release any evidence of bomb factories, pointed to photos the suspects had been taking of "crowded places" such as the Birdcage, a Manchester nightclub, and the Trafford Shopping Centre, as reasons for acting quickly to detain the men. ·
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Ha yes, you say jobsworth with too much power.
If you want the best, or possibly the worst, examples of this 'get a life' philosophy then look no farther than the council recycling snoopers who investigate the wheelie bins. These are placed on our properties, for the fortnightly waste schemes that government has enforced on the UK people. Rats and vermin are increasing and we have the brilliant politicians behind this AWC fiasco to thank for it. Juts wait for a hot summer and monthly collections, ekkk help!
Police are by their nature authoritarian and repressive; they don't see themselves as public servants but as our masters, thus the Police Force [or Violence as Monty Python famously quipped]. And they will always try to increase their powers. I blame politicians who have consistently given them more powers over the population, and brought in ever more laws by which they can bully people. One of the major problems with this is that they are, with very few exceptions, uneducated thugs, and resent anyone who is clearly more intelligent than they [not unusual]. We have seen again in the G20 protests their liking for casual violence whenever the situation presents itself, but this is not new, they have always been the strong arm of the state; tasked with defending the state from its citizens rather than protecting citizens from crime. They particularly hate students or anyone clearly educated and intelligent since few of them even managed GCSEs.
This current bunch of crooks running the government have given them powers they could only have dreamed of, thus totally innocent people being picked on for taking photographs. It's the thinking processes of a jobsworth with too much power.
In many ways authoritarian paranoia is replacing common sense these days. Rights and liberties that we once romantically took for granted are merely illusions created by the forces that be, to keep us firmly under their thumb.
Pat Regan;
Author of the book, Dirty Politics, and other titles.