Photo Rights Rally, New Scotland Yard

[major_clanger]

Photo Rights Rally 9
Originally uploaded by Simon Bradshaw

Mark Thomas addresses the Photo Rights Rally to mark the implementation of the newly-inserted s.58A Terrorism Act 2000, which potentially criminalises photography of police (and certainly makes it activity suspicious enough to warrant stop and search).

More photos here.

Comments

[purplecthulhu.livejournal.com]

I guess this means you weren't arrested for photographing anyone then!

How many people were there?

[major-clanger.livejournal.com]

I don't think anyone was arrested - the event was very good-humoured, and the police's main (and well-justified) concern was to keep the crowd on one or other pavement rather than have people peering through viewfinders whilst standing in the middle of Broadway. In fact, there only seemed to be two officers dealing with the crowd; it was probably obvious that the event was very peaceful (most of us had very expensive cameras and were in no mood to risk damage to them!) and it's not as if there weren't plenty of cops on hand if needed.

At a guess, I would say there were two or three hundred people along between 11 and 11.30.

[purplecthulhu.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a creditable turnout, though I can't see the current mob in parliament paying any attention.

I was surprised at the degree of fuckwittery of people to roads and traffic when taking photos at the only Anonymous gathering I've managed to get to, so police management of such errors seems fully justified.

[biggingerdave.livejournal.com]

Huzzah for peaceful protesting!