Alan Lodge's Blog

Same in France now!

I would like to congratulate about what you do on the net : your wonderfull photo galleries and about yours ideas about the free party underground mouvement. you shaw what happened in the 80’s with the repretion of the police. I learned a lot thanks to you.

Nowaday the same thing happen in france the police fight against the parties. It’s infamous. go ahead ! we’ve got to fight for our right to party. Sorry for my english!

We made a lot of free parties since the 90’s with my friends, and it’a shame to see what happened in UK and what is going to happen in france.

Go underground and go Est!!

See you. sebos from the tpl

Political jargon is difficult to understand most of the time so when I came across an explanation, I thought I should pass it on….

I do hope this helps 🙂

FEUDALISM:

You have two cows. Your lord takes some of the milk.

PURE SOCIALISM:

You have two cows. The government takes them and puts them in a barn with everyone else’s cows. You have to take care of all the cows. The government gives you as much milk as you need.

BUREAUCRATIC SOCIALISM:

You have two cows. The government takes them and puts them in a barn with everyone else’s cows. They are cared for by ex-chicken farmers. You have to take care of the chickens the government took from the chicken farmers. The government gives you as much milk and as many eggs as the regulations say you should need.

FASCISM:

You have two cows. The government takes both, hires you to take care of them, and sells you the milk.

PURE COMMUNISM:

You have two cows. Your neighbours help you take care of them, and you all share the milk.

RUSSIAN COMMUNISM:

You have two cows. You have to take care of them, but the government takes all the milk.

DICTATORSHIP:

You have two cows. The government takes both and shoots you.

MILITARISM:

You have two cows. The government takes both and drafts you.

PURE DEMOCRACY:

You have two cows. Your neighbours decide who gets the milk.

REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY:

You have two cows. Your neighbours pick someone to tell you who gets the milk.

AMERICAN DEMOCRACY:

The government promises to give you two cows if you vote for it. After the election, the president is impeached for speculating in cow futures. The press dubs the affair “Cowgate”. The cows are set free.

BRITISH DEMOCRACY:

You have two cows. You feed them sheep brains and they go mad. The government doesn’t do anything.

BUREAUCRACY:

You have two cows. At first the government regulates what you can feed them and when you can milk them. Then it pays you not to milk them. After that it takes both, shoots one, milks the other and pours the milk down the drain. Then it requires you to fill out forms accounting for the missing cows.

ANARCHY:

You have two cows. Either you sell the milk at a fair price or your neighbors try to kill you and take the cows.

CAPITALISM:

You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull.

HONG KONG CAPITALISM:

You have two cows. You sell three of them to your publicly listed company, using letters of credit opened by your brother-in-law at the bank, then execute an debt/equity swap with associated general offer so that you get all four cows back, with a tax deduction for keeping five cows. The milk rights of six cows are transferred via a Panamanian intermediary to a Cayman Islands company secretly owned by the majority shareholder, who sells the rights to all seven cows’ milk back to the listed company. The annual report says that the company owns eight cows, with an option on one more.

Meanwhile, you kill the two cows because the Feng Shui is bad.

ENVIRONMENTALISM:

You have two cows. The government bans you from milking or killing them.

TOTALITARIANISM:

You have two cows. The government takes them and denies they ever existed.

Milk is banned.

POLITICAL CORRECTNESS:

You are associated with (the concept of “ownership” is an outdated symbol of your decadent, warmongering, intolerant past) two differently aged (but no less valuable to society) bovines of nonspecific gender.

COUNTER CULTURE:

Wow, dude, there’s like… these two cows, man. You got to have some of this milk.

SURREALISM:

You have two giraffes. The government requires you to take harmonica lessons.

George Melley on Religion:

Taoism shit happens.

Bhuddism the shit that happens to us is good.

Hinduism the shit that happens to us has happened before.

Zen what is the sound of shit happening.

Catholic the shit that happens to you, you deserve.

Protestantism the shit that happens to you, why doesn’t it happen to somebody else.

Jewish why does this shit always happen to me.

Agnostic I’m not sure I believe in this shit.

Atheist I don’t believe in any of this shit.

Rastafarian let’s smoke this shit.

George Melley

Radio 4 August 1995

Random Artists

A new squatted community art space will be opening at 282 Richmond Road in Hackney, London on the 24th August, running for a week with workshops on sculpture/metalwork, woodwork/speaker cabinet building, web design, and desk top publishing, plus an array of the finest underground art in the capital. Running along side this event will be Riot Squad Records, a squatted record shop devoted to underground dance music and hoping to be a vital link between musicians, artists, producers and performers.

On August 3rd 2002 Random Artists opened a semi-permanent open access art space in Hackney Central. The building is a purpose built art gallery housing four exhibition spaces over two floors. The walls are whitewashed and the space is clean. As perfect as it gets. Thrown in for good measure is ample workspace and various art-centred facilities and resources.

We are hoping that it will bring back some vibrancy to a borough which has seen many of its social and cultral assets stripped away.

The space is available to any group or individual to run their own exhibition, workshop, or event. Now is the time to get in touch because we just never know how long these things last. Phone 07092 012 299 to speak to someone at the building or email

info@randomartists.org Event info will be here and on 07050 614 804.

Running alongside Random Artist’s activities, a new record shop – Riot Squad Records – will be filling the gap created by the vacuum that is the music scene these days.

WORKSHOPS… on sculpture/metalwork, speaker building, web design, DTP and more to be announced in the next week….

and photography, gosh!

‘Photographic / Darkroom’

Developing films: 4 – 6pm Thursday 29th August

Printing in the darkroom: 4 – 6pm Friday 30th August

Please bring a black & white film that’s already shot which you’d like to develop. More time to use the darkroom can be arranged.

282 Richmond Road, London, E8 3QS [Nearest rail station: Hackney Central BR or Hackney Downs BR]

http://www.randomartists.org

‘The Daily Summit’

http://www.dailysummit.net

This a Weblog, and bacause of the immediacy if it all, is frequently updated.

There is also an RSS ‘feed’ so news of developments, can be ‘piped’ through, directly.

The Daily Summit is the first port of call for anyone who wants to keep up to date with the World Summit on Sustainable

Development (aka "WSSD," "the World Summit," and "Earth Summit 2")

.Our site is fresh, updated many times every day.  It’s an unparalleled linker – directing you to all the other summit news on the web.  And most

importantly, it’ll be coming to you live from Joburg from 23rd August to 5th September 2002.

The Daily Summit is supported by the British Council, which aims to connect people worldwide with learning opportunities and creative ideas from the UK, and to build lasting relationships between the UK and other countries. The British Council Science Team is running this project.

Wow, That all takes me back:-)

I was living in a bus in 1990,and before that had done abit of travelling about for the odd weekend etc.I actually hated the bus,well,the company I should say.My then partner was just so different to myself and we ended up living how he chose and not “The compromise”(As I’m sure there was one.)I was,and still am,the quieter type,he was always the “I have to party and drink” type(not that I dont mind a bit of a party myself mind)My aim was to go horse drawn but most’s opinion was “too slow” Mine was “Whats the rush”.

Been thinking of those times alot lately,ha ha what I don’t miss is the hassle of the police and the fear that gets into people when a few travellers move into a field,and the time’s when you didn’t cook the chick peas right and the shit pit was a fair trudge away….in the rain:-) (With ref to Pucklechurch layby)

Sometimes I think I’d give it a go,but it was a hard life.

Well,shall go read up some more on your site,I’d like to know where travellers stand now when parking up,as I know a while back the whole law changed didn’t it,where I think you could get moved on immediately.Just before I sold my VDUB camper I went to Hay on Wye and on the way(I went thru Hergest as I saw on the map tjhere was a Hergest Ridge there and thought”Isnt that a Mike Oldfield record??” saw a wagon and horse parked in a field,should have stopped and chatted but was in a rush.Was really good to see it tho.

Love the site anyway,have book marked it and will have another read tomorrow.I found you by accident by the way,typed in “Cantlin stone” in Yahoo.I live nr it and have been there years ago,but nobody here seems to have heard of it…funny!!

Bye, Deb

They didn’t show up!

UKCIA recieved a press release from the Portsmouth Smokey Bears before the 2002 picnc, informing the media – and hence the police, that the law against cannabis would be openly challenged.

The police annouced that they would enforce the law and arrest anyone seen smoking cannabis, which prompted the screaming headlines in the local rag.

In the event, they didn’t show up, in total contrast to the last few years.

It seems it’s even safe to smoke cannabis openly in public in Portsmouth now.

Perhaps the police could be a little clearer about how they intend to enforce Blunketts half-baked proposed reforms?

In previous years the picnic has witnessed a hemp wedding, a celebrity joint rolling contest and the arrest of special guest Howard Marks.

The Smokey Bears dismiss recent Government plans for the reclassification of cannabis as confusing, incoherent and contradictory.

One Smokey Bear commented “the only way to control Cannabis is to bring it within the law, not to continue the same old failed policy of prohibition under a different letter.” Plans to downgrade cannabis from Class B to Class C does not address or deal with the fact that 40% of people aged 18-35 have smoked pot and six million do so on a regular basis (Government figures).

Smokey Bears would support Government licenced outlets with age limits where people could legally buy and smoke cannabis. Police and court time would be saved by not harassing cannabis users, and valuable tax revenue would be generated from the supply and distribution. Cannabis is not addictive, shows little or no risk to health, and cannabis users do not start fights.

Dave Bear, a local activist added “The scandal of the government’s policy on cannabis is that it leaves a multi million pound business in the hands of organised crime”

Wales and Party Stuff

Saturday night. Got some party info from one of the Desert Storm posse and after mucking around for a bit, got on the road. Police did their best to get really on top and bug out of everyone. A pretty average story, I hear of, every week.

The site that we were heading for had been going since Friday night but was now totally roadblocked. In fact the filth weren’t content to just get in the way they got JCBs to drag massive rocks onto the access road. Er.. probably time to move on.

So you can imagine the scene as the Police helicopter starts to hover over the Service station near Bangor that we had pulled by chance [I thank baby Jesus that I needed to fart at that junction]. It was lucky that I did as those in the know were reassembling here to make a run for another site, some lake somewhere? Any way the general excitement and the increasing police presence at the service station exit led everyone to peel out of there. I don’t know how I ended up at the front but there you go, they went round the roundabout indicating general cluelessness and by the time done this once the Police had blocked off all the exits apart from the one going back to England. Anyway faced with little alternative we truck down the A55 for 50 odd mins as the Police follow us trying to work out if we are going home or trying to find another site, if fact both the Police and everyone in the convoy were trying to work this out after 40 miles or so].

As the van at the front of the convoy finally tried to pull off, it’s path was blocked by one of our friendly copper friends so after pausing for thought everyone pulled off, took the next exit, did a cross country tour to shake the rozzers and then pulled back on the A55. While Pc Plodd was the other side trying to still trying prevent us getting off the Denbeigh exit, we’re on completely the other side and we’ve lost them!

It took forever to cover the next 30 miles as by now we’re built up a real posse mentality [strength though unity] and have to wait for this beat-up ambulance to get up all the hills. Absolutely amazing buzz as we did get to a moorland/forest site, with a party already underway and the other convoys trickle in. After a while 4 sound systems get up and running! And this wasn’t the only site where there was a party happening. There was one a few miles down the road and fuck know where else.

The best thing was that this wasn’t really like a local Welsh party amphetamine Holyhead hardcore affair [where the atmosphere can be a bit flat], but more of a mini-festival with sound systems from all over; Reading, Chester, Bristol. And people from even further afield. A lot of people were very happy about this and the tunes were good. Cartoon acid, manic good tribal stuff, cheesey but good sounds from the deep house free party babble sound, a large reading sound system doing Drum and Bass but this was more stop and start as the generator packed up before a vibe could build and some ripping techno sounds mounted on a flatbed truck kicking out in the morning.

Small was beautiful on this day though as although I’m sure that the whole thing would have been massive if the Police had let it continue at Deiniolen. This just proved that they can move the thing on but they can only break it up into little ones that are often just as good if not better. If you just get loads of people and soundsystems in one area of the country at the same time then you can’t help but have good parties. This is especially true in Wales and places where you can get away from nosey neighbours.

The systems that are around at the moment are tough little units and the fact that mobile phones are so common now makes coordinating parties on the move like that a LOT easier. The trick to having a successful night out on a bit of a chaotic night is to stick to the convoys no matter what OR get the mobile number of someone who is on the case with a sound-system. Ring them up and see where They are! But in fact this is pretty much what was happening anyway. . Right now the priority should be to tell everyone what a good laugh they are!

Ribblehead

I am an old traveller in the sense!! That I was on the road since i was 3 but am now 19 in a flat. My parents Chris and Zoe did lots of stuff and i know you’ve met lots of people but still may have photos of Chris and Zoethey were part of the travellers school bus or any of the early Ribblehead because my parents claim to be some of the original people to have gone out there to pick mushrooms. i remember that we went a few times and made a miniature stonehenge we went about four times then it suddenly turned into a really big gathering.

Wow, That all takes me back:-)

I was living in a bus in 1990,and before that had done abit of travelling about for the odd weekend etc.I actually hated the bus,well,the company I should say.My then partner was just so different to myself and we ended up living how he chose and not “The compromise”(As I’m sure there was one.)I was,and still am,the quieter type,he was always the “I have to party and drink” type(not that I dont mind a bit of a party myself mind)My aim was to go horse drawn but most’s opinion was “too slow” Mine was “Whats the rush”.

Been thinking of those times alot lately,ha ha what I don’t miss is the hassle of the police and the fear that gets into people when a few travellers move into a field,and the time’s when you didn’t cook the chick peas right and the shit pit was a fair trudge away….in the rain:-) (With ref to Pucklechurch layby)

Sometimes I think I’d give it a go,but it was a hard life.

Well,shall go read up some more on your site,I’d like to know where travellers stand now when parking up,as I know a while back the whole law changed didn’t it,where I think you could get moved on immediately.Just before I sold my VDUB camper I went to Hay on Wye and on the way(I went thru Hergest as I saw on the map tjhere was a Hergest Ridge there and thought”Isnt that a Mike Oldfield record??” saw a wagon and horse parked in a field,should have stopped and chatted but was in a rush.Was really good to see it tho.

Love the site anyway,have book marked it and will have another read tomorrow.I found you by accident by the way,typed in “Cantlin stone” in Yahoo.I live nr it and have been there years ago,but nobody here seems to have heard of it…funny!!

Bye, Deb

Release

Thanks for the emails and the phone chat. It’s left me fairly depressed how much great work was done and how little goes on now. I’m getting old and maudlin before my time!

I’ve looked at the photos again and think that the two that would be most likely to work are: 0227_36bw.jpg or 0228_03bw.jpg

I’ve spoken to the person who’s preparing the add and if you could e-mail them straight to him as either jpeg or TIFF files he can work with them from there.

Once again, many thanks for your help with this. Next time in Nottingham I’ll drop you a line and try and buy you a beer or cup of tea or whatever yu’d prefer. I could spend ages looking at all the pictures and just getting alternately sad and angry.

I had an FG360 for a while and in some of the pictures I can see that distintive front end peeking out from behind the police….

Take good care of yourself

Kevin Flemen

Director – Release http://www.release.org.uk/

Gosh! Release hasn’t got any money. That is news!

Just had yet another e-mail asking for free work. This orgaisation, I’ve associated with since the mid-1970’s though. Release!

Acting Director, taken over from Mike Goodman. I don’t think we have met personally, I ‘m based in Nottingham at the moment, and years in Wales before then.

But eons ago, in the 1970’s, I was a Release Volunteer on the e-phone rota in London, [was an accident ambulanceman at the time]. Think it was 1974 at Windsor Great Park, when us ‘urban charity workers’ noticed a need for welfare provision at these outdoor illegal events. We called ourselves, the ‘Festivals Branch’ of Release. Bob Nightingale, Harry Podlewski, Tim Malyon, Roger Duncan, Viki Stangrome. All Release people. We did a big festival at Watchfield airfield in Oxfordshire 1975 as this crew. However the following year, we took on more volunteers, and called ourselves ‘Festival Aid’. This now including work with festival goers, travellers, and liason with authority. Next to all this, we formed the ‘umbrella’ organisation. ‘Festival Welfare Services’, with a charity number and everything!. Penny Mellor was the field worker, and I remained a trustee, to it end…. This was supposed to ‘co-ordinate; Release, Festival Aid, Travellera Aid Trust, Local Volunteers, St John, Red Cross, Quackers, arrangement with local authority, police etc.

Festival ‘Organisers’ were frightened of coming forward, because of the threat of civil injunction. But I was important to still maintain contact, so we were able to take a pace forward, and be intermediaries. Nothing to do with organising the festival at all really you know, We’re just missionaries and ‘do-gooders’ in attendance.

You may know that this is one of the reasons I felt I was ‘targeted for ‘legal action’ . That we were an ‘effective organisation’ to the groups, the authorities were trying to ‘deal with’.

Operation Nomad: Avon and Somerset police had a secret intelligence document on me. They stated that I photograph and tape record police operations and make complaints. That they should Beware!.

I was anonymously sent a copy of a restricted document titled `Operation Nomad Bulletin’. Operation Nomad was a surveillance and information gathering exercise looking into the activities of New Age Travellers and now `raves’ such as Castlemorton. In this document, officers are instructed to beware of my activities and that I photograph and tape record police operations.

Further mention is made of my involvement in photographing and the bringing of civil actions after the `Battle of the Beanfield’ incident near Stonehenge in 1985. Yet further, it goes on to say that I am a drug dealer.

As I am not!!, I believe that this information was inserted so as to make my work as jobbing photo journalist, more difficult. It was also calculated to undermine my position with Festival Welfare Services and the Travellers Aid Trust in liaison with various authorities.

All this in more detail at http://tash.gn.apc.org/nomad_10.htm

I collected some of my own legal adventures together.

Access from this page: http://tash.gn.apc.org/legal_assortment.htm

I have been maintaining a diary o where I’ve been, and think that this is a resource, to show where welfare work has been done. http://tash.gn.apc.org/diary.htm

New Statesman again! Nice to get help from others also! It was the advent of the Criminal Justice Act, and the Mag offered us the space to make a CJA ‘pull-out’ called ‘United Your Nicked’. Wont they do something like that for you

////////////////////////////////////

helping old friends? @ Release

Hi Tash,

Sorry to introduce myself like this. I’m currently acting director of Release; I know that you had many dealings with us when Judy, Mike, Greg and other were still here. I’m trying to rescue the organisation from the doldrums at the moment. the New Statesman has kindly agreed to give us advertising space to appeal for support and funds and we have been trying to source a suitable image for the ad: the idea is that the top bit of the ad will be a “then and now” picture…saying something like “in 1974 you called us after that incident at the Avon Free Festival….”Help us make sure that they have somwhere to turn to if they ever need help…” The images will be of a festy scene mid seventies/early eighties on the left and a club/dance event on the right.

The design company have failed miserably to come up with an image that fits for the seventies/eighties festy scene, and time is ticking a way on us. I was hoping therefore that you would be able to help with a suitable image. Something like the Stonehenge ‘81 pic on your website would be about perfect.

If you think that you would be able to help, please phone or e-mail me. I look forward to hearing from you.

best wishes

kevin flemen

Mike Slocobme on the Urban75 site

Congratulations!! i said: “Your on the ?intelligence site, for police matter set up at: http://www.policestop.org.uk.

I’d sent a copy to SchNews. ‘cos they got a mention, also.

Anyway, SchNews just written back to me, pointing out that the site now says, ” immediately withdrawn.”

Me think I’ve created trouble! I see schnews, sent info on to gibby at big issue, your message board and a couple of others. I wonder what happened, and further, what the isp thought was wrong with it [http://www.policestop.org.uk ]. I thought they were just misguided, working the other way to us perhaps. But the isp is still editing, and nice to know, I suppose what could eventually affect us in due course.?

Sorry, bit round the houses, but hope you see what I mean.

Blow-Up (1966)

Blow-Up (1966) is director Michelangelo Antonioni’s view of the world of mod fashion, and an engaging, provocative murder mystery that examines the existential nature of reality through photography. Antonioni’s first film in English, it quickly became one of the most important films of its decade, and a milestone in liberalized attitudes toward film nudity and expressions of sexuality. The film was nominated for two Academy Awards (with no wins): Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay (Edward Bond, Michelangelo Antonioni, and Tonino Guerra).

A desensitized-to-life, nihilistic, high-fashion photographer Thomas (David Hemmings) in London, who lives a mid-60s life of excess (riches, fame, and women), becomes bored with his lucrative career of glamour photography. So he resorts to photographing, in documentary style, the seamy and sordid side of life in London, in flophouses and slums.

Innocently, he takes candid photos in a deserted park of a lover’s tryst-rendezvous between a kerchief-wearing woman (Vanessa Redgrave) and a middle-aged, gray-haired man in a light-gray suit. She pursues him to ask for the illicit photos, as he imagines that he has witnessed a scene of sexual intrigue – never thinking that he may have accidentally obtained visual, criminal evidence of a murder.

Memorable scenes:

– the photographer’s erotic, photo-shoot crawl – to the point of orgasmic release and satisfaction – over the supine body of model Verushka, while he snaps fashion photos.

– the woman from the park’s visit to his studio, to again desperately and persistently beg for the undeveloped roll of film by becoming topless. He becomes both intrigued and suspicious. To get her to leave, he gives her a different roll of undeveloped film.

– the suspenseful, obsessive sequence of the photographer processing and blowing up several pictures from his park visit, and magnifying them larger and larger to poster size. As tension heightens, he pins the pictures on the wall of his living room – in sequence – giving them life as if they were individual frames in a motion picture. Ultimately, they reveal a riveting possibility – a man and a gun in the shadows of some bushes behind a fence. He speculates that he foiled a potential murder – but further blow-ups reveal what could be a dead body.

– a very sexual, menage a trois romp with two wanna-be teenage models (blonde Jane Birkin and brunette Gillian Hills), who wrestle with him on a large roll of purplish-blue backdrop paper, with quick glimpses of female pubic hair after they have been stripped of their clothes.

– his voyeuristic viewing of his unhappily-married friend Patricia (Sarah Miles) making love to her husband – his presence arouses the passion of the woman.

– Thomas’ return to the park to find the corpse next to some bushes, but before the following morning, the corpse has disappeared and his photographs are stolen. The evidence gets at once more difficult to ignore and more impossible to define. Without photographic evidence produced by his camera-tool – his sole means of communicating with the world, he is left with nothing.

Another indelible image emphasizing the slim line between objective reality and illusion – in the film’s finale, he participates with a group of pantomiming students in white-face, tossing an invisible tennis ball to them as they play an invisible game of tennis with non-existent rackets and balls, and an audience. On the soundtrack, one can hear the illusion in Thomas’ mind – the sound of an actual tennis game. The film ends with an aerial view of Thomas standing in the middle of a grassy field in the park near the tennis court, with his camera in his hand.

Photography on the telly tonight

Two items on BBC2 tonight. 8.00pm Fame Fashion and Photography. – the real ‘Blow Up’

Was never into ‘fashion photography’. well have all sorts of things about fashion, i suppose. But guys like David Bailey & Terance Donovan were, ‘likely’ east-end types, took photography, from were it was, and transformed much of the 1960’s while they were at it! 2 hr docunentary about these folks.

BUT most important ar 1:10am in morning there follows Michelangelo Antonioni film ‘ BLOW UP ‘.



Look, I’ve not see this movie twenty odd years. but i do remember it as being ‘groundbreaking’ . No direct influence on my own photography, thier subjects being being rich and upper-class twats, mine aren’t!

But with this film, some of us came out of the shadows of the grey 1950 and early 60’s and emerged into a new world. Be interesting to see if i still find it as powerful a shot now, as i did then. Looking forward to it, with a video on the ready.

B visits

B came round, this afternoon. Various adventures with Desert Storm, [sound-system]. been commuting back and fro, between, Nottingham and Rimini, Italy. Know the cahp, since we lived in Wales. Nice to see him, keeeping the traditions going. More legal hassles with being accused of being a rave organiser. Oh god! why not give them a grant and encourage. rather than all this trouble….

The ‘standard practise’ of police filming

They’ve used a surveillance montage of mine, on the Bristol Indymedia front page. It introduces this item. Seems to be ‘getting about’ this one.

The ‘standard practise’ of police filming:

Shot by both sides

by John Serpico 12:44pm Sat Jul 20 ’02

As local residents gathered at the Baptist Mills side of the St Paul’s roundabout for the demonstration against street crime, protesting against and pushing onto the agenda the lack of safety in the area, police also descended and immediately started to film people.

Taken aback by this apparently inexplicable intrusion, a number of people approached the police and enquired why they were filming. The new chief inspector for the Ashley area replied that it was purely for the safety of the people who were gathering as well as for the safety of the police.

‘If there are any complaints made against anyone or any accusations of misconduct,’ he said. We will have film evidence to refer to. For example, if anyone complains of any damage that might be caused we will be able to refer to the film and be able to say whether the damage was there beforehand. He continued: ‘If there are any complaints against the police then there will be evidence of that too. It’s for everyone’s protection’.

He then apologised for not asking permission to film in advance but said that nowadays the filming of any public gathering is ‘standard practise’.

There are others filming here too, he said ‘The television people for example’.

But why are you – the police – filming us? somebody persisted ‘We haven’t done anything and this is a peaceful gathering. You don’t film the muggers and rapists, do you?’

In response, the officer replied, somewhat unbelievably ‘Yes’, we do film the muggers.

When the officer armed with the camcorder (and bad moustache) was asked if a copy of the film would be available to anyone wishing to view it, he replied ‘No’. The person asking him knew this to be wrong and referred to the Data Protection Act. The chief officer then stepped in and said that anyone wishing to have a copy of the film is indeed entitled to it, conceding that his fellow officer was wrong to say otherwise.

In as much as the officer in charge was attempting to be reasonable, there is a problem here. As he stated, nowadays the police filming of any public gathering is indeed ‘standard practise. But when did this happen? How did this come to be? The police seem to view it as part of their job to film any kind of demonstration, but has any legislation been passed to make this a ‘standard practise’? Is it now written down in their operations manual that public gatherings must be filmed? If not, then is it down to a decision by the officer in charge whether or not to deploy one or more of his men with cameras? What is the criteria? What might demand a situation to be filmed? The kind of people in attendance? The possibility of misconduct? It may well be ‘standard practise’ but it is a fact that there are many public gatherings that are not filmed.

What happens to the films they make? How long are they kept? Who gets to view them?

As he also stated, there is often other people filming events too, such as television/news crews. However, it is possible to object to these people filming you and to make them stop. You cannot request that the police stop filming you. Anyone requesting too loudly or too physically is liable to be arrested. Anyone who dons a mask or a disguise (face paint, even) in an attempt to not be recognised on film can also be arrested.

The standard reply to questions such as this is ‘if you have nothing to hide then you have nothing to fear’. That may well be, but on this particular occasion at this particular gathering, people were objecting to the escalation in anti-social crime and the lack of response from the authorities in allowing an area of Bristol to be and remain a free-for-all, mugging and raping zone. They then found themselves to be the ones under police surveillance. Suddenly it felt like being caught in the middle. The criminals on one side and the police on the other. Shot by both sides.

http://bristol.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=1436&group=webcast

Bristol Party Video Evidence on Indymedia

Mathew Williams – Truthseekers footage

http://sf.indymedia.org/uploads/truthseeks.rm

Its from

http://sf.indymedia.org/news/2002/08/139848.php

http://bristol.indymedia.org/

Video of the police violence at Bristol free party

If anyone needs copies of the video of the police violence, which now includes an update of the BBC report on the violence (showig injuries to two people) … and also photos taken by many of the people there…

Matthew Williams

3 Bourton Lane

Bishops Cannings

Devizes

Wilts

SN10 2LH

truthseekers@ntlworld.com

Tel 01380 860994

Mobile 07816 539787

What the police did was wrong, this video and these photos might help someone fight their case, or show people at a group meeting so they can plan action (peaceful) against the police.

Matt (lighting git)

All this is part of the ongoing Britol Party Tale, described at http://tash_lodge.blogspot.com/2002_07_21_tash_lodge_archive.html#79299422

Just in case there are any passing readers, thought I would announce that it’s my birthday today!

And another year!

Siri phoned me earlier, Sam hasn’t, of course.

I thought I’d cook sommat nice tonight, and have started on some wine………

Chilly phoned, wants to use his digital camera on my computer, to upload soem of his stuff from Japan and China. Cant come till friday now. but looking forward to playing with it.

+2hours

hehe, finished first bottle of wine. was planning on working through, to finish those pages, but am swiming a bit 🙂 now keep pressin the wrong keyys.

+2hrs

Finished second bottle, and am really quite pissed. Had a bath, jst now, nearly drowned, but hung on to the side, so was ok.

could nt get my pants back on, amm so fucked [-) Fine i thought, dosen’t matter. So gouched out a bit onthe sofa. Little later, notice i’d lefft the webcam on. Oh fuck! alll these americans, icq me, wantting me to ‘do things’ for them. :h

Unban75 Chat Room

Here is the Urban75 Chat Room. Alway seems quite well attended. But quite a lot of bollox talked!

http://www.urban75.com/chat.html

Have organised my own, from cam pages in a pop-up box

http://www6.camarades.com/jirc/index.html?room=970675854&nick=tash