It was a great day for taking photographs (unlike yesterday) and a great day to be protesting against Section 44. This specific stop and search power has been ruled illegal by the European court of human rights. But Alan Johnson has told cops to ignore that and to carry on regardless…. And dammit we wanted to take pix of what we wanted!
A group of us met at the London Eye we walked along Southbank, with two banners being held, passed the London Eye heading south. Firstly, we were stopped by a security guard who told us we couldn’t protest here as it is ‘private property’…
Big Brother watching us....
We continued walking south, then stopped by two Community Support cops asking what we were doing, ‘going for a walk’ was the reply. They left us but kept their collective beady eye on us…. and then we were approached by another cop and two further cops in a space of half an hour or so, asking us what we were doing and where we were going.
The cops also knew (what a surprise!) about this protest (obviously read about it on the net!) and asked whether more of us were coming. When we said not they looked a tad disappointed, we wondered whether they had vans and horses parked in the side streets!
We headed to Vauxhall and stopped outside MI6, modernist architecture and extremely ugly (rather reflects British imperialism). I have to admit that I never noticed before just how many cameras and CCTV were positioned on top of the gates. And tiny camera kept moving every time someone moved near it. There was speculation whether a James Bond character would break out of the building and chase us dodgy diabolical dissidents down Vauxhall. But nothing happened and no cops appeared.
I found it quite an eye opening down, just wandering around Southbank with a small banner or two elicited lots of responses from the cops and security guards. And that was precisely what we were doing walking around holding a banner taking pictures, nothing more nothing less.
It also exposes abuses of power by the state, right of protest and dissent being encroached upon and overall civil liberties being eroded. What were we doing wrong? Nothing, just expressing our right to protest and demonstrate. It also highlighted (especially reaction from the security guard) the privatisation of public spaces.
Update: See my Flickr page for more pix.
MI6 lol… Why does the >>Secret<< Service have a building that sticks out like a saw thumb and have a building design where it appears that any competent climber could easily climb to the roof?
I guess (apart from CCTV etc.) that the security presence is one of the lowest in London?
I would have thought that for an organisation over 100 years old that they would have some top secret underground base like under St James Park that is only accessible from hidden entrances at Westminster underground station.
“MI6 lol… Why does the >>Secret<< Service have a building that sticks out like a saw thumb and have a building design where it appears that any competent climber could easily climb to the roof?"
Yes…. it deffo does!
Anyone fancy the prospects of climbing it either to be shot dead or fall to your death?