[Sussex] [OT] Photography petition

[Geoffrey Teale]

Steve Dobson wrote:
> Yes that *can*, because they did.  One of my English teachers taught me 
> the difference between can (having physically ability) and may (having
> permission/authority).  I have a feeling you meant "should". 
>
>   

Well said.   I believe the police have the right to confiscate evidence 
if they believe a crime has taken place.   Before we get over zealous on 
that particular point we must remember that this is not a black and 
white issue - if the police could not gather evidence in advance of 
being sure a crime has taken place then they could never make a case.

However, photographers are being stupidly targeted in many cases in the 
UK and US alike with justifications seeming to be either protecting 
children and/or the terrorist threat.  So the question is not the right 
of the police to do their job, but what constitutes a good enough reason 
for them to suspect wrong doing.

----%< ---
> There appears to be a general trend in this country, the USofA and
> others I gather to turn them into Police States.  That terms isn't one
> used by the politicos, but it is effectively what is happening.  Did you
> know that you can hold a protest within a mile of the Houses of
> Parliament without permission from the police first?  Where has my right
> to object to the way my country is governed gone?
>
> I see this, and other reports of photographers being stopped, as an
> attack on our freedoms and ways of life.  We need to stand up, all of
> us, to show that these freedoms are important to us, otherwise they will
> get eroded away to nothing.
>
> Sure some of these freedoms can be used for undesirable purposes.  But I
> would rather live with the very small risk of these offences effecting
> me and those I love than to have the freedoms that facilitate the
> planing and execution of those activities to be revoked. 
>   
Agreed.   Anyone who reads a decent photography magazine these days will 
be well aware of these issues.

The great philosophical question is this: is the fear of people who 
would like us to live in a religous dictatorship without many of the 
freedoms we enjoy today justification enough to restrict those 
freedoms?   It's an interesting questions.  

--
Geoff Teale
Software and Technology Consultant
Munich, Germany.