tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-50235934717533860672024-02-06T21:59:15.525-08:00KIRKCALDY AGAINST CCTVWake up and listen! Your privacy matters: remember, without privacy there is no dignity. KIRKCALDY AGAINST CCTV proposes that public surveillance by the state or private individuals be banned in our beautiful town!midnightoilbookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06716779978477056126noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5023593471753386067.post-12115550773690101422011-03-07T03:33:00.001-08:002011-03-07T03:34:47.349-08:00That's all folksI've tried all sorts of things and no one is listening, so I have decided to go and live where there are no cameras.<div><br /></div><div>Good luck, Kirkcaldy. </div>midnightoilbookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06716779978477056126noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5023593471753386067.post-6927113116204637022010-03-15T05:40:00.000-07:002010-03-15T06:03:56.247-07:00The Anti-Surveillance PledgeCCTV is an affront to our essential dignity and freedoms. To be kept under constant surveillance is to be held effectively in an open-prison. To combat this scourge of civil society, we would ask you to take the anti-surveillance pledge:<br /><br />1) I shall work by lawful means and the appropriate democratic channels to safeguard society's inherent civil liberties.<br /><br />2) I shall be willing to whistleblow against any misuse of public surveillance.<br /><br />3) I shall not install or operate a CCTV system in any place where the public is at liberty freely to conduct their business (allowing exceptions for the insides of bank vaults, certain zones of MOD premises, warehouses closed at night etc.)<br /><br />4) I shall not profit from the proceeds of this trade in human liberty.<br /><br />5) I shall never work in the CCTV industry or for public safety partnerships that promote the use of routine public surveillance, save to subvert their illiberal aims.<br /><br />6) I shall refuse to comment on CCTV images captured as part of routine surveillance of the general public and admitted as evidence into the trial proceedings.<br /><br />7) I shall not watch television shows composed primarily of CCTV images used for entertainment and instructive purposes (including cop chase shows, rogue traders, dangerous streets) as these have the effect of inducing a fear of crime and normalising in the public's mind mass surveillance of society.midnightoilbookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06716779978477056126noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5023593471753386067.post-5520353003549243322010-01-18T09:32:00.000-08:002010-01-18T09:44:34.109-08:00Eight-foot AlienI'm not entirely sure what this is supposed to prove? The author does make a good point, however, that CCTV gives its controllers the opportunity to decide what 'crimes' they want to follow up. Also, acting strangely is of course now a crime.<br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/npM-tWbyyiI&hl=fr_FR&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/npM-tWbyyiI&hl=fr_FR&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>midnightoilbookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06716779978477056126noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5023593471753386067.post-60062816190086523182010-01-18T04:45:00.000-08:002010-01-18T06:11:49.458-08:00Coppers, not CamerasKirkcaldy against CCTV continues its campaign against the acceptance of public surveillance, and this week, one of the founder members found to his cost the dangers of taking this affront to our liberty too personally.<br /><br />"Jogging along the High Street, in Kirkcaldy, I noticed the camera following me. I stopped and it stopped. Then I moved on again, and it moved on. I stopped and it stopped, all the time watching me. I was dog-walking for a friend, and went in to collect Rollo. At the top of the stairs, I noticed a flash of a yellow coat. Coming out of the front door, I saw a police van parked immediately in front of the flat's entrance hallway. As is my custom, I started the jog. Having progressed 100 yards up the street, I heard what could only be a Police Transit pull to a stop behind me. I turned around, and seeing that it was clearly me that the officers were interested in went back to speak to them.<br /><br />Me: "Can I help you?"<br />Them: "Yes, we have had a complaint of someone breaking into a car matching your description."<br />Me: "This is because I run the anti-surveillance campaign, isn't it?"<br />Them: "No, no. Where have you come from?"<br />Me: "From the High Street. I am doing dog-walking. Look if it happened on the High Street then you will have images of it."<br />Them: "No, well, it happened just off the High Street. About 15 minutes ago. The youth was wearing a blue top, blue jogging bottoms, with white stripes down the legs."<br />Me: "Well, since I left my front door, I haven't been out of sight of at least two cameras for that whole time."<br />Them: "Can I take your name, please?"<br />[Takes my details.]<br /><br />The officers did not detain me, or caution me. In fact, they were very pleasant and professional. I can almost guarantee that there will have been no one else down the High Street matching my description, and said as much, and yet the Police rightly let me go on my way. More likely this was just a little warning, a shot across the bows, for taking an interest in their work. There is no other sensible explanation."<br /><br />As we say to anyone interested in the campaign, this is not an anti-Police campaign. If you have a grudge to bear against the Police then you will need to find alternative channels. We have always said that monies saved by dismantling the CCTV network, should be saved or ploughed back into neighbourhood policing, to put officers out on the streets. We must keep policing interpersonal.midnightoilbookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06716779978477056126noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5023593471753386067.post-21948359642672085612009-03-12T06:16:00.000-07:002009-03-12T06:23:29.596-07:00Here comes the summer sun...Summer at last is on its way. I woke up this morning with gorgeous summery sunshine pouring through my window. I could feel the heat as I walked on the floor. Bring on the hot weather. <br /><br />As the sun gets up this summer, you will need to take care of your sun. Sun cream and sensible doses are both important, and hats likewise. <br /><br />But there is another good reason for wearing a hat. If you start wearing a broad-brimmed hat, then you will be protecting yourself from excessive state surveillance of your daily business. Umbrellas are likewise useful in this regard. Too much surveillance is bad for the long-term health of our society and can lead to the state building up an unnecessarily detailed picture of our daily lives. <br /><br />So take care! Protect yourselves! We all have a right and duty to protest peacefully against this intrusive menace.midnightoilbookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06716779978477056126noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5023593471753386067.post-77485617732964819872009-01-06T04:38:00.000-08:002009-03-12T07:29:52.727-07:00towards an anti-surveillance philosophy"The poorest man may in his cottage bid defiance to all the forces of the Crown. It may be frail - its roof may shake - the wind may blow through it - the storm may enter - the rain may enter - but the King of England cannot enter - all his force dares not cross the threshold of the ruined tenement!" William Pitt, Earl of Chatham (1708-1778) quoted in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, 1956<br /><br />To the sanctity of the home, as a society, we must add the sanctity of the street. It is essential that the people are able to live private lives in public places. Our freedom is at stake.<br /><br />We are born from wombs and buried in coffins. At the open and close of a human life is hiddenness, closeness, and darkness. In our infancy and youth, we crave the proximity of parents and the protection that they offer. We may stray far from them, but the realisation that one is on one's own is a cause for terror for a young child. The child cries. The child implicitly implores passers-by for their help to reunite him or her with his or her parents and with the security and protection that those parents can offer. In childhood, in return for security, we sacrifice something of our personal privacy. We cannot but let our parents know where we are at any moment, enter our room at moment, dress us, dictate our eating habits, schedule our day. <br /><br />In late childhood, at the cusp of adulthood, the desire for freedom, to express our individuality, to become our own person roars like a lion within us. Our parents struggle at times to adapt quickly to the change, forgetful of their own coming of age. Many a door is banged and meal refused to be eaten as the teenager begins to assert him or herself to cast their own impression on the world. Yes, there is an air of predictability about the process, but the end result as with a pregnancy which has run its term, may often surprise. The end result is an adult full of views, opinions, failings and strengths, quirks, idiosyncrasies and identity. This life is no more valuable than that of people at other stages of his or her life, but this life is now at full strength, its powers as full as they will ever be, its will powerful and dangerous, its mind constantly roaming. <br /><br />And yet though the mature and full-fledged adult is has attained in many ways the fullest extent of its capacities, it desires still a certain balance and order in its affairs. <br /><br />We each of us need both security and freedom. We need both privacy and oversight. We do not want to be controlled, but feel the need to control others who might harm us. <br /><br />Freedom and privacy must be fought for and claimed. Many Kirkcaldy people would happily surrender these rights at the first opportunity. This is not a generation that holds freedom sacrosanct, that has a healthy discourse on freedom, but rather one that is given to quick and bitter prejudices, that is suspicious of generally harmless people, like new immigrants to our country, yet all-forgiving of the State, a body that has killed and stolen, maimed and brutalised the peoples of the world, with a intensity that has never been matched by that seen in the twentieth century.<br /><br />Given that an anarchist ideal is both unlikely and takes too little regard for humankind's inherent capacity for evil deeds, we must turn somewhere for security and oversight. This can be provided either by surveillance or society. In the past sixty years, we have turned our backs on society and now embrace surveillance. There is no society in a surveillance society. There are only surveilled upon individuals. Our accountability is no longer mutual, to others around us, but to the distant State, an amorphous, unimpeachable tyrant, who drags in communities and spits out insentient puppets. <br /><br />Society survives in pockets in this town. If you find yourself hanging around after work, if you catch yourself loitering in the park, if you chat to a fellow dog-walker as you stroll along the Pathhead sands or out to Seafield, you touch for a moment society. You are living a private life in a public place. Provided you neither of you have no mobile phone with you, or you are not of any interest to anyone, provided you are away from the untiring vision of the cameras, you have just enjoyed a social moment. And how affirming was it? Immensely so, I hope. <br /><br />You found out that Mrs Baxter's mother is ailing, and told Mrs Baxter that your daughter is getting married. You asked how Jimmy was coping with working to midnight six days a week. Perhaps you even on touched on one or two more conceptual issues like mental illness or the seasons or true happiness. Regardless the contact was what was mattered. Like two pebbles on the riverbed of life, you met and came away fractionally changed, perhaps even fractionally more alike. <br /><br />'Would you like to come round for a meal on Saturday night?' Not something you'll be hearing from the State.midnightoilbookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06716779978477056126noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5023593471753386067.post-76395974052467799382008-07-31T08:32:00.000-07:002008-07-31T08:42:55.438-07:00A Policy, not an operational matterIn various exchanges of correspondence, the details of which I am restricted from discussing by unwarrented 'Private' labels, there has been one repeated feature of note:<br /><br /><strong>It is clear that the <em>majority</em> of your elected officials believe that CCTV is a operational, and not a Policy concern. </strong><br /><br />Letters that I have written to councillors, have in certain cases been forwarded to the local authority officals responsible for implementing CCTV. I am not concerned about CCTV's implementation. I am sure that it is implemented very well. No one that we know of has been struck by a falling lens cap of electricuted by some faulty wiring. If they had no doubt, I would have been in touch with Fife Community Safety Partnership.<br /><br />The problem is the principle. White van man, let's call him, Mr. Y, put it best of all:<br /><br />Me: Terrible to have this CCTV everywhere.<br />Mr. Y: Oh, I know, an absolute disgrace. Isn't it awful how ready we are to hand over our liberties. Called Radio Scotland about it the other day. The usual hang'em and flog'em brigade was on. I said that it was their defensive attitude that got us into this position.midnightoilbookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06716779978477056126noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5023593471753386067.post-91464534940750667242008-05-30T02:28:00.000-07:002008-12-11T06:55:26.478-08:00Support from Kirkcaldy Central Councillor<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiaNaRqF20XobVv76aPhIQzH-JaJZfRploQLNJoZMGIsljSK2Hcgpq92WVsASt_Yr-6Jxo3pOZn2miOC0kTESjcnZ4XPOHrDzHaxjAJIfBtP6QISCBoTpzWqZXb67YFgLUDySxvsZ3AHk/s1600-h/Alice.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiaNaRqF20XobVv76aPhIQzH-JaJZfRploQLNJoZMGIsljSK2Hcgpq92WVsASt_Yr-6Jxo3pOZn2miOC0kTESjcnZ4XPOHrDzHaxjAJIfBtP6QISCBoTpzWqZXb67YFgLUDySxvsZ3AHk/s320/Alice.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5206101918587616130" border="0" /></a><br />Liberal Democrat councillor for Kirkcaldy Central, Alice Soper, has written to us indicating a large measure of agreement with the campaign.<br /><br />In her letter, she writes, "I totally agree with your concerns about the proliferation of cameras, not only because they invade privacy but also because of the way these are monitored. ... I do not agree with their widespread use in all public areas."<br /><br />However, she demures that they "may be useful in some situations, eg where there is a known problem with anti-social behaviour and where the camera can identify the culprits for prosecution. ... In one current situation, I have agreed to a mobile camera being used to identify and provide evidence against some young miscreants, who have been alarming residents for years. Similarly, I agreed to this camera being used to identify another group of young people who were threatening elderly people to buy them alcohol at local shops. So. basically I believe it is a 'final resort' when all else has failed, where there are issues such as these involved."<br /><br />All else being equal, we would encourage you to vote for champions for personal privacy such as Cllr. Soper, who are willing to take a stand and say that they so not agree with the widespread use of CCTV in public areas.<br /><br />That said, and although not conversant with the full facts of the two cases mentioned, I would suggest that perhaps a more personal approach would run less risk of alienating the young people involved. Who are the young people's parents, what are their dependencies, what level of personal discipline is their in their homes, why aren't they in school? If we expect them to act as dignified and law-abiding members of the community it must be better to find a punishment that upholds their dignity as citizens and persons, rather than eroding it.<br /><br />We cannot expect them to become forgiving members of society that keep no record of wrongs, if we keep a record of their misdemeanours in perpetuity. A short, sharp punishment, that the miscreant can move on from, changed, must be the better option.<br /><br />And we must not lose the ability to judge character and deal with people on a human level. Remember that courts in this country were handing out - largely - fair judgements for centuries before CCTV. You cross-examine witnesses, look for contradictions in their evidence, you invite character witnesses to speak for or against the defendant and prosecuting party.<br /><br />The trial in 1765 of Joseph Barretti is one of the best examples of this. A distinguished lexicographer, he stumbled into the wrong area of London one night - he was nearly blind at this time - and was propositioned in a lewd manner by a prostitute who he slapped. Seeing a foreigner raise a hand to a woman, a mob gathered round him and worried him and as he was running for his life, he struck out at a man with a short knife he had been carrying - then permitted. The Welshman fell, mortally wounded.<br /><br />Barretti was given shelter in a nearby house, with the mob demanding he be released.<br /><br />The trial was entirely reliant and witness statements. In it, a number of leading members of society were able to stand up for the pacifistic and public spirited character of the defendant. He refused to have six Italians on the jury, though he was owned of this right. Gradually the contradictions in the prosecuting party's position began to be confronted, and Barretti himself, despite the hostile feeling against him, was acquitted. This quiet man continued in the country until his death, a loyal British citizen.midnightoilbookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06716779978477056126noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5023593471753386067.post-89056381406785523632008-05-30T01:48:00.000-07:002008-05-30T02:27:35.242-07:00CCTV used for Litter<span style="font-weight: bold;">You will remember that the mobile CCTV unit's visit to the High Street was discussed in our last blog entry. It now transpires that this hugely expensive bit of equipment, with its operators and back-up was actually being used to catch litterers. What a waste! - if you excuse the pun. Yes, litter is a problem. Yes, to knowingly throw litter is an offence. But to spend a fortune like this on such minor crime is the proverbial sledgehammer to crack a monkey nut. And remember, the whole area was already covered by other cameras!</span><br /><br />Further to the incident related in the previous entry, my mole informs me that the picture of me being confronted by the mobile CCTV crew is now in general circulation. A whole range of council officials and para-police types have now seen it. Responsible use of public property, if ever I saw it.<br /><br />Was ever a better illustration needed of CCTV-groupies' complete disregard for personal privacy? Even if I <span style="font-style: italic;">had</span> committed a minor crime, this sort of dissemination would have been completely unjustified.<br /><br />Have you seen the images? How far have they travelled? Write now to c/o Mr D McHutcheon, 120 Commercial Street, Kirkcaldy, Fife, KY1 2NX.<br /><br />Once again though, we are not anti-Police. This is about protecting the individual citizen's right to privacy.midnightoilbookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06716779978477056126noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5023593471753386067.post-47037874801974436162008-05-24T12:37:00.000-07:002008-05-24T12:55:28.243-07:00Mobile CCTV<strong>On Tuesday, 20<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">th</span> May 2008, a Mobile CCTV unit was parked in the middle of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Kirkcaldy</span> High Street. The day was hot, clear and sunny. The street busy with shoppers. The entire area that the mobile CCTV van could cover was already covered by other CCTV cameras.</strong><br /><br />Either this was a show of force, a thoughtless use of resources, or - as the operator, who bounced out of the van and accosted <em>me</em> for staring at it in an obtrusive manner, said - it is a necessary evil. An evil, indeed.<br /><br />I was told that if I had a problem with CCTV, I should ring the number on the side of the van, the number of the Fife Community Safety Partnership: 01592-418888. Given that this is - by implication - the number to call for complaints about CCTV, I would encourage anyone with an interest in the area to call this number and register your objection.<br /><br />Simply remember this: it should be the expectation of every liberal and democratic townsperson that the final say in matters of local policing belongs to democratic institutions. This is not an executive policy matter. It is a matter <em>political</em> in the proper sense of the word.midnightoilbookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06716779978477056126noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5023593471753386067.post-39295255576355018172008-05-24T11:53:00.000-07:002008-05-24T12:36:55.711-07:00Opening RemarksWelcome to the blog!<br /><br />To object to CCTV in "today's <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">inconnected</span> world" is to hold an unfashionable minority viewpoint. This is the preserve of old-Labour socialists, recalcitrant liberals, hard-nosed Tories, human rights lawyers, privacy activists, data protection campaigners, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">hoodies</span>, Victor <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Meldrew</span> types, visitors from overseas or returning ex-pats, conspiracy theorists, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">gloommongers</span>, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">hippy</span> visionaries, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">peaceniks</span> and constitutionalists. This is the awkward squad. But boy what a coalition this awkward squad represents!<br /><br /><strong>Our cause - first and foremost - is a principled one. We value the privacy of the individual citizen and the dignity of our community at large - here, in <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">Kirkcaldy</span>. Without privacy, there can be no dignity. Privacy is a right, while dignity lies at the heart of our humanity.</strong><br /><br />CCTV is an infringement on your privacy. By this means, the state builds up an unduly detailed picture of our lives. In future, all of your errors, stumbles, bloody noses, bad hair days, confrontations, romantic moments - the private matter of public places - will become the property of the state to be duplicated and disseminated in a manner entirely outwith of your control.<br /><br /><strong>Society functioned for better and worse without CCTV and public surveillance in general for <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">millenia</span> past. Increasingly, we are replacing natural, organic relations, with filtered, atomised, virtual existences. Our neighbourliness - as Fifers never exactly one of our more famed characteristics - will suffer as we substitute spontaneous, interpersonal lives for mediated dependencies controlled by a state bureaucracy whose function is to mechanise and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">saniticise</span> vital, natural instincts.</strong><br /><br />Like the right to protest. Like the right to associate with real police officers as they walk the street in their professional capacity of guardians of the law. Like the right not to have CCTV operators learn all manner of details of your proclivities, habits, tastes, waking hours. Like the right not to have you stumble down a manhole or dress tear beamed around the world for popular entertainment.<br /><br />Your privacy and - therefore - your dignity is at the heart of the matter. This is not a question about crime. Surveys have shown that the impact of CCTV on relevant crime in covered areas is four percent, and that is before the displacement issue is taken into account.<br /><br />We must have the utmost of respect for the Police. I would love to see the day that the Police are respected - not feared - in <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">Kirkcaldy</span>, in a way that they haven't been since the first few post-war years. To do this they must be seen and known. The money saved by dismantling the CCTV network should be <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">ringfenced</span> for Policing. This is not an anti-Police campaign movement. The Police are at the heart of successful communities.<br /><strong></strong><br /><strong>Fellow <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">langtonians</span>, now is the time to make your voices heard. Ask your elected representatives where they stand on this issue. Make your vote contingent on a respect of civil privacy and human dignity. It is time for CCTV to be banned in all public places in <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">Kirkcaldy</span>.</strong>midnightoilbookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06716779978477056126noreply@blogger.com0