Somewhat shocking footage of a ‘Community Support Officer’ assaulting a member of the public legally filming in the street. The rudeness, bullying behaviour and lack of legal knowledge exhibited here is a real cause for concern, especially given the planned increases in number of these officers. From personal experience I know that standard coppers are not massively better, although they are usually at least understandable when they speak.
The overly officious public servant is not new in this country, as anyone who has had regular dealings with civil servants will attest. However the current mix of engineered apathy and manufactured fear seems designed to make this more and more common, to give rise to the assumption that everything not expressly permitted is forbidden and that we exist and act at the sufferance of those in authority. This is not the case. Despite the best efforts of the statists our rights are still recognised and for those involved in filming or photography I’d suggest you have a read of this pdf file and consider keeping a couple of copies in you camera bag.
Hat tip to Devil’s Kitchen for the original post.
