http://blogs.crikey.com.au/contentmakers/2008/12/29/mainstream-media-came-to-the-party-lateish/#comment-127

What I think was added by way of teamwork was this: political framework of Right to Know existing in the big media making their help much more likely, and second legal expertise of the Oliver Hopes, and Matt Khoury cases which The Oz legal editor and Media section published. The other factors I am probably a bit patchy on are: Third is production skills in publishing online, and fourth is solidarity amongst new and indeed old media for mutual benefit.

Good job. I agree don’t attack the police, go hard on the principle of transparency where appropriate.

And now see this story from Sydney Daily Telegraph and join the dots. Culture of protecting the profit motive? I do think so:

Police profit as TV pays up for reality crime shows | The Daily Telegraph 29 Dec 2008

at http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,24850227-5006014,00.html

Can’t have pesky bloggers diluting the franchise folks? Well it’s over. No more exclusive deals for tv shows. The new media is here and we want to ‘play’, but in fact actually do serious community media too.

Point taken too about coppers are everyone’s mummy and daddy when the proverbial hits the fan with criminal violence etc, so it’s all a matter of balance. On balance I like transparency! Because it stops corruption.

Citizen journalists are “just citizens”? I think the only time media get more rights than citizens is when you have to be ‘accredited’ to attend an event. Then the people with accreditation have more rights than those without, but in the general scheme of things, media have no more rights than citizens.

The only thing media have to argue on are the same rights afforded the general public. Which is MORE reason that the rights of the general public are important in these sorts of situations. The media have no special rights, and themselves are “just citizens”… I’m pretty sure. Just more ‘clout’, or bargaining power, perhaps.

Full disclosure, in 2004 i worked for the NSW Police as a Microsoft Consultant in their Web and Information Systems Department (when I was just a young pup getting some commercial experience). As a result I have some awareness and exposure to the Policing system.

You are right in many regards, my story is representative of only one side of the event. And I’m sure the officer on the other side of the table would say i was being a jerk. Quite frankly i wasn’t respecting their “authoritah” and probably valued my own civil liberties above them getting the job done. A debatable topic.

I wholly admit – was probably being a bit cheeky when i decided to film them. And to be honest I was deliberately making a point about the rights of the citizens to “police the police”. I didn’t expect the reaction I received though.…

I do agree the officer in question, who I believe illegally searched my device and invaded my privacy, was probably was just trying to do her job. I’m sure she did feel intimidated that a 6’6 suited man in glasses was filming her – we all feel awkward when we are on camera – I know I do. But based on this and her demeanor i had assumed she was a relatively inexperienced officer. I have subsequently found out she is a reasonably high ranking detective – tbh I expected more.

Thomas Jefferson said it best “The history of liberty is a history of resistance”. Looking back through history – the government and the police have never issued liberty – liberty has only come from citizens standing up and being cheeky and drawling lines in the sand and saying these are our rights. This is what I did, motives and attitudes aside.

Apparently liberty and freedom are important things. Think of all the actions we take in the name of freedom. Even today thousands of people die every month in the name of “freedom and liberty”. 500k Iraqi’s and 80k+ Americans have died in Iraq in the (potentially misguided) name of freedom.

The idea that these terrorism and move along laws that were put in place to apparently protect our freedoms has been abused by our government, and to see these same laws now being used to take our freedoms away, is a complete hypocrisy. Granted – the police are only the enforcers of these laws and not the decision makers. Our government is ultimately accountable and not the police.

To be fair, I think the point has now been made. I have at this time decided not to take any formal action against the police officer in question. I’m sure she has felt the heat already. I was very angry at the time that my personal and corporate privacy was invaded, but looking back a week later – I feel some remorse that potentially this event may have impacted the career of an otherwise highly capable officer/detective. Unfortunately for both sides of the table – this is the “cost of doing business” in a free society.

As an outcome – and it is now clear as day – if you are a public servant (and especially a police officer) working FOR the people, your citizens are allowed to film you and your actions are accountable to the public. Abusing your power and your “authoritah” is not acceptable and will in future be recorded by citizens who now know their rights to do so.

Let’s hope this event and the coverage cements these rights and responsibilities firmly in the mind of every police officer and citizen.

Nick

ps. i warmly welcome the officer in question to contact me directly

As an ex cop I can assure you that all formal complaints are taken seriously, and are one of the most stressful parts of being a Police officer. Unfortunately, whilst certain officers appear to get the benefit of informal resolution of complaints at the Supervisor level before they become a formal complaint, I have personally been on the receiving end of the complaints system being misused to deliberately ‘load up’ an individual officer who was not popular with management, as a means of wrecking this Officer’s record. I have also met many other officers, including some at Kings Cross, who have been unfairly subject to misuse of the complaints system to ‘load up’ their record with negative findings.

So yes, put the complaint in writing and it will be taken seriously and will cause the officers incvolved a lot of grief. They will have to answer questions truthfully or face the sack-no right of silence for Police under investigation for a (non-criminal) complaint, no matter how minor the complaint.

But before you leap to judgement on the Officers concerned, remember there are two sides to every story and we have only heard one side. Were the Officers also being hindered in their duty? Was there a genuine national security/terrorism issue? Something big was obviously up with all those Police running around with video cameras-very unusual.

Such things as matters of national security do occur believe it or not and there are laws to deal with it. Sometimes its best to not be too quick to ’stand on your rights’. The Police don’t know who you are, you don’t know what dangers they may be dealing with at the time, and for all they know you may be involved in the incident or hindering them as they are dealing with possibly a life-and-death or otherwise highly charged situation.

Some guy blunders into the middle of a crime scene during a police operation, smoking a fag. When asked to move he starts taking videos like it’s all some kind of entertainment, then when as he gets pulled up for hindering the officers in the execution of their duty and for filming where he had no business filming, he starts bleating about his precious rights being violated, and starts posting blogs about it, giving only his side of the story. I’m not saying this is what actually happened, I don’t know because I wasn’t there and neither were the other commentators on this forum. I’m just saying it’s an alternative perspective, isn’t it??? Perhaps there is more to the story and perhaps the Officers were at least partially justified under the circumstances? All I am saying is we weren’t there and we don’t know the full story.

But if a complaint is made there will have to be a full investigation and the full truth will come out. But before you lodge a formal complaint, be certain that the officer really deserved it and wasn’t just doing their duty. If whhat we’ve heard from the ‘victim’ is the full truth and he was not at fault in any way, then I’m surprised he hasn’t already lodged a formal complaint. Sounds a bit fishy to me.