Sam Hind

lecturer in digital media and culture at the University of Manchester, UK.

sam.hind@manchester.ac.uk

  • From Trafalgar to Taksim

    Illustration by Belle Mellor

    A short piece on the power of the city square by Simon Jenkins @ the Guardian today.

  • Drone: Camera, Weapon,Toy

     

    Omar Fast, 5000 Feet is the Best

    Patrick Lichty on drones @ Furtherfield from a few weeks ago.

  • BNP / UAF Demonstrations, London, June 1st.

    A series of tweets depicting the shifting spatial dynamics of demonstration policing. Sections 12 and 14 of the Public Order Act allow ‘senior police officers’ to make judgements on containing protests. Both were exercised in Parliament Square last Saturday.
    1. Initially @MetPoliceEvents sent messages urging ‘all parties’ – British National Party and Unite Against Facism protesters – to return to their designated demonstration zones. Presumably, as agreed prior to the event.
    2. MetPoliceEvents

      MPS Events@MetPoliceEvents
      Police ask all parties at Whitehall demo’s to return immediately to their pre-arranged areas.

      Sat, Jun 01 2013 05:03:14

    3. Double kettle now in front of Parliament.BNP kettled by police, surrounded by anti fascists,kettled by police. #olsx pic.twitter.com/M5kIRBZAOD
      Occupy London@OccupyLondon
      ·

      Sat, Jun 01 2013 05:45:45

    4. Reports of this ‘double kettle’ then came in. The double kettle was in fact the two separate, isolated protest zones mentioned above by @MetPoliceEvents for both parties.
    5. MetPoliceEvents

      MPS Events@MetPoliceEvents
      Police have imposed conditions under Section 12 & 14 Public Order Act on #UAF to move from Old Palace Yard #BNP

      Sat, Jun 01 2013 05:37:00

    6. Section 12 was invoked to ‘impose conditions on public processions’ and Section 14 to ‘impose conditions on public assemblies’. Both allow senior police officers to intervene in protest demonstrations if they reasonably believe disturbances will arise without their intervention.
    7. TSG buildup on Westminster Abby side of demo line. #antifa pic.twitter.com/RrQrnmL3an
      directreaction@directreaction
      ·

      Sat, Jun 01 2013 07:01:21

    8. MetPoliceEvents

      MPS Events@MetPoliceEvents
      Reminder: The conditions set by police allow demonstrations only until 4pm. Failure to comply could result in arrests #BNP #UAF

      Sat, Jun 01 2013 07:39:54

    9. With 20 minutes remaining before both parties’ protest curfew @MetPoliceEvents reminded demonstrators that remaining in the area could result in their arrest, this having previously restricted movement for a large duration of the allotted demonstration time.
    10. “Prisoner” buses filling up. pic.twitter.com/SgK9avqS8V
      my god and so on@thinktyler
      ·

      Sat, Jun 01 2013 07:35:57

    11. The London Metropolitan Police consequently arrested members from both sides and packed them on to waiting TfL buses.
    12. Current image of Parliament Square – people are free to leave #UAF #BNP pic.twitter.com/VqkGTp2H0t
      MPS Events@MetPoliceEvents
      ·

      Sat, Jun 01 2013 08:27:32

    13. Come the 4pm deadline @MetPoliceEvents posted an aerial photograph presumably taken from the force’s helicopter allegedly showing an absence of police barriers. It was expressed in the same message that people were ‘free to leave’. But that wasn’t really the whole story because, as I mentioned on the day:
    14. samhind10

      Sam Hind@samhind10
      Presumably they’re now ‘free to leave’ because s.14 says they’re arrestable if they stay. #UAF #BNP

      Sat, Jun 01 2013 08:38:22

    15. As the demonstration was only legally allowed to continue until 4pm, and after hours of containing both crowds, police officers tactically released all those still demonstrating. So the strategy shifted from arresting those who sought to escape the containments to arresting those who sought to remain in the same (but now ‘unkettled’) space.
    16. samhind10

      Sam Hind@samhind10
      ‘free to leave’ = ‘not free to stay’. London Met playing a semantic game. #UAF #BNP

      Sat, Jun 01 2013 08:39:48

    17. ‘Free to leave’ then, was another way of the police force saying protesters were ‘not free to stay’. A designated shift in strategy from (legally) containing potentially mobile and thus, illegal protesters to legally releasing static, illegal protesters. Although at the time many simply believed the Met Police were telling lies and were still containing people, I’m more of the opinion that they took advantages of the slippy legal nature of their tactics and were in fact releasing both groups – only to arrest if individuals refused to leave the area.
    18. Westminster protests: 58 arrests

      58 anti-fascist protesters from UAF group arrested Police have confirmed 58 arrests for breach of Section 14 of the Public Order Act from…
      Itv
    19. According to ITV and other sources 58 UAF protesters were arrested for a breach of Section 14.
    20. 360 picture of police snatch-squad vs UAF protesters.

      360 picture of police snatch-squad vs UAF protesters. 58 people, who were part of the Unite Against Fascism (UAF) protest, were arrested …
      Lewiswhyld
    21. This 360 degree photo from the day is incredible. It purportedly shows a police ‘snatch-squad’ in action. This is a commonly used tactic (rather than a unit per se) by riot police to dive into large crowds and ‘snatch’ key protagonists. Note the London Met’s own FIT (Forward Intelligence Team) cameraman to the upper left of the incident and other media to the immediate right on the pavement.

  • Google vs OSM

    Now I know Google are starting to roll out their new Maps interface but one thing they should really get sorted is their low-level city detail. Clancy Wilmott is in the final stages of organizing the Thinking and Doing Digital Mapping workshop at Warwick (17-18th June) and asked about transport plans in the Coventry area. Predictably my first thoughts were “let’s check Google Maps!” but unfortunately the results were less than satisfactory. Check below:

    Coventry Google Maps

    So I went onto OSM thinking I might find a more detailed picture of Coventry and this is what I got:

    Coventry OSM

    And wow, what a difference. If Google really want to be known as Cartographic Kings of the World then they need to sort out this kind of quality issue. Yes, okay the satellite layer sort of makes up for this loss of information, but when large swathes of city centres are completely greyed out then you can’t really claim any victories on quality. OSM beats Google hands down on the urban intricacies.

  • Turkey Protests

    A tweet from Newsnight’s economic editor, Paul Mason who has made it out to Istanbul to cover the ongoing demonstrations:

    To which another user replied:

    I’m interested to see how he’s managed to get around with seemingly little knowledge of the area and no map to assist. Actually, from the sounds of it it’s a 1,2,3 punch of language barrier, no map and no mobile network. Shows how precarious reporting can be.