" Independent " Legal Observer

[mph1977]

progressing tangentially from the 'Recording Police actions' thread and Photosnob's posts and my replies there in , we are pretty close to the issue of 'Independent' Legal Observers at incidents / protests and 'Hunt Monitors' etc at fox hunts

these individuals despite claiming to be independent are in fact actors for the protestors - just have a read of http://www.activistslegalproject.org.uk/Guide%20fo... and can really say they are independent rather than agents of the protest attempting to claim they are some kind of special status.


this is before we get into the realms of FItwatch and Copwatch ...

the tactics of FItwatch are interesting , where if they were truely aiming to do what they suggest they would parallel the techniques of a Police FIT / EGT rather than trying to intervene .

[mph1977]

photosnob said:

I don't believe that independence is ever possible. Either consciously or subconsciously everyone has an angle. As long as both sides have the ability to give their side of the story I think that this is the best we can hope for.

That's a simplistic view but the best one I can come up. My posts on here whilst being open to learning are clearly influenced by what I believe and what I have experienced. The idea that anyone can be truly subjective is not inline with human nature IMO.

I definitely wasn't getting at you PS

one of the things i found most interestign in the link posted was the statement that the ILO should never take a picture that could be used against a protestor - this kind of wording aqnd sentiment adds weight to the suggetion that their independence is a joke and they are there as aan additional form of of troop to disrupt things , where an EGT will gather evidence and a journalist who is there to report really doesn;t care if the image protrays one side or the other as better only that it;s one or both of sellable / a good photo