Stand your ground!!

I get the impression that the security people are acting on instruction from the companies they work for- some of them just paranoid banking crooks who probably think every one is out to get them because they've shafted us all.

In a small way the fact that they are worried about this kind of thing and cannot do anythng about is quite comforting.

One of the photographers in that video is David Hoffman, legend in press photography. Recently successfully sued the police for £30,000 when they knocked his teeth out during the G20 demo...

link

Ahh the G20. This is the Ruling Elite's big conference. They don't like people protesting against them. Police Thuggery is sanction here. Poor Old Ian Tomlinson.

They shaft us all on a daily basis through fractional reserve banking and having the license to add interest to maony they create out of thin air with deposit multiplication

Right on!!

While ion Canary Wharf I took a picture of the foyer of the Bank Of America Building. Security Borg saw me and shouted "Excuse Me Sir!, Excuse Me Sir!" - I was on the pavement and just looked at him smiled and walked on ignoring him. 100 yds down the road I looked back and him and his colleague were in their frenzy of holding walkie Talkies to their ears. A few minutes later we got approached by an English chap who worked for the Canary Wharf security. this guy was very polite and explained the Bank Of America Borgs were very touchy about pics.

Here's the building from a further distance away





A security woman at 1 Canada Sq. said you can get a photography permit ( free ) - We're going to do that next time as most of the area is private property anyway

that is ok... I intend to mount a go-pro camera to an rc helicopter, add an arduino micro controller and send in a UAV next time somebody bugs me about taking photos. Who they gonna harass then? a drone?
that oughta freak em out.

"Help! we're under attack!!!"

My shooting buddy and I were pissing ourselves laughing at the prospect of going snapping at Canary Wharf dressed in one of these ....

Smeggy- that made me chuckle.

Combine the helicopter and the hide and then add an assault from the Thames via camo pedalo - that'll get them worried.

Don- frankly it would not surprise me if Bank of America had a locker full of assault rifles in the basement- they would blow your chopper out of the air and claim it was done in the interests of national security.

Then they'll track you down and show you around Guantanamo.

Jeepers- I just used the phrase "assault rifle" and "Guantanamo" in the same sentence- am I now under internet surveillance?

Your name is also on the list.....

Do BoA not realise that they're going to be targetted by flashmobs, thanks to that attitude? It's basic human nature to do anything lawful which annoys powerful people who can't do anything about it.

The home-made drone has been done, someone flew a radio controlled aircraft kitted up with a wireless camera over New York (and amazingly didn't get arrested or disappeared - the cops did talk to him but accepted that you weren't going to bring down a building with an unarmed toy plane).

I have worked in the private security business for most of my working life, mainly in corporate security management. I can honestly say that the level of training given to most security officers is sadly lacking in applicable law and common sense.
I sometimes attend an annual global security event in the US and, prior to the events of September 11th 2001, there was almost no "anti-terrorism" theme. It now accounts for about 50% or more of the seminars at the event each year, with guest speakers from all the big Alphabet agencies and the military. This, to an audience of mainly corporate security managers and security system installers, who are more liklely to be mauled by an angry swarm of cuttlefish than be be affected by global terrorism on a personal or work related basis. Of course, this is what gets the grants, gets the big name speakers (for a price) and makes a lot of money, whether the threat exists or not! Hence, the managers, wishing to keep up with the latest perceived threat trends and having attended all the newest seminars, feel obliged to pass on the benefit of their paranoia to their contract security officers.
Common sense went out the window a long time ago, as did, it seems, educating staff about applicable law and what they can and cannot do, something I take the time to educate my own staff about.
I have come up against over-zealous jobsworths myself whilst taking photos around the lakes at work, and take pleasure - I see it as my civic duty - in educating them and pointing out their lack of jurisdiction.

The problem is the top down paranoia purveyed by the neocon dominated politicians and media as a means to perpetuate their war on Islam.

We saw this over the last two days when the state propaganda machine, the BBC insisted on rinsing out the Al-Qaeda, Islamic terrorism rhetoric even though it was clear early on that the Norwegian terrorist was a Christian Fundamentalist.

This is where/how the security industry is indoctrinated into their current paranoia. And further it hasn't helped the general paranoia over street photography in general

eenymac you are a refreshing pool of common sense amongst a sea of Borgs unable to think for themselves.

it's important to note that in 2010 in the EU there was over 250 terrorist events. 3 were committed by Islamists

I think it's more a case of the security industry wanting to appear relevant when it has some rather dim staff. A friend of mine used to work as a manager for such a firm (he left because they hadn't paid him for months and was fired for this "disloyalty" which should give a good idea of the sort of people they can be!) One of the guards he was keeping an eye on called the Police because of a "suspicious car". Said car was driven by my friend the manager, trying to attract his attention so that he would come down, open the gates, and check in that all was well!

I don't think the security personnel in the video come across as dim TBH.
Unfortunately the security industry is poorly paid so it may not be possible to get the highest quality candidates- to denegrate them all as a group seems a bit harsh. For me the security guards in the film come accross as courteous and professional and are merely "on message" regarding the naive and ineffective policy of the companies they work.

I think on reflection I would have expected a more "hard line" approach- it was pretty easy for the togs to carry on filming/shooting.

Made the news all over Canada a while back when it was discovered that the RCMP and possibly other policing agencies in Canada were rejecting applicants that scored over a certain percentage on aptitude and IQ tests. Seems it is hard to keep police doing beat cop and traffic work, if everybody that applies for the job has the intelligence to pass promotions exams...

What has that got to do with this?

I dunno... seems like choosing the "Bottom of the barrel" is just another cost saving tactic by some employers.

"took photographs in a pulic place".
Lucky it wasn't a pubic place!