[Previous entry: "A hardening of street protests in France worries the government"] [Next entry: "Unapologetic Israeli foreign minister causes diplomatic problems with Egypt"]

03/21/2009: "UK police make files on the children of environmental campaigners"

A few months later, in December last year, I took my eight-year-old daughter to deliver a "green" Christmas stocking and wish-list to Gordon Brown on behalf of WeCAN. As we left the tube and walked towards Downing Street, seemingly out of nowhere several policemen armed with cameras suddenly appeared. They followed us, taking photographs of the two of us walking hand-in-hand. Not only did I not know why the photos were being taken, but the police then requested our names and addresses - I could only assume they'd be used to create some sort of file on us. Only after giving all her details was my daughter allowed to approach 10 Downing Street and give the letter she had written to Brown's doorman. As I watched her I felt sick at heart that something I'd been so proud to involve her in could actually end up causing her harm. By attempting to engage her in the democratic process, had I ended up getting her a police record? And if I had, how could that be justified when no crime had been commited or even contemplated?

This was not a one-off experience. The following month, this time with my six and 10-year-old, we set off to attend a peaceful protest at Heathrow airport. We arrived to discover dozens of long-lens cameras pointed in our direction. The police were ostensibly there as a safety precaution, but they were also documenting the demonstrators with cameras, many of whom, like us, were mothers and children. Despite the fact they were still reading Biff and Chip, I had to face the unpalatable possibility that my daughters could have steadily growing police files. Add to that the experience of my friend's 15-year-old son, who had decided to film the event and was forced to erase footage containing shots of the police. What did they have to hide?

[ Everyone gets a file on them so there's no point in becoming inactive just to avoid it. It's purely intimidation, but things will get a lot worse for everyone if we stop trying to improve the world - so never be put off by this sort of thing. Really the outrage you feel should compel you to fight the system even more. ]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/libertycentral/2009/mar/20/protest-police-surveillance-children