This is what democracy looks like is an effort to use photographs of the March 26 demonstration as a means of continuing the campaign against governments cuts to public spending
We hope this website can serve as a public record of the photographic protest, and a visual archive of the demonstration. Please:
Upload your photographs of the demonstration to the A Public Archive Flickr group, after you have emailed them to coalition MPs. If you don't have a Flickr account you can also email your photos to
apublicarchive@gmail.com
Upload details your Freedom of Information request to the Freedom of Information request group, along with any responses you receive.
If your Freedom of Information request is successful, please upload the photographs.
More pictures at A Public Archive flickr group
Photograph the protest. Show you were there. Document what you saw. Email your photographs to the following coalition MPs:
Nick Clegg nick.clegg.mp@parliament.uk
George Osborne george.osborne.mp@parliament.uk
David Willets willettsd@parliament.uk
Ian Duncan Smith alambridesl@parliament.uk
Andrew Langsley lansleya@parliament.uk
Vince Cable cablev@parliament.uk
Danny Alexander danny.alexander.mp@parliament.uk
Theresa May mayt@parliament.uk
Michael Gove govem@parliament.uk
Eric Pickles picklese@parliament.uk
You can copy the following email addresses:
nick.clegg.mp@parliament.uk, george.osborne.mp@parliament.uk, willettsd@parliament.uk, alambridesl@parliament.uk, lansleya@parliament.uk, cablev@parliament.uk, danny.alexander.mp@parliament.uk, mayt@parliament.uk, govem@parliament.uk, picklese@parliament.uk
Include a short statement explaining what the photographs show and why you want members of the government to see them. Finish your email with a question, in order to encourage a reply.
You can find email addresses of other MPs here:
www.parliament.uk/mps-lords-and-offices/mps
Through this act, we aim to confront the politicians responsible for the cuts with an image of the growing number that oppose them. We will do this not through the biased depiction of violence within the mainstream media, but through the lenses of the citizens whom politicians are appointed to serve.
The photographs will form a critical mass, infiltrating the walls of parliament to stage a virtual occupation. It is our aim to create a democratic archive, existing in the minds of citizens and in the inboxes of coalition MPs.
The protest in March will also be photographed by the state. The pictures taken by police intelligence officers will play a part in the wider efforts at surveillance and control by a police force that has, in recent months, resorted to increasingly violent tactics in dealing with citizens exercising their democratic right to protest.
As UK citizens, it is our legal right to request access to this information. We ask you to:
Complete the online Freedom of Information Act Request Form on the
Metropolitan Police website to ask for access to the photographs of the protest:
www.met.police.uk/information/metric/index.htm
As stated in the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO)/Avon and Somerset Constabulary versus the Guardian Newspaper Tribunal, disclosure of information must be deemed to be ‘in the public interest’ (rather than ‘interesting to the public’), serving a ‘tangible community benefit’. As such, you will need to explain why it is the public interest to see these photographs.
You can copy the following statement, or write your own:
I am writing to request access to the visual surveillance footage produced by the Metropolitan Police during the March 26 TUC-organized demonstration against government cuts to public spending. This material will be made publicly available online at: www.thisiswhatdemocracylookslike.org.uk
My request follows the successful deployment of Freedom of Information legislation by BBC journalists, as part of their investigation into the tactics deployed by police in response to the demonstration against the government cuts to funding to higher education in 2010.
The release of the footage will serve the public interest in the following ways:
By demonstrating how Metropolitan Police Officers have deployed visual surveillance technologies as part of their wider efforts to police the demonstration. By providing visual evidence of the tactics deployed by police officers on the ground. By forming part of the public record of what happened at the March 26 demonstration.
Be as specific as you can when making your request. Provides times, dates, locations. Cite specific incidents that may have been photographed by the police wherever possible, or particular surveillance teams you may have encountered whose footage that you want to request access to.
By acting en masse to request and share the photographs, we aim to demonstrate whom the police are appointed to serve and from where power emanates in a democratic society. We aim to utilise the democratic machinery of the state to create an archive of photographs belonging to us, the UK citizenry. The archive will show how the police have deployed visual surveillance technologies, the tactics they have deployed by the ground, and what happened at the demonstration.