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The Met’s new Paranoia Campaign

I saw the above advert on the back of one of the London free rags last night, and it made me do a double take. Apparently it’s just one part of a larger campaign to prompt the public to report anything ‘suspicious’; the latest step in our march towards a police state.

How, I wonder, is it in the best interests of fighting terrorism to encourage the general public to indulge in rabid paranoia? I suppose it’s past the point of rhetoric to say that the objective of causing terror and suspicion has already been met and now we’re just making matters worse. Already it’s difficult enough taking photographs in public without at the least getting odd looks, if not outright complaints — all despite the fact that photographers are well within their rights to take photos in public places.

Even their own radio advert asks the questions that we ought to be asking of the police in their rationale for this campaign:

How do you tell the difference between someone just videoing a crowded place and someone who’s checking it out for a terrorist attack?
How can you tell if someone’s buying unusual quantities of stuff for a good reason or if they’re planning to make a bomb?
What’s the difference between someone just hanging around and someone behaving suspiciously?
How can you tell if they’re a normal everyday person, or a terrorist?

The answer is: we can’t, so don’t make such a difficult and dangerous thing as identifying terrorists the responsibility of people who aren’t qualified to.