Slashdot Mirror
Thinking About the SnitchCam
Saint Aardvark writes "From Dan's Data comes a fascinating look at the consequences of tiny, wireless video cameras: "Right now, it's hard to prove that (for instance) riot police really beat the crap out of innocent people at a demonstration....Live streaming video from multiple cameras operated by lots of people at the same time, though, will be a different matter. Even without cryptographic jiggery-pokery, it'll be practically impossible to get away with even minor editing-room spin doctoring, if thousands of people around the world have the original footage on their hard drives." "
Honestly, the people I saw causing trouble seemed to just be bored.
Literally people who were walking down the street and decided to take advantage of the chaos to break things.
They really didn't seem to need any motivation for causing trouble other than opportunity.
I know that this is highly stereotypical, but most of the people who caused trouble were young punks. Literally kids dressed in punk outfits. People who live off the street. I have known lots of peaceful, respectable punks, but the majority of the people that I have seen causing trouble at protests have also been punks.
The police provoke in a much less subtle way. They throw tear-gas into peacefully assembled crowds. They bring in riot police and advance on the crowd, beating them back. They have no need for 'agents provocateurs', because they don't get in trouble for openly provoking unrest.