Re: <nettime> what exactly is breaking?

[Siraj Izhar | publiclife <s-i@publiclife.org>]

I watched the Cornell West interview at DemocracyNow
https://www.democracynow.org/2020/6/1/cornel_west_us_moment_of_reckoning
where he says the failed social experiment that is America is breaking 
apart.
But more troubled than ever by the Americanising of this or, using Trump 
as a prop, when deaths in police custody over decades at least here in 
the UK are regular.
The big difference is that everything here is off camera. So never ever 
the question of charges against the police unlike the US.
The other thing is the conditions of production of the images we see now 
which depend on the law. For example if you look at this video here:
https://www.instagram.com/tv/CAtVvp3nsFm/?igshid=1nvv3zg61rg8w

The point is that it would be impossible to produce such a video in the 
UK or France or Spain (or anywhere in Europe?) without being assaulted 
by the law or arrested - on charges of obstructing the police.
In Calais I witness on a regular basis, assaults by the CRS on refugees. 
It's very dangerous to even think of pointing a camera.
Also by Article 80 of the French data protection act, only professional 
journalists can film the police.
In Spain, there is a blanket law against citizens filming the police 
doing their work (Citizen Security Law 2015). And in certain parts of 
Greece hide the phone.

So the drama of death at least as image production in Fortress Europe or 
Hostile environment is totally different but the underlying problem is 
there - which the BLM protests here acknowledge.


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