“I hope you’ll agree that there’s always a useful role for neutral and balanced observers, who care about the rights of protesters. Even in protests they don’t necessarily even agree with or care very much about.”

No I completely disagree. There are far too many neutral, middle class observers, taking pretty pics without the gumption to think/talk/act-upon underlying issues within society.

So you don’t really care about the issues raised by the protest ? Great some more apathy, and to be frank I find that slightly weird. You care about the right to protest but don’t feel strongly enough to actually protest about anything ?

http://inapcache.boston.com/universal/site_graphics/blogs/bigpicture/g20_04_03/g11_18502305.jpg

The ratio of [presumed] press to protesters is interesting, especially when you consider that a lot of them would have had an angle that didn’t include all the cameras…

There’s a bit more to it though. As it happens, the issue that I feel strongest about, before and especially after the day depicted here, is actually the deterioration of our right to protest at, and even just attend and photograph, public demonstrations. I wasn’t protesting myself, but I do think it’s important that these rights are not eroded by anti-terror legislation. I don’t expect i was alone in being just as interested in keeping a watchful eye on the way the event policed as in the protests themselves.

I wanted to tell a neutral and balanced story rather than the sensationalist depictions the news seems to often produce. I wanted to see (and document) how the thing actually felt. If anything, I wish I’d spent longer photographing the peaceful and non-violent elements which made up the majority of the ‘protest’.

This was my first time. It won’t be the last. I hope you’ll agree that there’s always a useful role for neutral and balanced observers, who care about the rights of protesters. Even in protests they don’t necessarily even agree with or care very much about.

Were you actually protesting ? If so how about a discussion of the topics you feel strongly about.

I got the impression you were just looking for pretty/interesting pictures much like the rest of the media, and moaning about how long it took you to get home for tea, which I am sure it did.

I saw the video of the police at one end of the climate camp, and it looked very nasty and very disproportionate. And of course you hear the stories of people with diabetes dying because the police won’t let them out of a cordoned area.

I understand that these tactics have been very effective in stopping roaming gangs of vandals destroying shops etc. (interesting to see the man in the picture smashing the RBS window was surrounded by media. I can’t believe that they were trying to calm him down and get him to stop…), but there’s no doubt at all these kinds of tactics and levels of police response significantly reduce normal peoples inclination to get involved in public displays of politics. Our society can’t help but be the worse for it.

Only joking. That’s pretty ugly isn’t it? As ever, there’s a small minority of people looking for a clash with the police. The figures I’m seeing 2,000 people penned in to the square mile yesterday, and others citing 4,000 protesters, all miss the point that there are different levels of ‘protest’. The vast majority of people I saw had no interest in hurting anyone (or getting hurt) and the violent minority was just that. And generally surrounded by journalists. In fact, this guy sums up the situation quite nicely.