Eideard

Daylife/Reuters Pictures

For years police have filmed protesters at demonstrations to identify potential troublemakers and collect evidence for prosecutions.

Now, with advances in digital technology and mobile phones with cameras and videos, ordinary members of the public are turning the tables on the authorities.

The issue was brought into focus this week with the suspension of two London police officers after footage emerged of apparent excessive force being used during protests against this month’s G20 summit in the British capital.

Video taken by a New York fund manager showed an officer shoving a man to the ground minutes before he died of a suspected heart attack. More film taken the next day captured an officer lashing out at a woman who was remonstrating with him…

The London incidents are the latest examples of how technology is being seized on to bring those in authority to account who might otherwise have escaped justice.

This may just force political uses and abuses involving police to be re-evaluated by the political hacks who set the standards for official behavior. Maybe in my lifetime. Har.

I still chuckle over leafleting a draft board in New Orleans during the VietNam War – offering counseling services to young men on how to beat the military draft. There were six of us. We were photographed and filmed by creeps from fourteen different agencies, ranging from the local Red Squad to Military Intelligence and the Border Patrol.