The Germans protest against CCTV cameras

February 5 2013, 11:07 am

A few weeks ago, German activists started protesting against CCTV cameras.

Camover is the new game played across Berlin which requires participants to trash cameras in protest against the rise in close-circuit television across Germany.

Points are awarded for the number of cameras destroyed and the bonuses come when the method of destruction is imaginative. Concealing the participant’s identity is not essential, though highly recommended. Once the show is over, it has to be made public on the game’s website. This is quite challenging, as it is continually being shut down.

According to the Guardian, the use of surveillance cameras has become a thorny political issue in Germany. The bomb scare in Bonn last December, together with a manslaughter in Berlin’s busy Alexanderplatz square in October 2012, determined the interior minister, Hans Peter Friederich to call for “efficient video surveillance and video recording in public areas”.

The anarchist movement in particular views CCTV destruction as a legitimate tactic, and argues that it is not violence because it is action against property that infringes on individual rights, rather than hurting people. The game which started a few weeks ago will end on the 19^th of February, which coincides with the starts of the European Police Congress. Emma Carr, deputy director of Big Brother, said that “Vandalism of the CCTV cameras could easily have been avoided.” “Perhaps the Germany government should listen to their citizens’ concerns and approach the situation in a transparent and proportionate way, rather than ignoring their concerns completely”.

The Camover philosophy

“The gaze of the cameras does not fall equally on all users of the street but on those who are stereotypical predefined as potentially deviant, or through appearance and demeanour, are singled out by operators as unrespectable. In this way youth, particularly those already socially and economically marginal, may be subject to even greater levels of authoritative intervention and official stigmatisation, and rather than contributing to social justice through the reduction of victimisation, CCTV will merely become a tool of injustice through the amplification of differential and discriminatory policing.”

It is estimated that, so far, 50 cameras have been stolen.

What triggered this chain reaction is the interior’s minister reaction, Hans Peter Friederich to call for “efficient video surveillance and video recording in public areas”. The bomb scare in Bonn last December, together with a manslaughter in Berlin’s busy Alexanderplatz square in October 2012, showed inadequate CCTV footage. What was supposed to be a safety

The bomb scare in Bonn last December, together with a manslaughter in Berlin’s busy Alexanderplatz square in October 2012, determined the interior minister, Hans Peter Friederich to call for “efficient video surveillance and video recording in public areas”.

Surveillance operations conducted within legal guidelines

In order to be legally admissible in court, surveillance findings must be the result of operations conducted in accordance with The Human Right Act, the Right to Respect for Private and Family Life (Article 8.1), Regulations of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA) and Protection from Harassment Act 1997, chapter 40.

More information on this topic can be read on the Conflict International website, or by clicking here.