Well not unless you fancy an 8 hour stay in the local nick 🙁

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/feb/21/photographer-films-anti-terror-arrest

Interesting story, but a 10m video FFS???

Freedom, whatever happened to it?

fair question epicyclo…

atleast we dont have to ask where weirdo photographers are…

under discussion here earlier

this sort of thing really boils my p1ss – fair enough the powers-that-be need to be vigilant etc but there just seems to be a complete lack of common-sense / discretion on the part of the police. It's not the first incident either…

photographer arrested for being 'too tall'

another example of someone being followed whilst taking pics

more on photographers rights

a girl trying to take her case to the high court

I;m sure there are plenty more examples…

The difficulty is that at the same time you've got this case here – 'Al-Quaida' pair arrested taking pics…

Or overzealous power mad coppers either. 😐

If there'd been a terrorist attack, you'd all be saying 'the coppers are useless, they were stood around taking photos of the target all day and no-one stopped them!'

Molgrips, I suggest you look up 'Google Earth', then stop sounding like a prat.

Molgrips, I suggest you look up 'Google Earth'

+1 (at least in London). It would be all of 2 minutes work to get pictures of the tube entrances etc on street view without the need to be caught on cctv or pestered by the rent-a-cops.

I have watched the video. Just unbelievable.

If there'd been a terrorist attack, you'd all be saying 'the coppers are useless, they were stood around taking photos of the target all day and no-one stopped them!'

I guess that's the problem, there will be a lot more idiots standing around saying that than not so that's what becomes important rather than any attempt to maintain some level of civil liberties.

Personally I think these steps are absolutely ridiculous, just like so many other steps that have restricted our freedom, this will make zero headway into 'the fight against terrorism'. to paraphrase Dara from Mock the week a while back, 'when we can't take photographs without being hassled by policemen, we've *lost* the war on terror'.

Molgrips, I suggest you look up 'Google Earth', then stop sounding like a prat.

Umm, what if you want to see the fronts of buildings where there's no street view?

And I am playing devil's advocate clearly – can't you tell? Whilst I do make a serious point, in this instance it was clearly ridiculous.

Can anyone explain to me why a terrorist would need to take photos of a building anyway?

People have gone mad lately, I remember one mate of mine being worried about taking a flight on the aniversary of the 7/7 bombings, as though al quieda were radical numerologists or something.

or… just don't go to Accrington.

The cops were right to be suspicious,imho there's nothing worth photographing in Accrington.