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Space Hijackers Causing Trouble In Leipzig 1 - 4 Dec 2006 |
After an invite from German
anti-CCTV group Leipziger Kamera, The Space Hijackers pulled together
a team of troublemakers to head off to Leipzig for a long weekend of talks,
actions and a fair amount of drinking, ahem networking.
2006 marks the 10th anniversary of police surveillance cameras in Germany,
with Leipzig being the first to have CCTV installed. Leipziger Kamera
have been tirelessly working to combat the cameras, and critique their
usefulness, claiming that it has been proven that they do not combat crime,
instead just providing the police with a means of watching the population.
The UK, currently the most surveilled place in the world with one camera
for every 16 people, is testing out a number of new CCTV systems including
ones where the operators can talk back to you via speakers in the street
and ones which record pinpoint sound as well as images. Leipziger Kamera
invited the Space Hijackers to come over to Leipzig and give a number
of talks on English protest history and law, tactics of the Space Hijackers
and on developments in CCTV. We also arranged to organise a Space Hijacking
in Leipzig with the aid of our hosts.