Pig's Eye in the Sky (From Modesto Anarcho #3)

A surveillence camera destroyed and burned out, on the 'Motorists Against Dectection' website.

This article appears in Modesto Anarcho #3, which viewed in secret here at here.

“We feed the spectacle poison, disguised as bird seed.” – Surveillance Camera Players

The central valley (of California) is coming under heavy surveillance. Surveillance cameras are quickly doting our landscape while more and more of our movement and actions are being monitored, taped, recorded, and watched. Stockton is now following Ripon’s lead of implementing surveillance cameras and is spending up to $1.6 million dollars (1) to put in cameras around the city (also known as Closed Circuit Televisions, or CCTVs), to ‘reduce crime’. The Stockton cameras are being put into public places like parks and in Ripon CCTVs are even over watching the skate park located right next to the police station. In Fresno , the city launched a massive effort to install video cameras across the city in the Downtown and Tower districts, with “[a] large part of the funding for this project com[ing] from a grant from the Department of Homeland Security, administered by the County of Fresno” (2). These two areas are largely poor, working class, and include a large amount of homeless people. The technology will be supplied by the PELCO company which is based out of Clovis California . The system is designed to interlink many cameras into one mainframe and store the film onto a digital format. This is the technologically most advanced system currently on the market in regards to video surveillance and has already been put into place in New York City.

Many schools in the valley are also becoming heavily monitored. In Fresno County , “the Fresno Unified School District (FUSD) has over 100 cameras on at least 15 campuses.” In Modesto , Modesto High School put up CCTVs costing thousands of dollars in order to stop graffiti artists, (as well as promising cash to fellow students who snitch on their clandestine artist peers). This of course is not to mention the millions of cameras that are in place everywhere in corporate chain stores (and other businesses) to deter stealing by costumers and employees. According to the retail industry, the threat of employee and customer theft to their businesses is very real. A 2002 study concluded that, “[businesses] attributed more than 48.5 percent of their losses to employee theft, up from 46 percent the prior year. Internal theft by employees cost retailers a record $15 billion” (3). In 1999, a report was issued that stated, “Shoplifting and employee theft losses totaled over $3.7 billion in just 32 U.S. retail companies in 1999. Only 4.41 percent of those losses resulted in a recovery…” (4). It is estimated that only 1 in every 160 shoplifters is ever caught and on average a shoplifter steals about $160 worth of liberated goods from any set business. Will surveillance cameras become a way of putting this joyful appropriation of goods to an end? Only thieves with a distain for the logic of capital and a desire to live by their wits will find out. Surveillance cameras are quickly becoming a solution to a rowdy school population that sees walk outs as a way to achieve social change and school property as less than sacred, and a work and consumer force that realizes the realities of class society and responds to it.

This increased control, surveillance, and monitoring of public space comes along with more and more of this world being built up and used for development in the service of capital. As people’s lives within the fabric of mass, alienated, overworked, and stressed out modern society become more strained, the fear by elites of a social breakdown becomes more real. With the technology at their disposal anyway, why wouldn’t those in power want the ability to see what is going on all the time? What the subject of CCTVs brings up is not one that can simply be described in liberal terms of “security vs. civil liberties”, but of who really controls public space (or any space for that matter)? CCTV technology also helps to decentralized authority, making every possibly place come under the watchful eye of the state or capital. Surveillance cameras, whether they are put in to deter graffiti, stop shoplifting, simply recording in public areas, or set up to spy on employees at work, should be attacked on all levels.

CCTVs Fail to Stop Crime

CCTVs are promoted as a deterrent to crime and anti-social behavior, although most people understand them to be what they are, another instrument in making sure authority goes unchecked in day to day life. As the Surveillance Camera Players (an anarchist/situationist group in New York who carried out various actions against CCTVs) wrote in 1995, “[C]amera[s] as used in surveillance systems monitors the actions of this populace to ensure that, if they react to the commodity in any subversive way (shoplifting, stealing from work, sabotage, vandalism), the "criminal" can be detected and that s/he will take his or her place as product for the crime control industry. Moreover, the detectable presence of the camera in the workplace, in stores, schools, city parks, street corners, even coffee shops serves to remind the individual that s/he is a citizen of a surveilled society” (5).

Like police themselves, surveillance cameras do not actually “stop crime”, but they promote the threat of force and violence (which manifests itself in the police) that elites hope will stop undesired actions from happening. However, in Europe where CCTVs in public areas are very common, many reports and studies have in recent years concluded that CCTVs in fact do not stop crime. In England , the “National Association for the Criminal Rehabilitation of Offenders (NACRO) said cameras had little effect on crimes against the person, including assault. It said CCTV was more useful for preventing property crime, including car theft and burglary. The NARCO report warned against over-investing in the cameras at the expense of "more effective measures" such as street lights” (6). In a recent London report issued on February 20th, 2007, the government study concluded again that CCTVs did little to stop crime (7). Similar reports across Europe, the U.S., Australia, and other places all have stated that CCTVs are unable to make any difference or change (8).

Abuses of CCTVs

To say that authority abuses it’s power is redundant, authority in itself is abuse. But, there have been some various instances that have shown that given the power, those behind the cameras will use them for less than ‘noble’ goals. In August 2006, the Washington Times reported along with the ineffectiveness in CCTVs being able to stop crime, abuses such as, “…a San Francisco police officer was suspended from the department for using surveillance cameras to ogle women at San Francisco International Airport.”, were taking place (9). There are many similar abuses that have occurred, many revolving around surveillance cameras being used to spy on people (mostly women) in stores changing or going to the bathroom (10). Almost all of these have been carried out by men against women and often involved police or store workers. This connection between sexual assault and authority shows again the nature of surveillance cameras in action.

In the film, “Still We Ride”, about Critical Mass in New York, filmmakers showed how surveillance against bike riders was a key part of the police effort against them. The film also showed how the police used the cameras (in one instance) to spy on a young couple making out while flying in a helicopter over looking the bike riders (11). It was released in 2006 in the UK, that “figures reveal[ed] almost half the number of people arrested in relation to car crime in London are black” (12). This is a result of police responding to car crimes reports issued from camera watchers. Racial profiling has gone digital! Unlike the blurry images of the CCTVs, what is clear is that surveillance cameras do actually what they are designed to do, continue the power and authority of those behind the cameras.

Poking Out the Pigs’ Eyes

“Only someone completely distrustful of all government would be opposed to what we are doing with surveillance cameras.” - NYC Police Commissioner Howard Safir, 27 July 1999.

But with all of this talk about CCTVs, the threat to the rebel shoplifter and graffiti artist, the increased surveillance in schools, work, and public space, there is some room for cheer. While the technology that makes CCTVs work so well is impressive, video quality is still very poor on many systems. Many outside cameras have been reported to have grainy and blurry images. Many cameras are sometimes staffed at only certain parts of the day, or in the case of some stores, only recorded onto tape, (to be watched latter in the event of a crime). This is not to say that video tape recordings should not be taken seriously, but simply to state that surveillance via CCTVs is not definite. Many CCTVs are easy to spot and easy to hide from. Cameras are also easy to attack and destroy, they are after all, simply plastic and metal.

Anarchists and others (mainly just angry everyday people) have been active on the front to attack surveillance cameras since they have been appearing in great numbers across the world. Perhaps one of the best known and inventive groups to go up against CCTVs, is the New York based Surveillance Camera Players. The Surveillance Camera Players, (or SCP for short), was a “anarchist, situationist inspired group” that would perform skits and plays in front of cameras, while talking and passing out information critiquing CCTVs. The SCP wanted to use the situationist idea of detournment (or taking something used by capital and changing it into a revolutionary message) to break up the boredom of everyday life and make people think. In an interview, SCP participant Bill Browne said this on the nature of the groups pranks : “First of all, we want to disrupt their everyday routine of people. And we want to show them that there is no need to be terrified by these cameras. Plus we want to show that not all protests are loud and boring, and that one can do this with a sense of humor and that individuals and small groups can accomplish a lot” (13). The SCP also did walking tours of New York, showing people where the cameras were located throughout the city and where they were hidden in the urban environment. The idea of performing radical plays in front of surveillance cameras spread to other areas and there have been SCP groups reportedly doing actions in places as varied as Turkey and Sweden.

Street theater of course has not been the only way in which people have sought to attack surveillance cameras. Sabotage has also been another tool used by those hoping to put a dent in the network of control. In 2004, a large CCTV tower in South Wales was torn down and burned by “vandals” (14). In Greece, various anarchists groups have attacked surveillance cameras, often times burning them, stealing them, or simply smashing them. One such action was reported in the U.S. anarchist journal Green Anarchy. “50 anarchists destroyed two surveillance cameras close to the Panteion University of Athens. Traffic was held up thanks to a banner reading "sabotage the systems of social control" while at the same time comrades were setting the camera control boxes on fire. The same cameras had been destroyed last January, but were replaced during the summer” (15). Actions in Greece have continued against the cameras.

In Britain, sabotage against CCTVs on the road has even spurred into existence a “vigilante group”, according to the New York Times News Service in Oct. 2006. “Among the ways that motorists have [attacked cameras]: spraying the cameras with paint; knocking them over; covering them in festive wrapping paper and garbage bags; digging them up; shooting, hammering and firebombing them; festooning them with burning tires; and filling their casings with self-expanding insulation foam that, when activated, blows them apart from the inside out. Visual examples can be seen on the Web site of a vigilante group called Motorists Against Detection, which displays color photographs of smashed, defaced and burned-out cameras -- pornography for the anti-camera movement.” The group’s website shows pictures of cameras burned and destroyed and can be viewed at: http://www.speedcam.co.uk/welcome.htm. In Wales, attacks on surveillance cameras have become so popular, that the government wants to put more cameras in to watch the original cameras (17)! In Scotland in 2005, police began looking for a man (presumed to be in his 40’s) that had gone on a graffiti spree in opposition to CCTVs. “Earlier incidents have seen him gouge holes in the walls with a screwdriver and attach stickers on its windows with messages such as "Stop Spying" and "No CCTV".” (18). Various sabotage actions continue to happen throughout the world.

While street theater, arson, sabotage, theft, and other avenues of attack are being used, various student and worker walk outs and wildcat strikes have also taken place in places like Canada, Australia, and Luxembourg (among others), all in defiance to surveillance cameras being put into work or schools (16). In an age where some workplaces are trying to get their employees to undergo ‘hand-scanning’ (19) and reactionary (largely) white and middle class workers are calling for systems to identify ‘illegals’ (20), surveillance and technology are fast becoming some of the most used weapons of the class war. A world in which immigrants, anarchists, and other ‘undesirables’ who could be tracked with a variety of cameras and identified through retinal, hand, and facial identification is possibly not that far off. If we do not take steps to destroy this system now, we will pay for it later.

Conclusion

“This campaign is ongoing and is being professionally organized via the internet throughout the UK and will be orchestrated by direct action to take out speed cameras!” - Motorists Against Detection

While the future of surveillance technology certainly is scary, I hope that the reality that everywhere people seem to be attacking it, is at least cause for a smile. It is impressive that across the globe people have responded with inventive detournment, sabotage, direct action, arson, student and worker wildcat strikes, and whatever else was at their disposal to attack CCTVs. The glory of these actions is that they show that a large variety of radical tactics can be used in attack and that they can be carried out by either groups or individuals. Hopefully, anarchists will include themselves in attacking the encroaching tentacles of the surveillance octopus. Until all the cameras are burned - let all your rocks fly true.

1.) Modesto Bee - http://anarcho209.proboards98.com/index.cgi?board=centralv&action=display&thread=1171062654 2.) Mike Rhodes, Central Valley Indymedia - http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2006/05/24/18250691.php 3.) Retail Industry - http://retailindustry.about.com/od/statistics_loss_prevention/l/aa021126a.htm 3.) Vault - http://www.vault.com/nr/newsmain.jsp?nr_page=3&ch_id=402&article_id=51941&cat_id=1342 4.) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/2192911.stm 5.) Surveillance Camera Players Website - http://www.notbored.org 6.) BBC News - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/2192911.stm 7.) This is London - http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-16856213-details/CCTV+%27does+not+stop+crime%27/article.do 8.) http://www.notbored.org/cameras-not-effective.html 9.) The Washington Times - http://www.washtimes.com/metro/20060813-121827-2123r.htm 10.) http://www.notbored.org/camera-abuses.html 11.) http://www.notbored.org/camera-abuses.html 12.) Times Online - http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article717768.ece 13.) http://rhizome.org/thread.rhiz?thread=1819&page=1#2722 14.) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/south_east/3676550.stm 15.) http://www.greenanarchy.org/index.php?action=viewactiondetail&actionId=622 16.) http://www.notbored.org/camera-protests.html 17.) http://www.notbored.org/camera-protests.html 18.) http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/edinburgh.cfm?id=2148002005 19.) http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/95380.aspx 20.) http://www.heritage.org/Research/Immigration/em999.cfm

More info: Motorists Against Detection: www.speedcam.co.uk/welcome.htm Surveillance Camera Players: www.notbored.org/the-scp.html Hot to Take Out CCTVs: aia.mahost.org/act_cctv.html