Photographers Protect Anarchists?

Last Updated on Sunday, 27 June 2010 20:07 Sunday, 27 June 2010 16:43

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I have been watching the destruction of the Anarchists unfold over the course of the last couple of days... from the safety of my living room. ( except for one excursion to the corner to buy some bread, which is were I captured these images.)

One thing that stuck me was the shear number of amateur photographers in the middle of these events.

It is easy to pick out the Pros vs the amatuers by their equipment and how they handled themselves.

I am wondering if the number of these "innocent" participants, helped the Anarchists evade police, and actually increased the violence.

Police, in the past, have never really had much regard for the safety of the "working press" in these types of situations... I thing there is an understanding about all the risks involved on both sides. Photojournalist seem to realish in the stories ( and this scratch was when my camera was thrown to the ground by the body guard)













The fact that there were a lot of GWCs ( Gawkers With Cameras) in the crowd, may have kept the officers from responding with the authority needed to quell things early.

Or the counter argument could be made that the GWC's kept the police from over reacting. At one standoff I saw, the police would have had to go through a line, several people deep, of GWCs in order to get to the "protesters."  Did this play into the minds of the officers in charge?

Does the ownership of a camera now give you special rights?  Does the expansion of digital cameras hurt or help in these situations? 

I am not sure where I stand on this...




I just hope that the GWCs bring forth some really good images to help show who went over the line on all sides ( I was going to say both sides, but I think this is an issues that has many sides.)