The heightened states of security trigger questions about our civil liberties and the functioning of our democratic processes. Increasingly crucial political decisions have been concealed or taken away from us. Whether it is the decision to attack the World Trade Centre, Iraq or London, the choices have been made long before without any of our knowledge. We only witness the results.
After President George W. Bush had visited London in 2003 -travelling with 250 Secret Service Agents- he welcomed the protests against him as a reassurance for the freedoms in western democracies. The police hailed its professionalism and protesters celebrated a 'resounding success' having walked along the police lines amounting to the biggest security operation ever seen in London.
Operation Sorbus took place between the 6-8th of July 2005 during the G8 meeting at Gleneagles Hotel, Scotland. The G8 is an informal but powerful decision making body with limited democratic control mechanisms and transparency. It met in a remote hotel, very difficult to access by large numbers of people (the train station was closed down), the hotel itself is obscured from vision by a metal fence and a forest, and as it turned out it was not permitted to take detailed pictures of the fence for security reasons. I was arrested in the morning of the 8th of July for taking pictures of the fence surrounding the Hotel. I had been on my own, photographing 200 meters away from it, had no intention of breaching the peace, and had fully cooperated with Stop and Search Orders (Section 44 Terrorism Act 2000) by other officers on my way to the fence having explained them my intentions of doing a photo project. I was released from custody at Perth Police station without charge after the summit had concluded.
One day later I returned to London and found the sites of the suicide bombings that had occurred only 2 days before hidden behind enormous curtains. The security officers in charge were not able to clarify if the purpose of the curtains was to secure the crime sight or to keep their cognitive impact to the public as low as possible.
Immo Klink London 2005
