Spotter Cards: What They Look Like and How They Work

Spotter Cards: What They Look Like and How They Work

www.guardian.co.uk

These so-called "spotter cards" are issued by police to identify individuals they consider to be potential troublemakers because they have appeared at a number of demonstrations.

The photographs are drawn from police intelligence files. This card was apparently dropped at a demonstration against Britain's largest arms fair in 2005.

The Met said: "This is an appropriate tactic used by police to help them identify people at specific events … who may instigate offences or disorder."

(visit the link for the full news article)

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/37b46b9c2846.jpg[/atsimg]

We are all guilty until proven innocent these days.

If you attend demonstrations, as is you right, you can end up on one of these "Spotter Cards" used in the UK.

I wonder if these are used in other jurisdictions? Since they're considered highly confidential we wouldn't have heard about them.

Looking at the photos they seem like innocent photos (as opposed to action pics taken surreptitiously in crowds etc.) and since they come from police "intelligence files' I'm guessing that it's somebody's job to gather these from various sources (such as twitter, myspace, online blogs etc) and put these cards together. I wonder if online opinions also become a factor?

So attending a protest is now enough to make you a suspect in our police state.

Too bad police "intelligence" (oxymoron) doesn't spend as much effort targeting the real criminals in society.
.

www.guardian.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 26 Oct 09 by Gools]

The real criminals in society are the ones that are paying the cops salary and sending in kickbacks so of course they want to arrest the law abiding citizens that are protesting the criminals in control of the world.

As I've said before on here, I now always carry a scarf or bandana with me if I'm attending a protest to avoid being unlawfully investigated or identified. People assume that everyone who chooses to hide their faces must be up to no good, but that really isn't the case at all - well, unless you are coming from Mr. "intelligence" officer's point of view where all those evil dissidents don't want to play Big Brother's ball...



Oh, the link from that article is also worth a read (written by person H on the card): www.guardian.co.uk...

[edit on 26-10-2009 by Goathief]

reply to post by Goathief


Do you not have to deal with laws against wearing "disguises" in public places where you live? That's a scary picture and surveillance tactic, I hope it doesn't catch on.

The principal Western Governments of the United Kingdom and the United States know that there is rising popular discontent in the masses and that it is growing.

Because the Shadow Governments and their attached Intelligence Agencies know their short and long term agenda they know there are portions of that agenda that is going to lead to mass discontent, disillusionment and protest and possible civil unrest.

It is in part why they were so keen to take the actions of 19 criminals never tried nor convicted in a court of law for there alleged crimes on 9-11 to start a broad War on Terror that was initially aimed largely culturally and religiously at the poorly understood Muslim East.

All the while they have been expanding and defining the concept of terrorism which strictly interpreted is using terror for political means but liberally interpreted can be conveyed to mean literally anyone who frightens you or the establishment.

The people of the West have been gradually and increasingly conditioned to embrace these notions on terrorism and terrorists and to fear the thought of terrorists.

Because of that terrorists can now be successfully defined as anyone unhappy and discontented with how the government rules us by fiat and decree.

People with independent, non-politically correct ideas and words, are no longer going to be viewed as part of a healthy and vital political debate that frames a democracy. They are rather instead thanks to this careful conditioning going to be seen as terrorists and troublemakers and people who mean to do harm to the livelihoods and security of the average citizen by causing chaos to the governments by voicing their discontent. Good citizens trust in the government and believe it. Bad citizens aimed at fermenting terrorism and harming the State and good citizens don’t. Good citizens never question anything that the government wants or tells them and always behave and talk and act like the government tells them. Bad citizens aimed at fermenting terrorism and harming the State and good citizens don’t.

One should consider and recognize this is what the vast majority of the population in America and the United Kingdom of been taught to accept and think.

The parasitical government knows it needs the host body to survive, that their jobs, that their paychecks, that their prestige and power and control are all intrinsic to staying in control of the government at all costs. The governments now basically exist for their own sake as their own entities and see the people of the nations they govern as a liability and impediment to their own continued rule and profit in increasingly deliberate ways and are responding with increasingly deliberate measures.

While I do not know what the solution to this disturbing trend is or should be, I do know it is a disturbing trend that the government will not correct itself since the government is only doing it in the first place to protect itself.

It is what it is people but I do believe the first step to really changing it is being honest with our selves about what it is and what it truly bodes for our future.

We are all going to be increasingly spied upon and at increasing risk of loosing our remaining liberties and freedoms for speaking out and challenging these trends. We all should be cognizant of that and make our own personal choices and commitments on how to respond to these trends based on that.

Originally posted by Goathief
As I've said before on here, I now always carry a scarf or bandana with me if I'm attending a protest to avoid being unlawfully investigated or identified. People assume that everyone who chooses to hide their faces must be up to no good, but that really isn't the case at all - well, unless you are coming from Mr. "intelligence" officer's point of view where all those evil dissidents don't want to play Big Brother's ball...

Personally, I always wear a Guy Fawkes mask whenever I attend a protest. It's not as practical as a bandanna or a scarf, and makes you stick out in a crowd, but it carries it's own political commentary.

I don't know how it is in the U.K., but the people on that Spotter Card would be pretty difficult to find in a crowd of protesters where I am from. Everyone looks like those individuals.

So, let's see...if you wear glasses, a turtle-neck, have a beard if you are male, or a Melissa Ethridge hair-cut if you are female, then you must be a troublemaker. Did I get that right?

Nice find Gools, that really disturbing.

Big brother is watching, and keeping track, no questions now.

Good god, how did I get on that card? No.. wait, that isn't me.




Seriously, this is no differant than what any other agency uses to spot people in a crowd. If you don't want to be spotted or stand out, use latex prosthetics and makeup, not a mask. They would never be able to identify you that way, but you won't be obvious.

reply to post by Gools


Well let's just say if I were to encounter photogaraphs; C, M, F, Q, I and U I would be arresting them on site. They look a bit surly to me.

I'll take the flame here but to me they just look like hooligans, the whole lot of them. Protesting is fine but I'm sure their respective pictures haven't been circulated because they were just peacefully holding a sign.

hmph lotsa sympathizers around here. Yup everyone's out to get ya!

Becker

reply to post by Becker44


Ah looks can be deceiving! In fact my friend, you just identified all the under cover operatives working for various State, Federal and Local Law Enforcement agencies placed on the card so protective eyes can be kept on them at all times. You know in case their fellow protestors take objections to their provocative acts!

Every been to a motor cycle clubs charrity rides? Some of the surliest looking charachters with a heart of gold who would pull every dime out of their pocket to help your disabled child that needs an operation.

Oh well one less thing to itemize on the property report huh?

reply to post by ProtoplasmicTraveler

you just identified all the under cover operatives

LOL Outstanding Proto you made me laugh.

Paperwork aside (UGHH!) protestors from the far left just always seem to have a certain look/definition. Primarily under 30, questionable hygiene, and a proclivity to just want to push things a little too far.

Becker

reply to post by Becker44


Good my friend Becker tis nice to see you have a sense of humor.

You obviously have never had a child come home with a pierced lip with a ring in it and say "But mom said I could". (The problem here is we continue to breed when it's obvious at this point we need to stop and just let the race die out!)

The reality is the people you are profiling are simply "Reckless adventurers playing into the hands of the existing order" Chairman Mao

For some strange reason everyone who wants to save the world wants to remake it over in some bizarre fashion image and hair style!

Can you imagine that motely crew making the trains run on time!

Person "L" truly looks like the face of domestic terrorism. He also looks like Ronald McDonald without the make-up. I will no longer sit idly by and let McDonald's incite riots and violence in our midst.

Yes, that was a sarcastic response to the idiocy of cops. We should stop calling them law enforcement and give them a new name... Obedience Enforcement.

reply to post by Becker44


I honestly don't see the least bit of evidence in the opening posts about this story (from the UK) that has ANYTHING remotely to do with the left/right, republican/democrat, red cola/blue cola political divide of the moronic masses that you seem to be slavishly clinging to like some kind of security "blankie".

Besides that, didn't your mama teach you not to judge a book by it's cover?
.

[edit on 27 Oct 09 by Gools]

reply to post by Gools

So attending a protest is now enough to make you a suspect in our police state.

Too bad police "intelligence" (oxymoron) doesn't spend as much effort targeting the real criminals in society.

Being American, I am not well informed as to the relationship between the people and the police in the UK.

I am interested to know what kind of relationship they have. Do people look up to the police?

Furthermore, I have read over the years about the cameras and several other tactics police are using in the UK.

Are the overwhelming majority in favor of spotter cards, surveillance cameras, and other ways police are gathering info on ordinary law abiding citizens?

If not, are you aware of what people are doing about these issues?

[edit on 27-10-2009 by jam321]