Camera Wars

I've been thinking a lot recently about buying a digital camera. I would like to be able to take photos of friends and family. I would like to be able to sell some of my possessions online. However, I'm also involved with a group that monitors forward intelligence police officers (the cops who harass and photograph protesters), and one of the things we do regularly is take photos of them, and publish them on our blog.

Whilst I've been doing this for some time, either with a disposable camera, or my phone, this is really pretending, because I never get any shots which are decent enough to use. My phone camera, whilst claiming to be a fantastic five megapixels, is in fact, so slow at taking the actual shot as to be useless. And, I'm not good with disposable cameras – I either lose them, or I forget to get them developed.

Therefore, I have become increasingly fed up with pretend photography on protests, and would really like to be able to properly contribute to this part of the project. I have even got to the point of researching different cameras, and having a look on price comparison websites. However, there is one major problem. I don't want to buy an expensive camera only for the police to seize it in evidence and keep it for the next six to twelve months.

This may sound paranoid, but it is what is happening at the moment. People are being arrested for secondary picketing under the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992. This basically means they are being nicked for intimidating the police by taking their photographs or following them around. The police, not having a sense of humour, have failed to see the irony of charging protesters with what they've been doing to them for years.

However, there are currently six people on bail for this offence. All the people involved have had cameras seized as part of the evidence against them. Whether or not their cameras provide any concrete evidence is debatable, but the police don't like what we're doing, and want to cause us as much hassle as possible.

I therefore have a problem. Invest in a camera only to have it taken from me within a few months, or carry on with my disposable ones? It is an oddity, but I'm in the position where I mind less about getting arrested than I do about losing my possessions. For an anti-capitalist protester, this is a very strange position to be in.

Yet, there is a difference. I'm not concerned about losing any future camera in the street, or having it stolen. However, the idea of the police taking my camera makes me angry, and this is why it matters so much for me. It is not a new found sense of materialism after all. But I'm trying to avoid anger at the moment, so I think, for now, I'll stick to the disposable ones.

By Emma Apple