Future of Responsibility: Why did the London Tube lady ask JMac to stop video recording?

I blogged in outrage about the incident in the London Tube yesterday, that our friend Jonathan MacDonald JMac had blogged about. So briefly, an elderly man had his arm caught in the London Underground train doors, and after the incident, the station staff were not helpful to him, but abusive, threateniging, and even in the end, a platform staff member "Ian" suggested that the elderly man should be slung under an approaching train. Luckily JMac was quick eoungh to catch part of this on video, including the unbelievable comment of sliginging the elderly man under a train. 

At JMac's blog there are already several dozen comments and the story is spreading on Twitter etc - any of our readers, please do blog about it, or tweet about it and spread the story. As it happens, the unfriendly guy, Ian the Idiot, has been having moments of megalomania before, so he clearly is in some severe need of re-training to learn how to be a customer service person. But as I am still fuming by this injustice, I am thinking of the other Tube person, the lady who asked JMac to stop video recording. Why did she do that? Does she even have the right to do that? And what should we - as society - do about it.

Clearly then Tube Lady did not think, that a video recording of the incident would be useful. Useful for whom? to Improve the quality of customer service at the Tube? or actually, she knew that what was happening was not totally ok, and she and her colleague Idiot Ian, would prefer this evidence not be collected of his behavior. She KNEW it was not going to look good on any performacne review.

Isn't this EXACTLY the RIGHT time for all to start to video record? If someone in position of power, asks you to stop recording an incident. I do not mean nuclear secrets and areas where clearly it is posted that video recording is not allowed, like say the customs area of airports. We can see the signs. But there are no signs in the Tube saying you cannot video record. There are prohibitions that flash photography is not allowed, as the flash can blind a train operator just as they come out of the dark tunnel. But the tube is a public space, and people video record in them all the time. The London Tune is the worlds longest underground system, the oldest underground, and a very famous London landmark. It is popularly photographed and videotaped by tourists all the time. 

So now this Tube lady asked JMac to stop recording. JMac obviously a law-abiding citizen, followed that request. But what i suggest we as society should do - is in any such situation, we all should immediately take out our cameraphones and start to snap pictures of the scene - pictures of both Ian the Idiot and his colleague the lady - and yes, all others to start to video record. Imgine the Rodney King beatings in California over a decadea ago. The LA Police would have dearly wanted that the person stop video recording - but the police were abusing their power. We NEED to record such instances of abuse.

Furthermore - what would it say of the intent of customer service of say the London Tube or the famous double-decker busses or some department store, etc - if their stated policy is to explicitly ALLOW and ENCOURAGE the video taping of any incident in their public spaces? Wouldnt that send out a message loud and clear, that the citizens are explicitly empowered to record indicidents, and that no officials have a right to stop it.. and that the Tube lady would not have any authority to ask someone to stop recording?

I think this calls for some citizen revolt, don't you?

FOLLOW-UP, three hours later, the Mayor of London has weighed in, asking Transport for London to do an urgent review of this incident; and the first newspaper, Telegraph, has covered the story with interview of JMac. Communities Dominate! The fascinating part - The Tube "spokesperson" said "London Underground and our staff strive to provide excellent customer service for our passengers. We are therefore grateful that this incident has been brought to our attention."

What will happen to the lady who told Jonathan to stop recording? will the staff of the Tube be new trained to allow recording such incidents in the future, if the Tube "are grateful" that the incident had been recorded to be brought to their attention? I kind of doubt it..

Comments

[Berend Jan Hilberts]

Tomi, I agree with the outrage about the incident. However wanted to offer up couple of 'philosophical' counterpoints that I have not heard yet coming back in the discussion:
1. we all make mistakes from time to time - Ian did on tape, you did, I did. Most of these mistakes go unnoticed by camera and people can move on. Ian does not have that opportunity now that he has become a public symbol/target of a universally disliked anonymous authority (The London Tube).
2. This Ian guy is now nailed against a public wall of shame without being given the opportunity to defend his side of the story (what did the elderly man say to him? could have been innocent or horriblly insulting for all we know) and or explain his behavior (he just heard he was terminally ill and was taking it out on somebody? - probably not, but we don't know, that is the point).
3. The populace as big brother? The flip side of your argument is that we as a people empowered with camera's, youtube, etc. can use this not only for charitable causes (as this probably is), but also for much worse (crowd-paperazzi-ing is one I can think of quickly, but there are probably more). Where is the balance, the editing, the voice of reason in this if we all decide to film and post something that appears out of the ordinary and point the world's attention to it?

[cloud64]

Hi Tomi

Further to my Tweets to yourself.

Possibly you are seeing a conspiracy where none exists. I would expect that it is Transport for London (TFL) policy to not allow unauthorised video recording on their property. Though I can't find any policy relating to casual filming, you certainly need a licence for commercial shooting:
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/termsandconditions/10950.aspx

Such a policy is not uncommon, and I have certainly encountered it on Network Rail run stations (UK overground service) – media students have been asked to stop filming at my local station and informed they need permission.

If such a policy exists the woman would only have been doing her job by making a request to stop filming. Note: there's no intimation in the reports that her request was anything other than polite.

Moving onto to the bigger question about using our technology to film such incidents, it would be easy to follow the knee jerk reaction that in this case it was 'obviously' a good thing. I have some sympathy with this view but feel it is far from black and white, and is rather a very complex issue with no easy answers.

In the UK we complain about the excessive use of CCTV cameras by the government, being one of the world's most watched nations. We complain because we find this obtrusive and somewhat creepy, not to mention that studies suggest it does not work to reduce or solve crime. We do not like being treated like criminals by default.

If we turn this around, and it's us with the cameras filming the authorities, is the position morally any different? Does an individual going about their everyday job deserved to be filmed in case they make a mistake or commit an unfortunate verbal slip? Just because they work for something perceived as an 'authority' of some sort? Would you like someone filming over your shoulder when you make an error at work or lose your temper at someone else's incompetence (if anyone says they haven't done this I cry 'lier', even if they've not done it to the individual's face).

I believe it is important that people of all walks of life are held responsible for their behaviour, and we should especially expect good behaviour from those whose job it is to ensure our good behaviour. By the very nature of their jobs they should be held to a higher standard, the police in particular. Any double standard on their part seems more grievous because of this, but does it give us the right to employ a double standard right back at them?

I won't propose any answers because I don't have them, and am not arrogant enough to suggest my view might be the 'right thinking' one. I will say that, in this case, I am glad that the filming has resulted in a complaint against the ill behaved individual. But I also have some sympathy for him: for all his demonstrated faults, is public exposure and International vilification a just punishment for his misdemeanour? This is the sort of exposure that can lead to someone ending up in front of a train, at their own hand.

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I won't propose any answers because I don't have them, and am not arrogant enough to suggest my view might be the 'right thinking' one.

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About the incident in London Tube. I have heard about it but there was some additional information. As far as I remember this guy was a lil bit rude too.

[world-battery]

If we turn this around, and it's us with the cameras filming the authorities, is the position morally any different? Does an individual going about their everyday job deserved to be filmed in case they make a mistake or commit an unfortunate verbal slip? Just because they work for something perceived as an 'authority' of some sort? Would you like someone filming over your shoulder when you make an error at work or lose your temper

[world-battery]

Such a policy is not uncommon, and I have certainly encountered it on Network Rail run stations (UK overground service) – media students have been asked to stop filming at my local station and informed they need permission.

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Such a policy is not uncommon, and I have certainly encountered it on Network Rail run stations (UK overground service) – media students have been asked to stop filming at my local station and informed they need permission.

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I won't propose any answers because I don't have them, and am not arrogant enough to suggest my view might be the 'right thinking' one.

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