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“In the history of the VPD we have never done what we are doing today,” police chief Jim Chu said in a written statement.

What Mr Chu is referring to is the issuing of 35,000 posters which contain images of 104 “suspected rioters” which will be blanketed about the place by 150 volunteers. (does the figure 5 have a function here?!)

Referring to an earlier post about a panel discussion on photography and surveillance, we would have to wonder what the implications are now of having an ever-ready citizen surveillance system whereby we film each other incidentally and then convict each other by handing said footage to the authorities.  Is it that close-circuit television has come down off the lamp posts and into our palms? I wonder when built-in cameras will become part of the modified human body, carved into the top of an arm or behind the ear?

And what about the other purpose of this footage which might be to examine what took place in the context of where are living and what may have given rise to it? Is there to be any indictment of the politicians and businesses and multi millionaires who boosted that hockey match to the moon?  What about the role of “corporate” incitement? What would that poster look like? Pictures of logos, shoes, handbags, jerseys with big block letters that insist YOU NEED THIS!

I am not suggesting that smashing the place up is innocent or to be tolerated, I am suggesting we need to also examine the circumstances (i.e. the weeks preceding) that led up to it. How was the appetite created? To that end a team of neuroscientists, brain scans and behaviour experts might be more long-term use than 35,000 posters of the 104 suspected rioters. The creation of (irrational) appetite and what results from it begs interrogation alongside the criminal acts that took place.