When Small Parts of Reality are Revealed
Claire Berlinski, Ed. ·
Aug 14, 2011 at 9:01am
I shot this video a few hours ago. There's a story behind it--an interesting one--but I want to understand it better before I make any pronouncements about it.
For now, one thing struck me: If you had asked me, "How many of the ordinary-looking people around you are plainclothes cops?" I would have said, "a ton of them, for sure." But when you see them materialize--that one? Seriously?--you realize how little your sense of what you feel you're looking at corresponds to what's actually going on around you.
You'll also note the obvious differences between Istanbul's approach to policing and London's.
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Aug '11
Re: When Small Parts of Reality are Revealed
I don't know what it is I just watched. There's just surging of people among families carrying their children? What is this?
EDIT: I mean, I get that's it a group of people in Turkey confronting police. It's more like I don't know enough about Turkey or where you shot this video to understand this.
Edited on Aug 14, 2011 at 9:17amAug '11
Re: When Small Parts of Reality are Revealed
Double Post
Edited on Aug 14, 2011 at 9:17amOct '10
Re: When Small Parts of Reality are Revealed
Not sure “policing” is the right word for what happened in London, Manchester, Birmingham, etc. “Observing” with occasional attempts at “redirecting” is closer. Is it safe to say the Turks have a different idea of "community outreach" than the Metropolitan Police?
Re: When Small Parts of Reality are Revealed
I know--there's a story here that needs to be told, but I don't want to tell it before I've got a better idea, myself, of what happened and why. It involves a protest that the police didn't want to happen. They were out in force in case the protesters showed up. What you see happening is a cat-and-mouse game between the protesters and the police.
Mar '11
Re: When Small Parts of Reality are Revealed
I could not figure out the video either.
Re: When Small Parts of Reality are Revealed
Yes.
Apr '11
Re: When Small Parts of Reality are Revealed
Hey, was that James Lileks at 0:22?
Sep '10
Re: When Small Parts of Reality are Revealed
Apparently, the Claire Berlinski approach to policing cats is even more lenient than the London constabulary. If this is the best you can do, I regret to say you will not have my vote for Evil Overlord of the Solar System.
Nov '10
Re: When Small Parts of Reality are Revealed
You're going to have to help us out a bit more, Claire. I've watched twice and I'm not clear about who you are marking as a plainclotheman. The guy in the striped shirt? The overweight dude? The couple of people talking on cell phones early in the clip or the one with a wire or string down his neck that could have been from an ipod, phone or simply glasses?
Not understanding Turkish phrases doesn't help us.
My only comment is that it looks like proactive work by the police. It's nice to see them on top of this sort of thing. But there's no clear indication to me whether this is a suppression of peaceful protest or a crackdown on a dangerous mob: context may be important and the distinction between the two can escape the uninformed viewer.
Jul '10
Re: When Small Parts of Reality are Revealed
I think I saw two Women, including You makes three. Are there any more in Turkey?
Re: When Small Parts of Reality are Revealed
Well, the interesting thing about this situation is that it isn't clear to the informed viewer, either. I'm going to try to explain this story after doing more research, but it was suppression of a peaceful anti-government protest--by the Fenerbahce football club--that might have turned into dangerous mob. The protest had been banned, but some of the protesters came in ordinary clothes just to mill around and let the cops know that they had the right to be there. Cops had been blocking their access to the street and keeping them from the square. Then the rival club, Galatasaray, showed up in force, wearing their team colors and obviously trying to get a brawl started. As far as I know, they didn't ask for permission to demonstrate, like Fenerbahce did--they just showed up. I'm trying to figure out whether their arrival was a deliberate provocation.
Re: When Small Parts of Reality are Revealed
There are, but that was a pretty masculine scene. Football and cops are not where you see tremendous advances in gender integration here.
Re: When Small Parts of Reality are Revealed
For background on the politics of this, see this piece.
Jul '10
Re: When Small Parts of Reality are Revealed
"And what better symbol of Turkey’s devolution toward dictatorship than the fact that none of the media reported the demonstrators’ demand for the government to step down but mostly said it was just a protest against the match-fixing allegations."
"Move along... Nothing to see here, folks.... "
Aug '11
Re: When Small Parts of Reality are Revealed
Lost internet because of terrible storms in Virginia. Just wanted to thank you for the clarification and commend you for the boldness to film something like this. I'm surprised they didn't harass you or try to apprehend the footage.