What does a video about Hurricane Katrina have to do with London:

1) London’s levee system is mentioned at the end of the video
2) I’m moving from London to New Orleans on Monday
3) Londoners watch Youtube (if you click through to the video on youtube and watch and comment, the video will rise to the top thus highlighting the fact that what happened in New Orleans after Katrina was a man-made disaster).

Stoke Newington is CRAWLING with police this morning. You’ve never seen so many police. All over the frigging place.

“What are they doing?”, you ask. Busting a major crack ring? On the trail of a terrorist cell?

Nope.

Catching cyclists.

Yep - you heard me right. They have Stokey on lock-down so that they can bust people for riding down alleys without dismounting, running red lights, etc.

OK - bad cycling annoys me as much as the next person. I can’t stand the little toads that ride at speed down the pavement - I just shout at them: “are you too frightened to ride on the road?” And running a red light when there are pedestrians around is a no-no for me too.

But seriously - a police crackdown, utilising this many officers to catch a few mildly anti-social cyclists is just absurd. Is this what I pay them for?

A friend of mine was fined £30 by a copper the other day. The crime: going across the pavement with his bike in order to lock it to a railing. He freewheeled the bike, standing on the pedal, like you do. Result a £30 fine. Frigging ridiculous.

So - the question is: now that cycling has begun to really take off as a form of green, healthy transport for Londoners (post-Olympic effect too), who has ordered the police to crack down on cyclists in this absurd manner?

Hey police cadets - looking forward to a glorious career of hassling cyclists?

I’m digging this subversive little sticker I spotted on a wall in Upper St, Islington last night

Makes me want to go and look up the facts about the information that TFL gathers about my movements. That’s TFL plus any government/council busybody or their mates. And, no doubt, the police.

If you can’t make out the URL on the sticker, it’s:

http://www.neoexternalism.co.uk

Intriguing!

This film was released one year ago in Brazil and before going to the movies, half of Brazil had watched it because some guys from the company that put the subtitles in English, pirated it on the internet. [There was actually a big gaffe when the Brazilian Minister of Justice said he had watched it before the official release].

I was surprised to see the banners in the underground this week, because being Brazilian, everyone always used to comment about “City of God” to me and I always recommended this film, but no-one [except Brazilians - who have at least one geek friend who could download the movie from the internet] had ever heard of it.

If you liked “City of God” and you like blood and violence, this one is definitely a must-see. While “City of God” shows how life and crime in favela are from the favelado’s perspective, this film shows how is the favela from the police’s point of view.

This film will be officialy released in the UK this Friday.

Patrick reminds me that crime was a big issue in the mayoral race. Crime? What crime?

Living in Covent Garden, I sometimes get lulled into a false sense of security. The Belarusian lives down the street from me. Last week I get a frantic call from her saying that her flat has been broken into. The picture is her door after the break in. Maybe Covent Garden isn’t so safe after all. I’m getting all paranoid.

A few nights ago I was hanging out with the Bro-in-Law and the Belarusian. They were primping themselves to go out to Torture Garden, as you do on a Friday night. “How are we getting there?” she asked. “By tube,” he responded. I asked if it was safe to go by tube, you know, dressed like that. I mean, I don’t mind that they dress in leather and rubber, but some people might take offense and be uncool about it. Like, maybe they might forget that we live in a free society.

The Bro-in-Law assures me that it will be fine. He tells me of a time when he was visiting friends in my hometown of New Orleans and he rode the bus from the airport to Uptown. I gasped in horror just as his friends must have. He said he didn’t have a problem. People were real friendly and helped him to get to his destination safely. “If you are cool with people, they will be cool with you.”

I’m always walking around Covent Garden like I own the place. Hey, I pay my taxes, and I’m never rude unless someone litters in front of me. But alone, on the two-block walk home, I start to feel paranoid. I could get done at any moment, I think. But then I turn the fear into something like exhilaration. It’s the fear that destroys the freedom inside. And, I want to enjoy my walk without getting all frantic. It’s a beautiful night, and the tourists in the market are drunk and in love.

Maybe this is what freedom feels like.

I just had to follow up Daneeta’s great post with this snarky rebuff from  illegalphotos on Flickr .

 Thanks also to padster who mentioned this in the comments. We’ll try to get you some engaging content ASAP!

This is part of the new anti-terror campaign launched by the London Met (thanks to Boing Boing). Being a filmmaker, I’m constantly taking pictures of odd things. I know my filmmaker mates do the same thing. Now, I’ll be wondering if I look odd. It’s all a bit “1984″ for me.

I have a filmmaker mate who’s of Pakistani descent. Carrying a load of fake guns on the bus is probably not a good idea, but he just didn’t think it was gonna be a problem. He had to get to the shoot (the film shoot, that is), and he didn’t have enough money for a taxi. This was before…well, before it all went a bit pear shaped.

I don’t want to be spying on my neighbor because they all look a bit odd. How the hell am I supposed to know what’s really odd?

Some kids who stole/bought a stolen laptop from Topshop at London Fashion Week have unknowingly had their photos uploaded to Flikr by the laptop’s photobooth software.

Check out the photos here and see if we can’t squish these thieves.

OR it’s a cheap marketing ploy from Topshop, in which case I will pee in their fitting room since viral marking irritates me.

Hey kids, don’t steal!

I’ve been away for a long time and apologise profusely.

Right to the gripe of the day. A few days ago coming back into our great city some kids sat nearby on the train and started to play friggin’ tinny R ‘n’ B on their mobiles. What the F***?. I needed peace and a bit of respect and did I get any? Like F*** I did. Whatever happened to using earphones? Mind you theres a generation comign along with hearing problems from when walkmans really took a grips long before white took over and everyone had to have an iPod. Right, time top get my pipe and slippers.

Night all.