[Nettime-nl] Lachen met de 'Hoofdverdachte' ...

["Patrice Riemens" <patrice@xs4all.nl>]

http://rop.gonggri.jp/  (5 juni 2012)

Field Networking

Recently I hear from people that have gotten visits from the dutch FBI/BKA
equivalent called ?Nationale Recherche?. Apparently some of the people
that work there are making house calls while investigating ? I kid you not
? my involvement with the Occupy movement. As much as I feel I am an
authoritative source with regard to my involvement in anything, I have yet
to be asked any questions. So I don?t know how serious this is, nor
whether this is part of a broader investigation into me, into Occupy or
into something else entirely.

It?s probably nothing and I know I don?t have to, but I hope you?ll allow
me to use this space to clarify some things anyway. If only to preserve
precious government resources and to make sure other people don?t have to
be bothered answering questions about me anymore.

Dear people at the Nationale Recherche,

If you Google me, you?ll find that I like to provide internet to people
that would otherwise not be able to get online. You also might see that I
like to play with networking technology in field circumstances. If you
read some of the things I?ve said over the years, you won?t be surprised
to hear that I am a longtime fan of the people at Adbusters, a ?global
network of culture jammers and creatives working to change the way
information flows, the way corporations wield power, and the way meaning
is produced in our society?. They are the people behind the original call
to occupy Wall Street.

So when the Occupy Amsterdam encampment went up, I was one of the people
that went there to see if we could get a decent internet connection up at
the tents at Beursplein in Amsterdam. We found some generous people
close-by that wanted to share their internet connection and came with a
small assortment of crappy base stations. (We later upgraded to some more
suitable networking gear ? which by the way has come way down in price
lately.) This was absolutely not rocket science and I didn?t get much
involved in further organization of anything, mostly because I long ago
decided that direct democracy in an ad-hoc group is a wonderful thing that
I want to stay very far away from. As Occupy Amsterdam descended into
escalating chaos some of the networking gear disappeared, like many other
things that were there. I shrugged. Good it was so cheap?

So there you have it, dear people at the Nationale Recherche: my
involvement in the Occupy movement. Sometimes I find myself rooting for
the underdog and I think it?s only fair if everyone has a say, including
various fringe groups in society. I know a thing or two about field
networking and I sometimes like to help give a voice to various groups of
people that question the crumbling status quo. I don?t think of myself as
a law-enforcement priority and neither should you, really. We all benefit
if you spend your time investigating more important things, such as actual
crime. If you still have further questions, I?d prefer it if you just ask
me and not various other people, some of whom truly have not a clue what
my link to Occupy is. Also: if you absolutely must ask others about me, it
would be swell if you could refrain from threatening them or their
employers.

Thank you.

P.S.: To prevent the spending of further tax euros: I have also helped
transport a modest amount of internet bandwidth at the recent Ter Apel
refugee action camp to facilitate streaming audio from there. Please don?t
start bothering people about this when you become institutionally aware of
it sometime in 2013.



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