Malmo’s Hackerspace attacked … collateral damage?
[by D. Cuartielles, the rest of the Arduino team might not subscribe these opinions]
During the weekend Malmo’s Hackspace was visited by the local police. The visit could be classified as “collateral damage”, since the reason for them being there (they say) was that beverages were being served during a punk concert. The hackerspace shares room with the rest of the community at the leftist association building Utkanten.
Also as a side effect the police took with them all sorts of gear. Some of it, as Slashdot comments happened not to be legal in Sweden. Who put those things there is not very clear to me, however legality within the EU is a very weak term, e.g. you could buy an airgun in Sweden, but not in Spain, you could buy spray cans but not transport them in a plane, you could buy alcohol in a supermarket in Germany and bring it up to Sweden -but you couldn’t sell it to anyone… the list is pretty long.
I am part of the activities being conducted at the hackerspace and that I don’t find anything being done to be even morally questionable. We -the Swedish hacking community- share an endless desire to play with technology and learn from each other and that is why we meet. Furthermore, Malmo’s hackerspace, as well as the whole Utkanten community pay the rent, and get along pretty well with the owner. On top of that, according to Swedish laws, it is allowed to serve all sorts of beverages -and charge for them- among the members of a club, like the one that was taking place during that evening when the police broke in.
The question is then … why did they come in and why did they take the hacker’s computers with them? Police is there to protect and to serve … all of us! So far there is no good explanation for the visit, and I doubt there will be one. We -hackers- happen to pay taxes like everyone else. As a matter of fact many of us are IT professionals, educators, freelance… with high tax rates. The hackerspace is our way of expression, of meeting up others with similar interests, and now these dudes came in to spoil the fun. You know what? Since we are in a free country, and since we haven’t made anything illegal, and since we are all “proper” citizens, we will keep on meeting, we will redo whatever they broke, we will repaint the walls, and we will even buy again the key-copying machines they took with them.
At this point, if I think about it, we should thank the Swedish police for bringing the hackerspace in the media, they just made us stronger!
December 2nd, 2009 at 11:59:21
Is that link to slashdot pointing to the right place? There is no mention of what was confiscated.
December 2nd, 2009 at 13:34:33
Malmo’s Hackerspace attacked … collateral damage?
Well, the hacker space in malmoe should move to a different location. Then, if the police make more raids, we will know for sure.
December 2nd, 2009 at 14:53:12
Jonathan: you gotta look at the bottom of the Slashdot entry and there someone commented with a translation of the Swedish police report where they state the list of items confiscated during the raid
December 2nd, 2009 at 14:57:18
Daniel: that is an interesting discussion, I am not trying to suggest any conspiracy theory here, I am more talking about the principle of innocence … if you are looking for alcohol you don’t confiscate computers or key-copying machines, which are not illegal in Sweden, either or.
December 3rd, 2009 at 16:23:44
Ah yes, the comment was collapsed down so difficult to spot.
December 8th, 2009 at 11:47:54
About time you realised whoever is in power is also making the laws to keep themselves there . The three principle arms of Government/Police/Courts should be totally separate . If they are not then you have a Dictatorship with the head dictating the policy to be followed by Politicians , Policeman and Judges! Politicians are appointing Judges and Police heads and controlling the money supply to steal by inflation.
You are in slavery ,whether you realise it or not. The police are lobbying Governments to get what the Police want. The Governments are controlling the Courts by appointments and agreements with appointees. They control your local councils by sharing money with them. They control companies by investing huge superannuation funds in shares .
The Government takes massive primary taxes on your earnings and then tax you again and again as you spend whats left . When you die they attempt to take all that you leave and your will is worthless if they write the law . They appoint themselves power of attorney by law and you can do nothing..
There is only one answer -remove the rot – however it needs to be done .