When images rule the earth

Happy slapping banned in France - five year's inside for posting the material on the internet. South Yorkshire police go into meltdown over CCTV footage of a beating being made public. (Having spent half the 1990s dealing with that particular branch of the "service", I can't say I'm very sympathetic to them on this occasion.) In my neck of the woods, a typical Friday afternoon at the mall involves taking cellphone snapshots of women in defiance of new laws, to exchange with other leering men.

This follows hot on the heels of the conviction of chanting loon Abdul Muhid for soliciting murder (i.e. chanting anti-British slogans on a demonstration). While his words will get him some jail time, his earlier actions - smashing a Walthamstow bus shelter - netted a fine that was less than the value of the damage to the shelter itself.

How are we to make sense of all this? Where's Jean Baudrillard when you need him?