"ghoulish voyeurism"

Via Dan Gillmor, this post from the Guardian a few days back sheds light on questions about our privacy and voyeuristic impulses as mobile phones and cameras converge and proliferate.

In light of today's calls by British police for any personal photos of the attacked areas, I'm not sure I'm ready to dismiss a potential tool of citizen reporting that may help bring those responsible for today's attacks to justice.

Yet, if I had shared the experience of this Londoner in the aftermath of the the 7/7 bombings, perhaps I'd feel differently:

'The victims were being triaged at the station entrance by tube staff and as I could see little more I could do I got out of the way and left. As I stepped out people with cameraphones vied to try and take pictures of the worst victims. In crisis some people are cruel.'