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Police brutality at protests
stirlingguy1
Posts: 7,038 Forum Member
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I was one of the brigade thinking that the majority of protestors at recent student demos were...for want of a better word...scum. However, having done some background research and watched numerous videos of police actions....all I can say, is Goodness me, the police need help here. Some of their tactics are brutal beyond belief.
Charging at protestor on horses, swiping at kids who get in the way (causing serious brain damage in one case), Tomlinson's death, "kettling" innocent people without food or water. The police need to change their tactics pronto.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/nov/26/student-protests-police-under-fire
http://www.sumpter.org.uk/tag/protest/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/sheffield/hi/people_and_places/newsid_9276000/9276699.stm
Charging at protestor on horses, swiping at kids who get in the way (causing serious brain damage in one case), Tomlinson's death, "kettling" innocent people without food or water. The police need to change their tactics pronto.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/nov/26/student-protests-police-under-fire
http://www.sumpter.org.uk/tag/protest/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/sheffield/hi/people_and_places/newsid_9276000/9276699.stm
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Comments
The more I see the less sympathy I have.
All I ever see is students whining and then acting all hard-done-to when they realise that a riot isn't a debating society.
Why do they all run TOWARD the mounted police?
Particularly liked the way some muppet was screaming about how the police upset the pregnant girl with him.
Who's idea was it for a pregnant girl to attend a demonstration that was likely to become violent?
Hear, hear.
Have you read the links above? As I stated, I agree there were some scum elements involved in the protest but police can't treat the peaceful protesters in the same manner. And I dont believe they "ran towards" the mounted police line when they were charging.
I think their tactics are by-and-large correct but not implemented correctly. By all means use the truncheons on the scum element but not on innocent, peaceful protestors and bystanders (cameramen included), You only have to look at videos taken of the protests to realise this happens (Tomlinson for example).
But pushing 17 year old girls into ditches and smacking photographers round the head? Were all the protestors on the march "whining little shits"?
Must admit, I don't agree with the entire concept of kettling.
It seems as though it was invented for the primary purpose of making protests as unpleasant as possible for those involved with, I assume, the intent of making people reconsider attending protests in the first place.
I can't help thinking that actual "crowd control" in order to keep the peace and prevent property damage is only a secondary objective of kettling.
Having said that, kettling is here and anybody who attends a protest should be aware of the likelihood of it happening so it's no good bleating about how awful it is once you're there.
Heard it mentioned a few times now
Just look at the hundreds if not thousands of people involved in the rampages in recent weeks, but oh no we have to focus on 1 or 2 officers wrongdoings instead.
You lot, really, haven't you got anything better to do? like smash up a war memorial or something?
1) The kettling only happened AFTER widespead trouble had broken out in order to contain the damage to 1 area and not let it spill out in to wider London.
2) The only people injured were those fighting near the police line, everybody could step back away.
3) They knew what they were getting in to and chose to go, there are other ways to protest and get your point across.
Yes. Yes they were. Every last one of them. Pointless protest. These people think they somehow have a right to not have to pay more when every single other person in the country has to.
I'm not saying the entire force used was justified. Of course, taking certain isolated incidents, you're going to get dick policemen. Taken out of context the incidents you're mentioning seem bad, I'll grant you. But when things are like a tinderbox on a march anyone can whip the crowd up. Age has nothing to do with it whatsoever. I'll wager a lot of the teens kicking Charlies car were pretty close to 17 too.
EDIT: Thine Wonk - hear hear!
Scarves over their faces in sub-zero temperatures in London... oo, I wonder
(Were I there, my face would have been covered. It's cold, and no-one wants to look at my eczema). And the day that you disagree with something so strongly you want to protest about it, you too will be a whining little shit.
And don't claim it'd never happen, unless you have a crystal ball of proven effectiveness.
Ok, perhaps whining little shit is a bad term for it. I'm grumpy, so sue me. But it's complaining about something without seeing any sort of bigger picture at all, just having a narrow viewpoint. It's selfish!
Antone who watched the live coverage last week saw who was causing the trouble.
It wasn't the Police that turned up and straightaway deviated from the agreed route. It wasn't the Police throwing snooker balls, golf balls, paint bombs, bottles, chunks of rock, and sticks. It wasn't the Police that caused 1000s of pounds of damage.
Confronted with what they had last week, they showed great restraint. Not many other nations would have put up with that without much stronger action.
I am clearly underestimating the thermal properties of a paper cut-out "V" mask. :rolleyes:
Agreed route on the NUS march. There were more protest groups than the NUS there, and quite a lot of "organically evolved" protests too (with no organisers at all!).
Who agreed their routes? If they didn't agree a route, why would they feel the need to stick to the NUS's route?
Deviating from "the agreed route" is simple civil disobedience, and I'm all for that. It's not an indicator nor sign of violence in itself.
If someones running towards me with a brick, and im in danger im going to batter them with my police baton as well.:rolleyes:
Did I quote "mask" or "scarf"? You'll note I removed "mask", because the thermal properties of a paper mask are indeed weak... however, scarves over the face have perfectly legitimate uses, especially at sub-zero-temperatures.
Was replying to something that wasn't there the only way you felt you could make a point to demonise protesters?
Well then they should not have been there should they? :mad:
I'm sick of all this crap about the police abusing people at the demonstration/riot as the poster above said "Then what exactly would you propose the police use... Feather dusters..or ask them not to throw missiles.. not to break windows or deface property, not to throw snooker balls and marbles under the horses feet.. not to confront passengers in cars going to the theatre"
IMO its time they got the water cannon out and started giving these little twunts a bath, some of them need pinning down and giving a haircut too!
Bloody students, if uni is too expensive then get a fuking job like the rest of us, we are all having to face harsh times in the current climate so get over it and move on, rather than failing badly to make a point to whoever your trying to make a point to, you have no sympathy from the taxpayers as your just wasting our money on the clean-up.
Also to the college brats moaning about EMA being scrapped...Gimme a break, when I was at college ALL this was used for was buying drink/clothes - if you want someone to argue/moan at why not do it to all those people that waste it or go to college just for the EMA not for the education.
/rant
Why ever not? It's their right to protest (not to riot, though).
Hope you never feel the need to protest - and don't say it'd never happen unless you have a functional crystal ball
It's not, but it does make planning for the inevitable violence much, much harder.
It is quite obvious that a good many such people turned up, as they do to any big protest, because they can hide within a big crowd, and cause havoc. Some such people are actually students too.
Any future ones will be even worse, and should be banned to prevent injury and major damage.
The original cause of the protests are pretty much forgotten, as all the discussion is about the violence.
Very true and I think a lot of the general public here are calling for stronger action. These protesters are a national embarrassment, and the fact the police didn't come down harder and make more arrests is my biggest concern.
We had royal cars attacked, Christmas shoppers frightened out of their wits, tourists frightened, property destroyed on a big scale and even a war memorial laced with graffiti and damaged.
My biggest concern is that this is the 3rd or 4th time we've had serious disorder and that tourists and Christmas shoppers will be put off etc
I really call for the police to come down A LOT harder and really show these protesters that enough is enough.
It's time for stop and search on everybody coming in to the area and charges for those with weapons or paint.
It's time for CS spray to be used more widely.
It's time for more grab squads to arrest those doing damage.
There should be 100's of arrests on these people.