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Merrick
Merrick
2148 posts

Re: police thugs
Apr 07, 2009, 15:41
dave clarkson wrote:
I think your tone is incredibly patronising and condescending here and is a gross generalisation


in describing a group as large as the police force we are obviously all generalising.

However, there are certain things that remain true of their actions and role irrespective of their personal motivations. The application of whatever necessary force it takes to impose their will is one. The enforcement of whatever laws the present politicians dream up is another.

dave clarkson wrote:
There's some bad ones yes and I'm not making any excuses for those incidents which may eventually fall against them at G20 but you have to understand that there will be a few who lose their cool in dangerous and confrontational situations.


And I'm saying - for the third time on this thread - that it's not to do with 'some bad ones', 'mistakes' or 'losing their cool'. Nor is it just about the G20 protests.

It is a premeditated strategy of violence against unarmed and peaceful people.

They seal them in, baton the people at the edges, an angry and violent response is provoked, the police - better armoured, better trained, better armed and with the media on their side - win out, the media get the salacious riot story, everyone's a winner. (Except those whose heads were batoned, those who are intimidated from coming on demonstrations through fear of being attacked by police and those who expect the police to behave as protectors of the public).

The good, kind police you and I have met would readily be part of that. Not one of them would disobey the order.

The thing is, if you rounded people up and penned them in with riot cops, not letting anyone leave and not explaining why, batoning the ones at the edge, they'd get increasingly angry. Someone would throw something. If you used that as an excuse for baton charges and setting dogs on them, they'd throw more stuff. You'd get a riot. You could do that anywhere - a railway station, a football match, a shoppping centre, anywhere - you'd get a similar response.

it's happened so many times that it is impossible that the police haven't seen the pattern. That they choose to deploy in such a way draws us towards one meaning - they want that pattern. (Anyone who disagrees, please give an alternative explanation).

The problem they've faced with their incursions at the last two climate camps and again at the climate camp thing last Wednesday is that the crowd there don't behave like the mobs in the textbook. When police attack they neither disperse nor riot. They stand their ground militantly but refuse to be violent, even as they are batoned. You can clearly hear the chant of 'this is not a riot'.

Makes it harder for the police to justify what they do, and harder for the media to get their snarling mohican chucking beercans photo. when they moved in to clear the north end of the climate camp demo they were pressure-pointing the student group at the front, forcing fingers into their mouths and dragging them away by their heads. A chant went up of 'would you do this to your kids?'. Made a few look shifty for a minute, but none of them stopped it.

dave clarkson wrote:
I don't believe, as you appear to suggest, that they purposefully go out of their way to knock people around.


Watch this and say that again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlJRi7YR1bU
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