>
> but my scar is from the 2nd March on the BNP
> HQ, the one where whilst we were surrounding
> the HQ and taking a pasting...
>
ooooh, i remember that one too. A group of mates and myself got separated from the crowd and wound up down a back street, crouched behind cars... about 6 of us... when a big crew of BNP-supporting thugs suddenly arrived on the scene. I genuinely thought "this is it... we're dead", but just before they laid into us, a big contingent of riot cops showed up.
i can honestly say i have never in my life been so glad to see the police. in the scuffle that ensued, i was saved by being dragged behind the row of riot shields by a policeman whose hand was bleeding. I remember him holding up his hand and shouting at me "And it was probably you who threw the bottle at me and all!" He was shaking like a leaf. Very potent image in my memory.
That said, i can honestly say that 95% of the other demos i've been on that turned ugly; got that way *because* of police action. And i have been assaulted by police officers for absolutely no reason on several of them. So this isn't a defence of the police. But that memory of being dragged to safety always flashes back when i see A.C.A.B.
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