Protest Demonstrations

[JustMe]

Not sure if I should tag this on to University fees or even Police threads so in the end decided to start a new topic. Mods feel free to move it.

 

Television over the last few days seems to have been showing a lot of footage covering demonstrations allegedly by students (and pre-students) protesting over increased tuition fees. Sadly it seems that a lot of thugs have also been at these demonstrations. Some looked rather old to be students. Some might have been rather young. Some were wearing jackets marked "Police".

 

Now I completely support people's right to protest. I even agree with protests that disrupt traffic in Central London. After all the Royal family do enough of that themselves. I do not agree with people causing destruction in the name of protest and I do not agree with protesters being violent. And, as we are not living in a country like China or Burma I do not agree with protesters hiding their faces. Makes me wonder if they have something to hide.

 

That said I do not agree with thugs brandishing batons attacking protesters. Saw some of that on the TV last night. Even though the thugs were wearing Police jackets I do not accept that they are entitled to use the sort of violence that would seem more at home in some sort of banana republic. And I do not believe that the Police in general preventing protesters leaving a demonstration is lawful.

 

Something has to be done and my thoughts are that we need Parliament to take a look at the laws governing demonstrations and to find a way to ensure that the right to peaceful protest is continued while the police are given some way to deal with troublemakers that does not involve police brutality, which of course goes back to the miners strike if not before.

[Guest posiedon]

I agree with your whole post but,

I do not agree with protesters hiding their faces. Makes me wonder if they have something to hide.

That bit most of all, it should be an offence to take part in any demonstration while concealing your identity.

[EM]

... it should be an offence to take part in any demonstration while concealing your identity.

Well, that would surely quieten Shetlink somewhat, given the high proportion of anonymous "huff'n'puff moaning" posts .

[Guest posiedon]

That bit most of all, it should be an offence to take part in any public demonstration while concealing your identity. That better?

 

Demonstration isn't a word I would use to describe debate on internet fora, and anyway a lot of folk on this forum I'm sure are quite well aware of who's who.

 

So I say again, taking to the streets while hiding behind a mask should not be tolerated.

[paulb]

so the police should be uncovered to help id them when they beat someone else to death. look at the injury figures 3 times as many rioters were injured as police.

 

totally wrong to resort to force. in fact if anything it helps the goverment. instead of the media studying the lib dem split they were more intrested in a rolls royce getting a new paint job.

 

strange again that the police did not know that there was a violent mob there. i thought london was covered by cctv. pity that they were not watching it.

[Suzanna]

I agree that protesters should not hide their faces, I see that on the news and it makes me think they are just there to cause trouble, and don't have a legitimate reason for being there, if they are serious in their protest why not show their faces?

[EM]

it should be an offence to take part in any public demonstration while concealing your identity. That better?

I wasn't actually in disagreement with your point. Rather I was proposing that the move towards anonymous moaning/demonstrating is a widespread social phenomena, and one I believe is particularly non-progressive in the case of so-called social networking sites.

 

... taking to the streets while hiding behind a mask should not be tolerated.

As with the burka debate, the problem ends up being how to discriminate between antisocial mask wearing and activities like UHA (which is, of course, the epitomy of measured probity ). A very difficult problem to arbitrate.

[KOYAANISQATSI]

Gibber[/url]"]Showing people passionate enough to fight doesn't always discredit them, unless of course the authorities want us to think that etc etc yawn

 

If it were made for television they would have organised the attack to happen at the Palladium(?)

 

Haven't seen any footage of them arriving at the Palladium but have read the tabloid reports of that old boot getting stuck with sticks, a windows on the limo smashed with a brick, a tin of paint that someone had for some reason taken along, kicks landed and a report of the motor arriving at the Palladium looking "bashed up".

Made for television but with little actually shown, while the red tops colour it in.

The poll tax riots were a scale up on what happened here. (real politics in action) This was just a group of people squished in until a few get pissed off enough to pan in a couple of windows while a dozen reporters get the story from two feet away.

 

Charlie boy was never under much threat. These were only students after all; putting up with bongos in his big ears is all he would have to endure.

Like the police van abandoned in the heart of the last protest with every camera on it, this was an easy enough shot to set up.

 

You could be correct that the authorities never try to manage public opinion on matters but you are of course wrong.

[Gibber]

You could be correct that the authorities never try to manage public opinion on matters....

 

No I didn't say anything like that. This event probably wasn't stage managed though.

[Mattie]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1337506/Tuition-fee-riot-Charlie-Gilmour-mob-surrounded-Charles-Camillas-car.html

Yawn.. The press like to crucify anyone concerned in the student protests..

Their trophy was Dave Gilmours son hanging from the Winston Churchill monument clutching a Union Jack!!

He also appeared aside the The royal car!!

[Mattie]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xDc8msxoWo

Maybe they should stick to home and go off hunting at the weekend!!

A few foxes need killed..

turd

They have to drag hunt now!!

[Pleepsie]

^^

 

It wasn't Winstons Churchills statue that he was defiling, it was the Cenotaph.

[ArabiaTerra]

I agree that protesters should not hide their faces, I see that on the news and it makes me think they are just there to cause trouble, and don't have a legitimate reason for being there, if they are serious in their protest why not show their faces?

I think the main reason the protesters were covering their faces was to avoid police surveillance. The police video everyone who attends one of these protests, peacefully or not, and they keep files on all the demonstrators, whether or not they break the law.

 

The most worrying thing I saw in all this was the police wearing masks and concealing their identities. How are we supposed to hold them accountable if they can't be identified?

[Seaflech]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1337506/Tuition-fee-riot-Charlie-Gilmour-mob-surrounded-Charles-Camillas-car.html

Yawn.. The press like to crucify anyone concerned in the student protests..

Their trophy was Dave Gilmours son hanging from the Winston Churchill monument clutching a Union Jack!!

He also appeared aside the The royal car!!

 

I don't think crucifixion would be an overly harsh response in this case, or at the very least a public flogging, jumped up little tw*t.

I'm sure that the dwindling band of veterans of the two world wars who were standing there a month ago would be delighted to see how much respect was paid to their fallen comrades by this oik, whether LSD assisted or not. Strange to learn that apparently somebody studying history at Cambridge doesn't know what the Cenotaph is - looks like his £9k a year could be better spent.

Mind you it was in the Daily Mail, I wouldn't believe the date on that putrid, hate filled publication

[Seaflech]

The most worrying thing I saw in all this was the police wearing masks and concealing their identities. How are we supposed to hold them accountable if they can't be identified?

 

I agree completely