kettling at peaceful protest - Birmingham

[chainpunch]

this is absolutely shocking couldn't find anything here, so:
quick overview of what happened yesterday, a peaceful protest was organised at Birmingham University . the event was to raise awareness of a number of demands by the group including; reduction of fees and an increase in bursaries, living costs & conditions and staff redundancies, pay ratio etc, to name a few (loads more check here: http://www.defendeducationbrum.org/our-demands/ )

what happened after ended in kettling, violent conduct by police AND the private security firm, culminating in arrests of around 14 people with hospitalisation's reported.

Suffice to say that reports of people smashing shit up was highly exaggerated by the Private security guys which resulted in the police being called. Shame on the authorities and the Dean at Birmingham University. Sickening.

 

[ddraig]

video from this page
http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/jan/30/student-protest-arrests

 

[SpookyFrank]

Not exactly shocking, it happens all the time.

OK, so coppers have been told to stop demanding that people give their details and pose for photos before letting them out of kettles, but there was never any legal basis allowing them to do that in the first place. They do what they like, because they've got sticks and you go straight to jail if you so much as look at one funny, simple as that.

 

[SpookyFrank]

It was a bit silly of them to mask up like that really. Masks are for when you wanna do something destructive or otherwise legally dubious, and you have a plan to make yourself scarce afterwards. If you're masking up just to get into a building and stay put, well that's just gonna give the plods an excuse to knock you about. And of course, they can easily surround you and make you take your masks off, which defeats the point of wearing the masks in the first place.

Not to excuse the police actions of course, but everyone has to learn the hard way that these are not school bullies, there's no teacher you can run and tell when they're mean to you. You have to know what they're gonna do, and plan accordingly. They will kettle you if you give them the opportunity, they will beat you up and nick you if you react to their cuntish behaviour in kind. There's no point just telling them that what they're doing is wrong, they know that. They just don't care because they know the rules don't apply to them.

 

[ddraig]

http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/students-were-on-the-warpath-again-last-week

 

[DaveCinzano]

Masks are for when you wanna do something destructive or otherwise legally dubious

If you think that, then you clearly do not understand the principle behind masking up.