Weds 1st April: G20 protests - discussion, reaction and chat

[SpookyFrank]

I'm getting epically sick of the phrase 'heavy handed', which appears to be the strongest form of condemnation anyone in the mainstream press can muster. If I decided to go out onto the streets of London and start twatting random people around the head with a metal pole we can rest assured that the phrase 'heavy handed' would not appear anywhere in the press coverage of my actions. Heavy handed implies that the police had a valid objective when they started laying into peaceful protestors, and that it all would have been fine had they just employed a shade more restraint. In fact the police weren't being heavy handed nearly so much as they were being violent, scheming cunts who served only to create violence where there had been none to fulfill their own stupid prediction and justify their overtime bill.

 

[_pH_]

I'm getting epically sick of the phrase 'heavy handed', which appears to be the strongest form of condemnation anyone in the mainstream press can muster. If I decided to go out onto the streets of London and start twatting random people around the head with a metal pole we can rest assured that the phrase 'heavy handed' would not appear anywhere in the press coverage of my actions. Heavy handed implies that the police had a valid objective when they started laying into peaceful protestors, and that it all would have been fine had they just employed a shade more restraint. In fact the police weren't being heavy handed nearly so much as they were being violent, scheming cunts who served only to create violence where there had been none to fulfill their own stupid prediction and justify their overtime bill.

good post

 

[Cobbles]

i can't watch that again as it makes my blood pressure become dangerously high. outrageous behaviour from an out-of-control constabulary. i can't write owt else without losing it so that's it for me for now.

No worse, surely, than moving along cardboard box dossers - although at least they're not usually dim enough to attempt to sleep in the middle of a road.

Was this bunch of prats actually thick enough to believe that they'd be allowed to block a road for more than a few hours?

 

[_pH_]

No worse, surely, than moving along cardboard box dossers - although at least they're not usually dim enough to attempt to sleep in the middle of a road.

Was this bunch of prats actually thick enough to believe that they'd be allowed to block a road for more than a few hours?

shit post. fuck off cobbles

 

[N_igma]

You think now is the time for violent struggle?

Daft

Yeh, better time than ever. What's your alternative brummie boy?

 

[Intastella]

No worse, surely, than moving along cardboard box dossers - although at least they're not usually dim enough to attempt to sleep in the middle of a road.

Was this bunch of prats actually thick enough to believe that they'd be allowed to block a road for more than a few hours?

Probably not. But i bet turning up with tents, a kitchen and toilet facilities, in fact, everything needed to endure several hours of kettling quite comfortably, got right up the authorities noses.

'But, but...you're not supposed to enjoy being penned in!'

 

[Blagsta]

Yeh, better time than ever. What's your alternative brummie boy?

Armed struggle requires organisation, funds, people willing to die/kill/go to prison for a long time. It requires the support of a good section of the populace. You think any of that exists at the moment?

 

[laptop]

Can't believe people graffitied the sandstone of those buildings

Go back to stone identification school. I recall no sandstone in the area.

 

[Blagsta]

No worse, surely, than moving along cardboard box dossers - although at least they're not usually dim enough to attempt to sleep in the middle of a road.

Was this bunch of prats actually thick enough to believe that they'd be allowed to block a road for more than a few hours?

fuck off soft cunt

 

[Treacle Toes]

Can't believe people graffitied the sandstone of those buildings

By jove you are right...much better to make decisions that further plunge the 3rd world into poverty and despair...I mean, what wereeeeeeeeeeeeeee they thinking!!!

Oh but it's okay...we still have our internets to moan about it right????

 

[Bernie Gunther]

Probably not. But i bet turning up with tents, a kitchen and toilet facilities, in fact, everything needed to endure several hours of kettling quite comfortably, got right up the authorities noses.

'But, but...you're not supposed to enjoy being penned in!'

I thought it was actually a pretty good idea, especially as they were going to great lengths to push non-violence. If you're looking to win hearts and minds in the general population, then nice articulate middle class kids being kicked in the head by the cops for basically having an extended tea party are quite useful.

 

[_pH_]

I keep picturing the writer as that young tory boy who shacked up with Exodus for 3 days on 'life swap'...dressed in black with a shaven head, gingerly holding a spliff and trying to surrepticiously wipe the dribble off his bottom lip

I imagine a lecherous old man struggling to keep his beer belly from poking out from under his 4-sizes-too-small hoodie.

Penned in among a fearsome group of thugs outside the Bank of England, dressed head to toe in black, I was one of the mob.

Our faces covered with scarves and balaclavas, we were part of a surging wave of violence. Glass bottles, bricks and chairs went flying through the air.

If any charges of riot follow, i'm shopping the fucker to the old bill!

Srsly though, did ANYONE see glass bottles, chairs or bricks 'flying through the air'?

No?

Thought not.

 

[_float_]

...to fulfill their own stupid prediction and justify their overtime bill.

^^^this
...+ plus it is also their technique for clearing the streets:

beforehand: talk up fictional 'violent anarchist plots' to justify preparation of aggressive strategy and to prepare the media 'script' for the day

1. shape the crowd: break into optimal-sized chunks and hold in single location.
2. wear down and intimidate via shoving, batoning and kettling. provoke reaction to justify 'riot act'.
3. eventual controlled release of 'softer targets', force them to go home.
4. finish off remainder using baton charges, searches, id-ing and arrest.

throughout: manage the media 'story' to follow the pre-prepared script of 'unprovoked attacks on police by violent hard core intent on trouble' and subsequent 'necessary containment'.

Result: preventing people from choosing where/when/how to protest (frustrating people off the streets), intimidating people off the streets and for the remainder - physically beating them off the streets and finally arresting them (physically removing them into custody to take the off the streets).

Welcome to the new style 'British freedom' and 'British democracy', brought to you by unaccountable, overpaid, aggressive, macho cunts, their sinister pay-masters and their pet media.

 

[Paulie Tandoori]

No worse, surely, than moving along cardboard box dossers - although at least they're not usually dim enough to attempt to sleep in the middle of a road.

Was this bunch of prats actually thick enough to believe that they'd be allowed to block a road for more than a few hours?

that's so rubbish it's laughable. 0/10. could do better.

altho i said as much at 2.30 to my mate as we watched the peaceful fools think that this was as good as it got. and look where that got them.

 

[_float_]

Srsly though, did ANYONE see glass bottles, chairs or bricks 'flying through the air'?

If anything good comes out of this protest, maybe it will be the exposure to thousands of people of blatent media lies.

It is not just the lying about '1st April 2009' that is the big deal, but how many people will realise that if they have been lied to so blatently about this then how much of the rest of the news is utter shite? Also why exactly was the media lying and how did the process happen (eg which editors? which reporters? at what stage in the process?)?

It would be great if someone drew up a "bull-shitters list" - all the journalists who have written shite about 1st April, versus those who have given accurate reports.

For example, for the BBC Ben Brown was good all day, on the ground at the BoE, but by that evening his reports had been re-written and edited to tell a completely different story, parroted by the talking-head anchor back in the studio. It is unclear who exactly was responsible for doing this. There was also good live coverage for the first two or three hours, but 'co-incidentally' when the police started getting violent the coverage got really patchy and they just started showing pre-recorded and out-of-context clips on repeat, despite having a team on the ground.

 

[paolo]

1. shape the crowd: break into optimal-sized chunks and hold in single location.
2. wear down and intimidate via shoving, batoning and kettling.
3. eventual controlled release of 'softer targets'.
4. finish off remainder using baton charges, searches, id-ing and arrest.

Edited down to what I suspect the standard plan is.

You can protest for a bit, but after that you can't.

 

[_pH_]

but how many people will realise that if they have been lied to so blatently about this then how much of the rest of the news is utter shite?

very few i suspect

sorry to piss on your bonfire.

 

[_float_]

Thousands...

...who each know hundreds more.

 

[Paulie Tandoori]

very few i suspect

sorry to piss on your bonfire.

I'm not so sure.

I think it's incumbent on each and every person who saw what happened yesterday and today to ensure that objective and impartial observations of yesterday's brutality by the police is highlighted, is demonstrated, is proven.

Whether that is online, irl or chatting shit in the paper shop, we should not, as a society, tolerate such uncontrolled, unneeded and unecessary violence from people who are supposedly are tasked with protecting us.

 

[_pH_]

I'm not so sure.

I think it's incumbent on each and every person who saw what happened yesterday and today to ensure that objective and impartial observations of yesterday's brutality by the police is highlighted, is demonstrated, is proven.

Whether that is online, irl or chatting shit in the paper shop, we should not, as a society, tolerate such uncontrolled, unneeded and unecessary violence from people who are supposedly are tasked with protecting us.

I quite agree with you, but I can't thinking help that anyone who tries to explain what really happened yesterday to 'the man in the street' is not really gonna be believed. The attitudes of the mainstream media are just far too ingrained, and many of the public have too little understanding of the issues involved to take much of an interest. Sorry, I know that's negative but ime that's the way of the world

 

[shaman75]

Some video I took on the day. From the arrival from London Bridge to Threadneedle Street on the outside

Later there's some from the other end where protesters were again blocked off from the outside.

Earlier, I'd seen the police letting people out, but I could see they were then blocking them further down the road. i managed to get out the way i got in, through the side alleys.

This group then got bored of the riot police, pulled back and legged it down Cannon Street and HSBC got a window put through.

 

[Sparra]

Dispersal of Climate Camp - 1st April

When I was there at 7:45pm, people were still penned in. I went by the following morning and other than some grafitti the place was back to normal.

When and how did the police manage to disperse everyone, who seemed to be having an enjoyable and peaceful time up until then.

Sparra

 

[ska invita]

When I was there at 7:45pm, people were still penned in. I went by the following morning and other than some grafitti the place was back to normal.

When and how did the police manage to disperse everyone, who seemed to be having an enjoyable and peaceful time up until then.

Sparra

by the magic of batons and boots in the night

 

[Azrael]

If anything good comes out of this protest, maybe it will be the exposure to thousands of people of blatent media lies.

Very likely. Even bastion of hand-wringing 'The Guardian' has articles about "kettling" on the front page of its website.

On that matter, various news outlets said its legality was unknown. Surely it could be settled by detained protesters clubbing together for a class action suit of unlawful imprisonment? So far as I know unlawful imprisonment suits are still settled by a jury, which might not look kindly on the police version of events after this week's fiasco.

 

[agricola]

Very likely. Even bastion of hand-wringing 'The Guardian' has articles about "kettling" on the front page of its website.

On that matter, various news outlets said its legality was unknown. Surely it could be settled by detained protesters clubbing together for a class action suit of unlawful imprisonment? So far as I know unlawful imprisonment suits are still settled by a jury, which might not look kindly on the police version of events after this week's fiasco.

Its legality is not "unknown". There has been a lengthy case that went as far as the House of Lords that determined it is legal, and it is about to go to the ECHR where they too will probably find that it is legal.

 

[Azrael]

Hmmmm, the media's trustworthiness drops by the day.

Without going into a rant about the ECHR (I should hold off until Strasbourg give their verdict) did the case begin as a civil suit under the common law against unlawful imprisonment, or was it a Human Rights Act case from the off? If it's the former, that could explain the opinion that the lawfulness of kettling is uncertain.

Regardless of what the law says, I see no justification for mass-detention. If the law supports it then, as with many things, the law is an ass.

 

[laptop]

Its legality is not "unknown". There has been a lengthy case that went as far as the House of Lords that determined it is legal, and it is about to go to the ECHR where they too will probably find that it is legal.

It's not over until Strasbourg sings

And the Lords case, as I recall it, hinged on a lower court's deeply unsatisfactory findings on the particulars of Mayday 2001.

 

[agricola]

Hmmmm, the media's trustworthiness drops by the day.

Without going into a rant about the ECHR (I should hold off until Strasbourg give their verdict) did the case begin as a civil suit under the common law against unlawful imprisonment, or was it a Human Rights Act case from the off? If it's the former, that could explain the opinion that the lawfulness of kettling is uncertain.

Regardless of what the law says, I see no justification for mass-detention. If the law supports it then, as with many things, the law is an ass.

It was both.

 

[Azrael]

I see no mention of a jury in that article. Were the claimants denied a jury, or has even this exemption to the sweeping and unjustified removal of jury trial in civil cases gone?

 

[agricola]

It's not over until Strasbourg sings

And the Lords case, as I recall it, hinged on a lower court's deeply unsatisfactory findings on the particulars of Mayday 2001.

Not really.

At the risk of sounding like something of a troll, when the Police were able to produce evidence of serious disorder at J18, and the 2000 and 2001 Mayday disturbances, then the police case with regards to people detained at the 2001 kettle was strengthened.