The British bobby has a fine reputation for needlessly cracking heads and turning a bad situation into an even worse one and next week will give ample opportunity for our marvelous bobbies to batter a few more protesters about the head and legs as the G20 leaders visit our shores.
It is as certain as a newspaper publishing photo of Prince Harry falling out of a club drunk sometime before Easter that we will be seeing scenes of rioting on the streets of the capital next week.
Banks and Building Societies are closing for the duration of the G20 visit and workers at the City's financial firms are being told to dress down if they must turn up at all because of fears for their safety.
Of course it is all wrong and violence is never right, and i say that as someone as opposed as the next person to the massive payouts of my tax to firms that then go and hand it over to their workers in bonuses, the very same people who messed up so badly that got us into the problem in the first place. If i wasn't such a pillar of the community i would be hoarding the most throw able rocks i could lay my hands on to brain a few bankers myself.
I might not agree with their methods for showing their anger at the very people whose fault it is but who continue to pocket large sums of cash as everyone else loses their jobs, homes and savings, but i do understand why they feel they need to vent their spleen.
The usual rioting suspects will be there, the people who would have protested anyway and got a baton around the head by some policeman unaware that a camera was filming him, but the hordes will be swelled by people that frankly have little else to do next week because it isn't as if they have a job to go to anymore.
Although i can't condone the violence, i doubt if too many people will tut to loudly or shake their heads too fiercely if Barclays or Lloyds end the day with a few smashed windows or a few bankers are forced off the streets for a few days. Things could be very much worse for them if it wasn't for the thin blue line armed with tear gas, riot shields, batons and an unhealthy disposition to hit people stood in front of them.
5 comments:
ha ha Lucys back and swinging as if she had never ran off and left us. Welcome back girl, i missed your view of current events.
As for the riots next week, hell yeah it is all going to kick off as it would have done anyway and it will be larger than expected because everyone is so pissed at the leaders and the bankers and banks. Although violence can never be justified, i wont tut at all or shake my head when the banks get attacked as they surely will.
the thin blue line armed with tear gas, riot shields, batons and an unhealthy disposition to hit people stood in front of them.
We have seen many times from the mining protests in the 80s to the police action at the airport demonstration last year that the police enjoy this part of their job too much. I can hear the inevitable protests of police brutality even before it all kicks off. Keep it up Lucy.
I don't work for a bank, but I work nearby to quite a few of them... and our company is already advising us to work from home on Weds & Thurs this week. This slightly offends me, really. Cos that's how the terrorists win, remember?
Anyway, speaking of the 'usual suspects', the guy they're all talking about is this 66 year old Professor of Anthropology, Chris Knight, with all his big talk of causing a riot and all... He strikes me as a professional rabble rouser, never happier, or more self-important, than when he's got something to bitch about.
(Granted we've been doing a good job lately of giving him something to bitch about).
I agree with his right to protest of course, but I also support his right to get a good crack across the skull if he steps out of line during the march.
If someone is trying to lob a scaffold pole through the window of McDonalds then i have no problem with the police bashing him about with their batons. What we usually see is the police beating back the crowd with batons and thats not on and just inflames things.
Well, at the time of writing (Thursday morning) I think the police have acted with admirable restraint. While some have criticised the 'hemming in' tactic, it can't be easy having to deal with scores of people who turn up just to provoke a reaction from them. The way some of those pikeys were behaving, I don't know if I could have responded so sensibly...
I think the Police tactics of hemming the main protest into Threadneedle Street was the right one and the fact that they kept their batons down was a contributing factor that it all passed off peacefully.
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