Thursday, April 16, 2009

I'm shocked, simply shocked...

...that people can pretend to be shocked at the police assaulting members of the public - some protesters, some simple passers-by - at the recent G20 demonstrations in London. Of course the police beat people up! Given the mix of testosterone-filled males, truncheons, and de facto legal immunity, what other outcome could anyone possibly expect? I don't even see that the current crop of videos show anything particularly egregious - of course it's unfortunate that one victim died, but that was obviously a bit of bad luck - even if they did beat him up gratuitously it's not as if they actually shot him for carrying a table leg or being the wrong colour, or deliberately ran him down at high speed with a car. The miners' strike was another glorious example of policing at its finest, and those with long memories will recall the Birmingham Six appearing in court bloodied and bruised after their "interviews". It's always happened, and always will. So why the faux outrage now? I'm genuinely puzzled.


1 comment:

Alastair said...

The bloke who diesd was only pushed (rather hard) by a police man because is was dawdling in front of the advancing police line. What the policeman who pushed him could not see was that he was waking with a stick, and so was vulnerable to a strong push. The stick is obvious to the viewer but not the offending policeman.

The police are there to use force, and provided it is not provocative then they should be allowed to use it.