Police showed "enormous restraint" for not shooting protesters

Today's post will be brought to you with a dose of ZoZo's frontline report.

In the UK, the students have recently been protesting rather a lot because the government is trebling university tuition fees. The police have been coming down rather hard on this action.

During the protest, somebody kicked a car carrying Prince Charles and Camilla. Now, let's remember that this car is bullet-proof and bomb-proof. Someone kicked it.

The police commissioner has said that the armed police showed "enormous restraint" in not shooting the protesters. Apparently it is now a shootable offence to kick a bulletproof car.

Restraint? The police really don't know the meaning of the word. Yesterday, we marched towards Parliament. It was cold, and we were shouting, and the Houses of Parliament were ringed by over a thousand police. They put on their riot helmets and took out their shields. They began to close in. From that point on, nobody could enter or leave. This is called "kettling". If you try to leave, the police hit you.

At the beginning, I danced at the south-east side of the kettle. There was a samba band, and a lot of us were buoyed by the hope that maybe, just maybe, with all of our protesting, the act wouldn't pass and we'd have won. Meanwhile, on the other side of the kettle, the police started getting nasty. They dragged a protester out of his wheelchair. They charged with horses. One protester needed an operation due to bleeding on the brain.

They wouldn't let anyone leave. I saw several cops refuse to allow two people carrying and obviously unconscious and bleeding girl to leave. In the end, they let the girl leave.

As the sun set, the result of the vote came in. The tuition fees motion had passed. The news passed around in whispers. We all screamed in rage at the Houses of Parliament.

People tried to leave. They were defeated. They flooded towards Whitehall.

I sat down in Parliament Square and rolled myself a cigarette. I knew it was not a time to try to leave.

Minutes later, I saw people running back down Whitehall. I saw movement from the riot police: a slow advancement, brandishing their batons, smacking children with them. That's the thing. A lot of the protesters were under 18, children who were shafted by a government they could not vote for.

It was then that shit started to get crazy. By this point, we had been imprisoned for about four hours. There were no toilets; this was Parliament Square. No food or no water was provided. Rumours went around that the police were letting people out in some location or another, but each time they were proved to be untrue. Nobody was getting out.

The kids turned angry. One smashed a window in the Treasury office.

A phalanx of riot police charged. They ran through the crowd, mowing people down with their batons, hitting everything that moved. A cry went up: "Kettle the police". Some brave children did. They were beaten bloody with batons as yet more police arrived to "rescue" their buddies.

Fires blazed. The children stormed the Treasury. I watched a riot policeman ask for the help of an anarchist in breaking open a window so he could get a better view of the crowd.

I was freezing and hungry. I started to believe the rumours that They Were Letting People Out At The North West Corner. I walked up. They were. One by one, taking a photo as you left. I didn't care any more. I was cold, I ached. I had spent half the day running from advancing police lines. I was traumatised. I have never seen such acts of violence with my own eyes before.

After I left, they herded the remaining protesters away from Parliament Square and kettled them on Westminster Bridge. It was freezing cold, and they were stuck there until midnight.

That's called restraint, apparently. At least they weren't shooting us.

ZoZo wrote:

During the protest, somebody kicked a car carrying Prince Charles and Camilla. Now, let's remember that this car is bullet-proof and bomb-proof. Someone kicked it.

The police commissioner has said that the armed police showed "enormous restraint" in not shooting the protesters. Apparently it is now a shootable offence to kick a bulletproof car.

Cops aren't in the business of playing fair, especially in a police state. Frankly, I'm surprised they didn't use more force, up to and including deadly force, to protect a high-value target like that, under the rationale that one minute, it's a disgruntled student kicking and throwing paint at the car, and the next it's a suicide bomber.

Penguin wrote:

ZoZo wrote:

During the protest, somebody kicked a car carrying Prince Charles and Camilla. Now, let's remember that this car is bullet-proof and bomb-proof. Someone kicked it.

The police commissioner has said that the armed police showed "enormous restraint" in not shooting the protesters. Apparently it is now a shootable offence to kick a bulletproof car.

Cops aren't in the business of playing fair, especially in a police state. Frankly, I'm surprised they didn't use more force, up to and including deadly force, to protect a high-value target like that, under the rationale that one minute, it's a disgruntled student kicking and throwing paint at the car, and the next it's a suicide bomber.

They know they can't do that. Not after they accidentally shot a Brazilian trying to get the Tube in the head multiple times. They were in a lot of trouble after that. Even the most gung-ho supporters of the police state had a hard time spinning that well.

The only way to describe the situation is bananas. B-A-N-A-N-A-S

Some videos:
Horse charges (I feel really sorry for the poor horses here as well as the protesters)


Police brutality. Around 1.25 a woman with her hands up is smacked around the kneecaps.

And this is why you should never try to change things, especially nowadays. Everything's just going to get worse from here.

Holy shit. That's just nuts. I'm sorry that you and all those people had to got through that.

The cops brought in horses and dogs to a riot situation.

Smart. Horses are huge, mad beasts. Riots are traditionally noisy and panic inducing.

Everybody's supposed to go "OH NO! Our preciously amazingly wonderful royal family need to buy a new car! Ready the guns! Take those students down!" Well of course they were frightened. They never poke their snobby noses outside of charity digs for the over 80s, and they are hardly strapped for cash.

"WE DIDN'T SHOOT ANYBODY!"

Read that again. I mean seriously, the cops are preening themselves over the fact that they refrained from firing into a large crowd of protesting kids in their teens, the majority of which were unarmed.

YEAH! Better tell those kids they're LUCKY they didn't get killed, and SCARE them from protesting.

Students are really getting angry now, and I don't fucking blame them. All the cuts are being hammered straight at the needy.

And don't you conservative bastards bullshit at me about encouraging people to get jobs. WHAT FUCKING JOBS?! EVERYBODY'S LAYING OFF AND EVERYBODY'S TAKING PAY CUTS.

Wait - there's one sector that ain't laying off or taking pay cuts. What could it be? Why, it's the politicians and all their paper pushers and shit.

Fucking crazy, man.

So how did the British public react to this bullshit? Is there outrage? How is it being reported?

Azzandra wrote:

Fucking crazy, man.

So how did the British public react to this bullshit? Is there outrage? How is it being reported?

Exactly as we'd expect:

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RIOTS! MAD STUDENTS HOOLIGANS! CAMILLA! somethingabouttuitionfees VIOLENCE! REBELLION! MADNESS!

Zo, I'm just glad you're ok.

I notice nobody is mentioning that cop who got pulled off his horse and was taken away unconscious after being battered by protesters, or the fact the protests in Durham, Newcastle and Sunderland where 100% peaceful.
Nope, violence in London, guy gets hit on the bonce by what is assumed to be a cops truncheon, we say assumed cause he can't remember and nobody else who come forward actually was it happen.
I'd be more sympathetic but I didn't vote for either of guys in power so I did my bit, now excuse me while I listen to the poor sod on five live be called a student sympathiser and a police apologist at the same time and despair for my country full of morons.

Why does Camilla look like a sex doll on those pictures?

Did I just hear on the news that the PM said all the protesters needed to be "punished"?

FANTASTIC.

Fucking power-mad pigs.

Raine wrote:

Did I just hear on the news that the PM said all the protesters needed to be "punished"?

FANTASTIC.

There's some other choice quotes in there too... Got this one through twitter today:

"We need to learn the lesson of this incident" - The lesson there, Cameron, is that every young person wants to punch you in the face.

Aw, the evil but penniless students are so EVIL for attacking the fabulously wealthy and well-protected royal family's car.

Let's all feel sorry for the car!

Look at me! I'm showing enourmous restraint by not grabbing a large knife and jamming it into a passing stranger's gut!

These people aren't protesters, they're rioters. There's a small difference (typically blood alcohol level).

Harley Quinn hyenaholic wrote:

Let's all feel sorry for the car!!

Stop trying to get into the car's pants, Harley.

That's fucking nuts. Echoing the glad you're okay.

Azzandra wrote:

Why does Camilla look like a sex doll on those pictures?

There was a great tweet about that picture today: "Camilla looks like she just sat on her balls".

Best chant from yesterday was "Cameron, we're learning French! Bonjour, David, bonjour David!"

We are learning French. Slowly but surely.

P.S. Thanks for all the well wishes. It was fucking terrifying. Note to all Brits: if you see police in visors, climb something. Get as high up as you can. They don't give a shit about anything, but don't let them silence or subdue you.

ETA: Account from the guy thrown out of his wheelchair by police. Twice.

ETA (again): Mikey, lovely, just read your post. Alas, there was very little alcohol present. Had there been, everyone would have been a damn sight warmer and felt less pain when smacked by the police.

Gott-in-himmel, another ETA: Azzandra, in response to Camilla sex doll: this.

Somath Cegem wrote:

I notice nobody is mentioning that cop who got pulled off his horse

Did you not watch any of the news at all, when it happened? The amount of "Poor policemen ;-;" mentioning compared to any news relating to what would happen due to the increase in tuition fees [you know, the reason why tens of thousands of people protested] or student struggles or anything not "STUDENTS ARE FUCKING UNGRATEFUL LITTLE SHITS WE LOVE OUR PRINCE CHARLES US MATE" was basically 10:0 because I watched for several hours that day [I'm unemployed and bored, okay] and everything was about the poor policemen who were charging unarmed protesters on fucking HORSES and beating them with batons. Where's the mention about the cripple person in a wheelchair* who was fucking assalted? Or the fact that police were telling kettled people "We're letting you out at Whitechapel", leading them there and then fucking beating them? No, the BBC had to be a sensationalist news company for the one day everything they've stood for in their entire broadcasting history [IMPARTIAL BROADCASTING], was actually happening around them. Impartial coverage my fucking ass. And you're worried about the police?

Quote :

I'd be more sympathetic but I didn't vote for either of guys in power so I did my bit

Same here in voting for a different party, but you can't look at what the Liberal Democrats promised over their campaign to rule this country and then say "Well, they pulled through yesterday. Good on them!" after that fucking fiasco. They fucked over the one group of voters they pandered to throughout the general election more than any other in the single worst way they could.

Quote :

now excuse me while I ... despair for my country full of morons.

You don't seem to be this way, considering you're refusing to acknowledge that the bad guys are those who voted to pass this new bill, who are all the while acting like despicable little shitbags power hungry from being newly elected and using "Well, Labour fucked up before us!" as a huge glaring excuse to hide behind their terrible new bills or whatever [I'm drunk OK, my vocabulary is the last of my fucking worries]. No, the fucking policemen are what we should be worrying about here. Not the recent actions of a government that are ruining our now quickly diminishing reputation of excellent higher education [not any more, thanks to much larger fees, less money for the courses themselves and the decision to cut the number of overseas students which helped with our economy to begin with], and working to create further divides in the classes to boot [eliminating EMA for 6th form and college students ALTOGETHER]. The poor policeman being pulled off his little horse that was probably being used to trample those mean teenagers/young adults is the big problem here. Jesus fucking wept.

*excuse my shitty use of words, and thanks, Zo

I'm probably the only person here old enough to be having flashbacks to Kent State in the US and 'Four Dead in Ohio.' At least the police in the UK didn't shoot anyone, which in no way makes what they DID do any better. Beating people in wheelchairs is, by and large, universally frowned upon, unless they've got an AK-47 and are threatening to shoot innocent by-standers. And even then, they're in a fuckin' wheelchair! Unless it's nuclear-powered and surrounded by a force-field, I can think of at least two or three ways you could remove the threat, none of which involve throwing the person on the ground and beating them with a baton.

I add to the chorus who're glad you're okay, Zozo (or as okay as one can be after going through something like that).

ZoZo wrote:

They know they can't do that. Not after they accidentally shot a Brazilian trying to get the Tube in the head multiple times. They were in a lot of trouble after that. Even the most gung-ho supporters of the police state had a hard time spinning that well.

IIRC in the case of that tragic shooting, the Brazilian man was simply at the wrong place and the wrong time*, whereas in this case you have people actively approaching a high-profile target and exhibiting violent behavior toward it. They had a lot more wiggle room here, but not that much.

If what you're getting at is that by not shooting at the people kicking the car, the cops were merely showing good judgment and being decent human beings rather than being some sort of saintly paragons, I agree with you. The thing I wonder about is why people are so determined to heap praise upon the police for merely doing their jobs rather than doing something about the ones who didn't.

*

Spoiler:

However, while I know it's frustrating to see all the "poor police QQ" comments out there (it's a frustration I share), it's also frustrating whenever I see comments about big mean police in riot gear using less-lethal force on unarmed rioters. Cops don't play fair because if they do, they're completely fucked. Protestors almost always have a ridiculous advantage in numbers; the only things cops have going for them are organization and equipment.

Really, once the rioting starts, the police are dealing with people that've become herd animals, and corral them accordingly. Any policeman who used excessive force should face consequences, but I'm not going to be terribly sorry for someone who breaks a shop window and receives a truncheon blow to the face.

The trouble is, usually the douchebags who go around destroying property seem to get away with it while real protestors take the fall.

^The thing was, the broken windows around Parliament Square were a result of the kettling continuing. Had the police slowly opened their lines, turning a kettle into a sieve, I suspect most people would have just left peacefully. Perhaps a few would have remained and started smashing things, but with over a thousand police surrounding the area, that would have been much easier to deal with than a crowd of thousands of people, most peaceful, some intent on smashing things.

A friend of mine spoke to a riot cop at the demo before, when people were kettled in Trafalgar Square. He told her he would much rather be working on his own beat, and didn't really like doing the riot policing because he hated the way everyone suddenly looked the same to him and became an enemy. At the end of the day, he shook her hand and thanked her for protesting against a government that would sell out his children's future and would lead to cuts within the police itself.

Chippy, lover, I agree almost 100% with what you're saying, but please don't say "cripple", say "wheelchair user" or "person in a wheelchair". Also, on the day the news reports were bound to be more on the side of the police as few reporters were actually inside and on the ground. They had to rely on the police for reports. The stories that trickle out about injuries to protesters come later, and, IMO should be given equal prominence. They aren't, and that's what's wrong.