Police use CS spray on peaceful protesters

It's time for another ZoZo frontline report! Mainstream news report here.

Today I went on a small protest about tax avoidance. The long and short of the matter is that large corporations are using legal loopholes to dodge large amounts of taxes while ordinary UK citizens are experiencing cuts to public services and welfare. A much more detailed explanation can be found here.

It was all very good natured for much of the day. We dressed up as doctors and patients and handed out stickers and sweets. There was an enormous amount of public support and the police were very friendly. We managed to protest in a Boots (£110 million pounds a year avoided in tax), a Vodafone (a staggering £6 billion tax dodge), BHS and Topshop (£285 million avoided in tax, and the owner has been appointed to advise the government what to cut. He suggested HM Revenue & Customs!). We then returned to Boots, as that was our main target for the day. It was still very cheerful and friendly.

Boots had locked its doors when we arrived, expecting us. One protester, a young woman, slipped some leaflets through the door. The police arrested her for littering and criminal damage of the door.

Here is a photo I took of the damage to the door.

Naturally, we all thought this wasn't on, and several people linked arms with the woman to prevent the police from taking her away, while others shouted "shame on you". It was then that a policeman took out a canister of CS gas and began spraying the crowd with it. Actually, before he sprayed the crowd, he managed to spray himself in the face and another police officer.

CS gas is also known as tear gas.

As far as I'm aware, this wasn't sanctioned by the police. A little later, police officers provided the number of the officer who sprayed the canister to the legal team.

Three people ended up in hospital, including the guy in the photo in the Guardian article I linked at the top, who happens to be a friend of mine.

We were appalled. Never have I expected for the police to spray peaceful protesters with a chemical that is banned from battlefields. I hope the officer in question is properly disciplined for such a violent overreaction.

I'm fine, by the way, save for a nasty taste in the back of my mouth and an itchy nose that feels like a sneeze that won't come.

Glad you're okay Zo, and all my best wishes to your friends.

I also appreciate you attending these protests. I do what I can, but I sometimes feel crappy because I can't get as overtly involved as you guys!

I like to think that for every one of you at these events, there's several more attending in spirit.

Thanks.

Thanks, WD! Everyone's all right now and no permanent damage done, thank goodness.

People there in spirit are what drives us, I think. It's those people who will talk about it and say that they know protesters aren't thugs. It's those that shout "good for you" when they see you marching. It reminds us that we're not alone.

ZoZo wrote:

Today I went on a small protest about tax avoidance.

Round of applause! I donated some money to [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] and their campaign to get George Osborne (Chancellor of the Exchequer [UK finance minister]) to pay all the taxes he's due to.

Lexin wrote:

ZoZo wrote:

Today I went on a small protest about tax avoidance.

Round of applause! I donated some money to [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] and their campaign to get George Osborne (Chancellor of the Exchequer [UK finance minister]) to pay all the taxes he's due to.

Hell yes!

We're currently working out what to do about Osborne. Unfortunately, we can't occupy his house like we can with a high street shop

My favourite part of this is the fact that the cops turned over the guy who did this instead of closing ranks, me thinks the other copper he gassed was not happy.

Keep up the good fight Zo you be pretty cool. Even if you are a dirty liberal.

ZoZo wrote:

I'm fine, by the way, save for a nasty taste in the back of my mouth and an itchy nose that feels like a sneeze that won't come.

Heh. CS is a bit of a rush, isn't it?

You're awesome Zo. It's great to see people actually giving a damn about this sort of stuff. I hope your friend will be okay.

ZoZo wrote:

It's time for another ZoZo frontline report! Mainstream news report here.

Today I went on a small protest about tax avoidance. The long and short of the matter is that large corporations are using legal loopholes to dodge large amounts of taxes while ordinary UK citizens are experiencing cuts to public services and welfare. A much more detailed explanation can be found here.

It was all very good natured for much of the day. We dressed up as doctors and patients and handed out stickers and sweets. There was an enormous amount of public support and the police were very friendly. We managed to protest in a Boots (£110 million pounds a year avoided in tax), a Vodafone (a staggering £6 billion tax dodge), BHS and Topshop (£285 million avoided in tax, and the owner has been appointed to advise the government what to cut. He suggested HM Revenue & Customs!). We then returned to Boots, as that was our main target for the day. It was still very cheerful and friendly.

Boots had locked its doors when we arrived, expecting us. One protester, a young woman, slipped some leaflets through the door. The police arrested her for littering and criminal damage of the door.

Here is a photo I took of the damage to the door.

Naturally, we all thought this wasn't on, and several people linked arms with the woman to prevent the police from taking her away, while others shouted "shame on you". It was then that a policeman took out a canister of CS gas and began spraying the crowd with it. Actually, before he sprayed the crowd, he managed to spray himself in the face and another police officer.

CS gas is also known as tear gas.

As far as I'm aware, this wasn't sanctioned by the police. A little later, police officers provided the number of the officer who sprayed the canister to the legal team.

Three people ended up in hospital, including the guy in the photo in the Guardian article I linked at the top, who happens to be a friend of mine.

We were appalled. Never have I expected for the police to spray peaceful protesters with a chemical that is banned from battlefields. I hope the officer in question is properly disciplined for such a violent overreaction.

I'm fine, by the way, save for a nasty taste in the back of my mouth and an itchy nose that feels like a sneeze that won't come.

Using tear gas on somebody who pushed a couple of leaflets under the door is like sending a SWAT team to collect fines for double parking. And on a side note, it wasn't just the guy that sprayed the tear gas who overreacted here; the way Boots handled this situation you'd think the demonstrators were plotting to burn the place to the ground when all they were really doing was attempting to exercise their civil rights as citizens of the UK. Are all British national store chains this paranoid, or is Boots just an extreme anomaly?

I really enjoy your reports from the front lines, Zozo. I'm just sorry that people here in the States don't give enough of a damn about the subject to do some protesting of their own. Everyone just sits around saying "Well there's nothing we can do, baaaw!' and consequently, nothing ever gets done.

Chris91 wrote:

Using tear gas on somebody who pushed a couple of leaflets under the door is like sending a SWAT team to collect fines for double parking. And on a side note, it wasn't just the guy that sprayed the tear gas who overreacted here; the way Boots handled this situation you'd think the demonstrators were plotting to burn the place to the ground when all they were really doing was attempting to exercise their civil rights as citizens of the UK. Are all British national store chains this paranoid, or is Boots just an extreme anomaly?

Generally, once someone starts fucking around with a storefront, things get ugly. Short of passing something through a mail slot, pretty much anything is open to the worst interpretation possible. It's kind of a catch-22; if you organize a "respectable" protest and disavow all association with people who tweak the law, let alone break it, you risk coming across as milquetoast and not getting your message across. If you stand up for people who start breaking things, no matter how slight the offense (as shown in this case) you risk being perceived as a vandal, and that's the best-case scenario, because at that point the media will be forced to air your deeds and the reason for them. At worst they will dismiss you as a bunch of idiots with rocks.

Zoey wrote:

The long and short of the matter is that large corporations are using legal loopholes to dodge large amounts of taxes while ordinary UK citizens are experiencing cuts to public services and welfare.

Overly complicated tax codes filled with lobbyist bought loopholes allows those with enough money to afford an army of tax accountants/attorneys to exploits aforementioned loopholes to the tune of billions of pounds? You don't say, tell me more.

Wait, billions of pounds? Give me a minutes to wrap my head around that.

Of course, you buffoons are the ones who fall for chumps that write such intricate (read: assbackwards) tax codes and vote them into office. So it's all your fault you have such moronic tax policies that hurt people who can't afford to exploit them (read: those "poor" and "downtrodden" you always whine about).

Mikey Go WOOGA wrote:

Zoey wrote:

The long and short of the matter is that large corporations are using legal loopholes to dodge large amounts of taxes while ordinary UK citizens are experiencing cuts to public services and welfare.

Overly complicated tax codes filled with lobbyist bought loopholes allows those with enough money to afford an army of tax accountants/attorneys to exploits aforementioned loopholes to the tune of billions of pounds? You don't say, tell me more.

Wait, billions of pounds? Give me a minutes to wrap my head around that.

Of course, you buffoons are the ones who fall for chumps that write such intricate (read: assbackwards) tax codes and vote them into office. So it's all your fault you have such moronic tax policies that hurt people who can't afford to exploit them (read: those "poor" and "downtrodden" you always whine about).

Really, I think the main problem is this:

GOV: "You fuckers in the Soda Pop industry have been making too much money off of the works of the common man! A 5% tax hike for you!"
COKE: "Well, fuck." *ups price by 5%*
GOV: "FFFFFFFFFFFFFF-"

^
It sounded to me more like...

GOV: Well, my contributors tell me I want to see more of X Action, so if I subsidize it with a tax break, I will achieve the desired objective.
Everyone and Their Grandmother: I MUST WEASEL THROUGH THIS LOOPHOLE IF AT ALL POSSIBLE!!1!
GOV: Why GOVball no into tax revenue?

Or something like that. I might just be projecting American tax issues onto England.

Chris91 wrote:

Are all British national store chains this paranoid, or is Boots just an extreme anomaly?

Only some of them. Vodafone tends to shut down all their shops if they hear we're coming. Topshop is a little heavy handed with draggy security. Boots was actually the nicest, and props to them, they opened up the pharmacy when people were hurt and gave some treatment. Apparently it was very constructive, the injured people got to have a chat with Boots staff about tax avoidance. The staff are just as against the whole thing.

Mikey, love, you're projecting. In the UK, people usually pay their tax as we have fewer loopholes, and the ones that do exist can only really be exploited by the super-rich with good accountants and access to a bank account in Monaco.

By the way, any UK WGW-ers can catch the incident and stuff about UK Uncut's tax avoidance protests on Newsnight tonight at 10.30. I might be on it.