Apparent confirmation of the worst
7/4/2009
Another piece of footage has emerged from the G20 protests. In it, a man who died a few moments later from a heart attack is violently pushed to the ground by an officer of the Met., despite having his hands in his pockets and walking away from them (so, unless my interpretation is way off, posing no threat at all to anyone).
Given that Mr Tomlinson walks away, apparently unharmed, from the fall, it's likely that the Met will escape any blame for his death - and I haven't the medical knowledge to say whether the events in the video are likely to have contributed to his death. But whether or not there's a link, this footage taken in isolation would be enough to confirm my fears about the behaviour of the police on that day. It was not simply, as I'd suggested in the previous post, that they antagonised protestors non-physically, and waited for an excuse before getting aggressive; they clearly instigated violence in at the very least this one case. It seems likely that this piece of footage has received public attention as a result of its tragic aftermath, and that other examples of police brutality will have gone less noticed.
I was listening to a few minutes of Heresy (a light-hearted panel comedy on radio 4) earlier today, and one of the pannelists said something to the effect of
No one really believes that democracy works, that their vote changes anything. I reckon the only way to make a change is if we have a revolution.
(heavily paraphrased, I suspect). This wasn't said in a very serious tone, but it was the audience's response that interested me. It wasn't a laugh. It was a small round of applause that gave the impression it was congratulating him, not for his silliness and humour, but for his valid insight. It once would've been ridiculous to suggest that the first to raise the red flag would be radio4, but I'm becomming less sure...
No April fools
1/4/2009
It's been quite a day in central London, by the sound of it. If I'd been thinking before, I'd have liked to be there... Hasn't exactly been the best example of our democracy, either, with police seeming to keep protestors trapped in as small an area as possible, waiting for any excuse to charge in and make their presence felt. To quote one BBC reporter:
16:08 BST, Wed 1 Apr: From Ben Brown in the City
There was a sudden flare-up. The riot police had been penning in these demonstrators, then a few minutes ago they charged the demonstrators - we don't know why.
I'm firmly of the opinion, at the moment, that the government aren't nearly scared enough of the population - as Jefferson put it, "when the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty". I'm hoping that today's events might effect some small change on that score, tho it would have been nice if they'd been left to carry on peacefully... Doesn't look like you can embed videos from the BBC site, but these are the words I'd like to leave you with.