Two Doctors: Campaigns: April 2009 Archives

"Blogging": unacceptable. Assault: we'll see.

By

on April 30, 2009 12:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A Royal Protection Officer has just resigned for posting the following callous and unpleasant comment on Facebook after the death of Ian Tomlinson:

"I see my lot have murdered someone again. Oh well, shit happens."

I can't imagine where he picked up these liberal attitudes from, although he's probably spent a fair amount of time hanging around Princes Phillip and Harry. The Met's incoherent response included the following line:

"The Metropolitan Police Service makes its position clear on employee's (sic) use of blogging sites within its standard operating procedures."

So, get caught out on Facebook, which ain't a blog incidentally, and you've got to go. Get caught on camera committing actual violence? A late suspension, so far, but you'd be brave to bet on conviction or dismissal, or even on an actual charge being brought.

Plane Undemocratic.

By

James

on April 24, 2009 8:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Whatever the police should be doing, it's not this: trying to bribe environmentalists with secret bank accounts (clue: it usually won't work, we're pretty committed), threaten their job prospects, suggest they'll be sent to brutal violent prisons and generally intimidate them.

Campaigners against climate change aren't terrorists, they aren't extremists, and they're more clever than the plod (which is why the Guardian have the tapes).

It'd be funny if it wasn't so sinister, and it's got to stop. Imagine activists trying to bribe, infiltrate and intimidate the police. And that wouldn't even be public money for the bribes.

I don't have it in for the police, I really don't. I can only give a 100% endorsement to the Chicken Yoghurt view on this.

Paint it black.

By

James

on April 2, 2009 6:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Police used a familiar tactic known as "kettling" during yesterday's protests in London, blocking protesters in and refusing to allow anyone out for any reason.

It's presumably called kettling because you keep the hot water in a tightly confined space. This does, of course, make it less likely you'll get boiling water on your hob, but it also keeps the temperature high, and kettles do boil over.

One young man reported the experience thus: "I just remember shields coming down on us. The police were stamping and kicking. I asked them to let me through the line for medical treatment, but they said 'no'."

Yesterday's demo was different. A man died, and although the police did try to treat him on the scene, we may never find out if his death was related to the tactics deployed by the Met. Had he tried to get help earlier, or to get out of a "kettle"? Had he been baton-charged?

The BBC, extraordinarily, have this incident as a passing reference in paragraph six of a story which says that world leaders are arriving (I think we knew that). You can visit the front page of their news site and see nothing of this - I will update this if it changes - but are we really quite so blasé about casualties outside the Bank of England?