Having seen the footage of the London police effectively murdering another passer-by, I feel ashamed to be living in this city. Something fundamental is wrong with the british society.
> 1) As a society we should have the right to expect demonstrations to be facilitated by the police not supressed.
agreed, within reason, although there should be a point at which we say "right, you have made your point, however, this is disrupting other members of society" there's a balance to be met.
> 2) We should have the right to expect a police force to be open and truthful about what they know of a situation and not spread misinformation, as in the initial hours of the G20 death. In this instance the misinformation is well documented and partially acknowledged by the Met.
agreed, we should. however, the initial misinformation has been cleared up and we have a system which is in place via the IPCC to investigate such issues. the fact that the issue is acknowledged by the met is actually evidence of a positive approach to sorting out a fuck up.
> 3) As a society we should have right to expect laws created to address terrorism to be used for terrorism and not management of demonstrations.
agreed. we expect the police to 'defend us' from terrorists and we criticize them for using the powers parliament has given them to do that job - its a difficult balancing act.
> 4) We should have the right to expect that a peaceful demonstration (such as the climate camp nr Bank) would not be broken up with truncheons.
agreed, but how long should such an event go on for? who should decide how long one group has to disrupt the activities of another? im not saying the policing approach was correct, merely that it is a difficult one to call.
Re: point 2, don't forget they only did that after a massive press effort by the demonstrators and a video sent to the guardian. A video the police and ipcc then tried to get the guardian to withdraw by turning up at the offices and requesting a take down.
agreed, within reason, although there should be a point at which we say "right, you have made your point, however, this is disrupting other members of society" there's a balance to be met.
> 2) We should have the right to expect a police force to be open and truthful about what they know of a situation and not spread misinformation, as in the initial hours of the G20 death. In this instance the misinformation is well documented and partially acknowledged by the Met.
agreed, we should. however, the initial misinformation has been cleared up and we have a system which is in place via the IPCC to investigate such issues. the fact that the issue is acknowledged by the met is actually evidence of a positive approach to sorting out a fuck up.
> 3) As a society we should have right to expect laws created to address terrorism to be used for terrorism and not management of demonstrations.
agreed. we expect the police to 'defend us' from terrorists and we criticize them for using the powers parliament has given them to do that job - its a difficult balancing act.
> 4) We should have the right to expect that a peaceful demonstration (such as the climate camp nr Bank) would not be broken up with truncheons.
agreed, but how long should such an event go on for? who should decide how long one group has to disrupt the activities of another? im not saying the policing approach was correct, merely that it is a difficult one to call.
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