Come and See the Violence Inherent in the System
So, the partially banned 'shout at W' fest, the first major public protest under Boris Johnson, ends in what the news has been describing as 'scuffles'. In fact, from where I was standing (and occasionally, running - I'm currently tied together with surgical wire, so a free ride in a riot van seemed ill-advised) it appeared to be a police training exercise. After the police refusal to deliver a letter to Downing Street and the failed attempt to remove a tiny part of what was an enormous police roadblock stretching all the way down Whitehall, what followed was people wandering about looking annoyed, with Riot Police flagrantly pointing people out who would then unsurprisingly be arrested and/or bashed with truncheons. The utter disarray of this residual protest meant that police tactics could be tested out on a tiny, unarmed, disorganised and ineffectual group (albeit containing one wanker with a megaphone and a Ron Paul sticker belting out RATM and 'All You Need is Love' from an attached iPod - there's always a bit of tedious acting out) all of which could then be used on a rather wider scale in the future - as, after all, the incoming recession is unlikely to pass without at least some 'scuffling'. It's no surprise that the a very bellicose-sounding Old Bill are considering an 'investigation', presumably to garner the lessons for the next time, wherever that will be.
posted by owen hatherley at 5:27 pm
3 Comments:
It turned into a stalemate fairly rapidly at Whitehall, which was about the point I made a strategic retreat to the pub. Playing the martyr by offering yourself as truncheon practice for robocops seemed a little ill-advised.
I think you underplay the (relative) success of the protestors in actually dismantling the barriers and putting the police on the back foot, though - there were a couple of moments where the police line was very close to breaking.
(And, by-the-by, the Circle Line Party was at least a quasi-protest - certainly very anti-Boris - and met with a notably, if relatively, aggressive police response.)
You might well be right on the second point - as soon as truncheons started flying I got well away, so I wouldn't have noticed that.
That Guardian article you link is tripe (even the BBC's was far less hysterical). Sure, the demo was one of the tensest I've been on, and people were frustrated. That's what happens when you invite the world's most dangerous and lawless man to tea and bar the public from voicing their displeasure. But despite the anger, it was a demo by non-violent people, and it was a success - the noise was apparently quite audible in Downing Street.
But yr right Owen - if they think that was a scuffle, they'd better be prepared for something rather beefier in future. Disobedience is, after all, man's original virtue, and I reckon civil unrest may be about to come back into fashion.
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