Author Topic: Criminal DUmmies hate the cops, they hate them.  (Read 1115 times)

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Offline thundley4

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Criminal DUmmies hate the cops, they hate them.
« on: November 26, 2010, 02:42:14 PM »
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backscatter712   (1000+ posts)           Thu Nov-25-10 10:56 PM
Original message
London Police use kettling against protesters. Reason 432809543 why I hate the police. HATE.
   
Edited on Thu Nov-25-10 11:16 PM by backscatter712
http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/laurie-penny/2010/11/...

It's the coldest day of the year, and I've just spent seven hours being kettled in Westminster. That sounds jolly, doesn't it? It sounds a bit like I went and had a lovely cup of tea with the Queen, rather than being trapped into a freezing pen of frightened teenagers and watching armed police kidney-punching children, six months into a government that ran an election campaign on a platform of fairness. So before we go any further, let's remind ourselves precisely what kettling is, and what it's for.

Take a protest, one whose premise is uncomfortable for the administration - say, yesterday's protest, with thousands of teenagers from all over London walking out of lessons and marching spontaneously on Westminster to voice their anger at government cuts to education funding which will prevent thousands from attending college and university. Toss in hundreds of police officers with riot shields, batons, dogs, armoured horses and meat wagons, then block the protesters into an area of open space with no toilets, food or shelter, for hours. If anyone tries to leave, shout at them and hit them with sticks. It doesn't sound like much, but it's effective.

I didn't understand quite how bad things had become in this country until I saw armed cops being deployed against schoolchildren in the middle of Whitehall. These young people joined the protest to defend their right to learn, but in the kettle they are quickly coming to realise that their civil liberties are of less consequence to this government than they had ever imagined The term 'kettle' is rather apt, given that penning already-outraged people into a small space tends to make tempers boil and give the police an excuse to turn up the heat, and it doesn't take long for that to happen. When they understand that are being prevented from marching to parliament by three lines of cops and a wall of riot vans, the kids at the front of the protest begin to moan. "It's ridiculous that they won't let us march," says Melissa, 15, who has never been in trouble before. "We can't even vote yet, we should be allowed to have our say."

The chant goes up: "what do we want? The right to protest!" At first, the cops give curt answers to the kids demanding to know why they can't get through. Then they all seem to get some sort of signal, because suddenly the polite copper in front of me is screaming in my face, shoving me hard in the back of the head, raising his baton, and the protesters around me are yelling and running back. Some of them have started to shake down a set of iron railings to get out, and the cops storm forward, pushing us right through those railings, leaving twenty of us sprawling in the rubble of road works with cracked knees. When they realised that they are trapped, the young protesters panic. The crush of bodies is suddenly painful - my scarf is ripped away from me and I can hear my friend Clare calling for her son - and as I watch the second line of police advance, with horses following behind them, as I watch a surge of teenagers carrying a rack of iron railings towards the riot guard and howling to be released, I realise they're not going to stop, and the monkey instinct kicks in. I scramble up a set of traffic lights, just in time to see a member of the Metropolitan police grab a young protester by the neck and hurl him back into the crowd.


In short, kettling is a tactic used by cops in large protests when they do NOT want to disperse the protest or end it peacefully. They cordon in the protesters, cut off all routes of escape, crack skulls of anyone: protester, bystander, little old lady, who tries to leave. They leave everyone inside the kettle stewing for long hours, crowding them in, agitating them with baton charges, the occasional barrage of pepper spray or tear gas, conflicting orders from megaphones.

Not one of the protesters, but a bystander who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time? Can't leave. Got diabetes, need to get food and medication to keep your blood sugar under control? Can't leave. Got hurt in the melee, need to get to a hospital, bleeding all over the street? Can't leave, and if you ask a cop for medical attention, he'll give you even more injuries.

The cops keep stirring the kettle and keep heating it up, eventually, someone loses their cool, and the next day, the police PR guy is on the TV saying "Gee, we tried to disperse the rioters, but the situation kept escalating, so we did what we had to do."

When the police use kettling, they WANT VIOLENCE. There's no other way to explain it. Any police officer who participates in kettling should be doing a life sentence. Don't tell me they don't know how a kettle works - they're trained and disciplined, do their baton charges on cue, fire teargas into the crowd on cue, crack skulls on cue. They're participating in collective torture. These are police officers who are instigating a riot, in such a way that they can frame the protesters for it, and know damned well what they're doing. No doubt, they'll sweeten the story for the press with an incident courtesy of agents provocateur (the link above also mentions a conveniently placed police van, of a model that's a few years older than the ones they usually drive around in, that got smashed up, while the cops just sat there and filmed it. No, that doesn't say provocateur, of course not!   )

So don't give me any shit about how the police are really good guys who have such a haaaard job. I ran fresh out of benefit-of-the-doubt when it comes to cops years ago after seeing incident after incident, day after day, of police brutality.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x9631943

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molly77 (368 posts)           Fri Nov-26-10 02:59 PM
Response to Reply #3
41. It happened in the US too ...at the repub and democratic conventions?

Freeper Troll.

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T Wolf   (1000+ posts)           Fri Nov-26-10 01:46 PM
Response to Reply #6
37. This is what should happen, at the least, to any of the stormtroopers who abuses the public.
   
We should learn our tactics from them.

Cops never attack the public unless they have numerical superiority. We should also attack in numbers.

They never tell the truth about any riots they start, even in court. Neither should we.

They use whatever weapons at their disposal. So should we.

They are the enemy. We have to treat them as such.

After watching police behavior for almost 60 years, I can assuredly state that they do much more harm than good. I'm not sure what the alternative is to control anti-social behavior by civilians, but a police state is not the answer. Particularly when anti-social behavior and psychological disorders are required criteria for the job.

Please convince your DUmmie brethren to get really violent the next time.  Please give the police a reason to shoot your ass.  Oh wait, they wouldn't because we really don't live in the police state that you fear so greatly. However Obama is damn sure trying to make it one.

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DonCoquixote (1000+ posts)             Fri Nov-26-10 01:03 AM
Response to Original message
8. Do you hate ALL cops?
   
Yes, some cops are bastards,
and some are also the ones that would save your life.

Blanket statements always develop holes.

Criminals almost always hate all cops.

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blaze   (1000+ posts)           Fri Nov-26-10 01:19 AM
Response to Original message
11. Please don't broad brush
   
My SO was a Denver Cop, rip.

He completely and totally believed he was here to serve and protect.

He was a good guy.

He lost his life in pursuit of that belief.

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The Doctor. (1000+ posts)             Fri Nov-26-10 08:24 AM
Response to Reply #11
18. It's not when they act alone.
   
Alone or with a partner, a cop will exercise their personal judgment. In a riot line, they lose individuality. They aren't bad people, but they become willing vessels of the state.

You moron, they are facing a mob, and a mob is a brainless entity, so they have to act in a concerted way to handle mobs.

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avaistheone1 (1000+ posts)         Fri Nov-26-10 02:31 AM
Response to Original message
14. I have seen kettling used a lot in protests here in the states in
   
the last couple years too. I think the practice is sickening.

It's quite a good strategy, it limits the area that you morons can inflict damage upon.

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blindpig   (1000+ posts)           Fri Nov-26-10 07:55 AM
Response to Original message
17. Best answer to that....
   

bigger crowds. They can't kettle all of us. There were so many young kids in that crowd, such tactics were particularly reprehensible. In the times to come this tactic will have limited application, they will resort to greater violence when confronted with greater crowds of more physical strength and discipline. The ruling class is fighting for it's survival(it always is), the eternal trapped rat, no act of violence or treachery is beyond them. Yet we have no choice, be prepared.

It is reprehensible to use children in your protests.

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RoccoR5955   (1000+ posts)             Fri Nov-26-10 09:43 AM
Response to Original message
21. The Class War has started in England
   
It will be here in the US, if people get off their asses.

You DUmmies will be sending pictures of your hands and thoughts of healing white light, right?

Offline Karin

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Re: Criminal DUmmies hate the cops, they hate them.
« Reply #1 on: November 26, 2010, 03:08:49 PM »
If you have diabetes, and you willingly put yourself in situations like that, then you deserve whatever happens to you.  I'm not crying a river of tears for these "young people, these children."  I saw the pictures of them mindlessly destroying property right and left.  To hell with 'em. 

Offline crockspot

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Re: Criminal DUmmies hate the cops, they hate them.
« Reply #2 on: November 26, 2010, 03:18:07 PM »
There is something basically wrong with a country where cops with batons are considered "armed".

Offline dandi

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Re: Criminal DUmmies hate the cops, they hate them.
« Reply #3 on: November 26, 2010, 03:54:27 PM »
They want themselves to be taken seriously as mature adults when it comes to their demands and ideals and having their voices heard. But then when they become disruptive and destructive and face the consequences of their behavior they wrap themselves in the cloak of being "just children" and feign outrage against the Blue Meanies.

pfffffft

"I fart in your general direction."

Civil disobedience has its place, but it also carries consequences. Man up and face the music, or else go home and curl up with your Binkie.
« Last Edit: November 26, 2010, 03:57:18 PM by dandi »
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Offline AprilRazz

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Re: Criminal DUmmies hate the cops, they hate them.
« Reply #4 on: November 26, 2010, 04:07:10 PM »
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blaze   (1000+ posts)           Fri Nov-26-10 01:19 AM
Response to Original message
11. Please don't broad brush
   
My SO was a Denver Cop, rip.

He completely and totally believed he was here to serve and protect.

He was a good guy.

He lost his life in pursuit of that belief.
Blaze you have my deepest sympathy. As a cop's kid my worst fear has become your reality. Your family will be in my prayers tonight if what you say is true.
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Offline blitzkrieg_17

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Re: Criminal DUmmies hate the cops, they hate them.
« Reply #5 on: November 26, 2010, 05:41:46 PM »
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Particularly when anti-social behavior and psychological disorders are required criteria for the job.

Just like politicians everywhere.
Caught somewhere in time

Offline true_blood

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Re: Criminal DUmmies hate the cops, they hate them.
« Reply #6 on: November 26, 2010, 07:20:51 PM »
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T Wolf   (1000+ posts)           Fri Nov-26-10 01:46 PM
Response to Reply #6
37. This is what should happen, at the least, to any of the stormtroopers who abuses the public. We should learn our tactics from them. Cops never attack the public unless they have numerical superiority. We should also attack in numbers.
They never tell the truth about any riots they start, even in court. Neither should we. They use whatever weapons at their disposal. So should we. They are the enemy. We have to treat them as such.
After watching police behavior for almost 60 years, I can assuredly state that they do much more harm than good. I'm not sure what the alternative is to control anti-social behavior by civilians, but a police state is not the answer. Particularly when anti-social behavior and psychological disorders are required criteria for the job.
Your mother must be so proud. She did a dandy job raising you, didn't she? ::) :whatever:
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