Come on, she was obviously asking for it!

RB you need to try harder, its not working!

In the case of policemen (all in my opinion) **** is more a rather accurate description than an insult

Riiiiiighht….all 140,000 of them.
Including the WPCs.

eejit. 🙄

The police have always handed out indiscriminate violence when they thought they could get away with it – they’re no different now

She was blatantly asking for it, Hippy!

🙂

She

Well edited Stoner 🙂

While I think the respose was disproportionate to the cause, maybe if people on both sides were a little more respectful of each other instead of screaming and swearing at each other there wouldnt be such problems. Cops wouldnt go out hyped for a clash and protesters didnt go out hyped to yell and swear and insult them until they respond. Having been at one of these protests in my student days (just to see what it was like as a mate was heavily into his socialist workers stuff) I saw that the entire build-up on the part of the protesters was to go under the guise of quiet protest but expecting to provoke a response from the police. It’s almost as though they WANT the police to respond violently so that they can claim how poorly they’re treated when just protesting. On many occasions my mate returned from protests feeling cheated as the police had allowed the protest to go un-touched, and he truly did believe in the cause – he just enjoyed the group hysteria and sense of power when the crowd surged on people trying to stop them.

Maybe its an unfair judgement cast on all protesters caused by past experience, but I now only ever “see” the protesters provoking the police by shouting and swearing in their face and purposefully trying to be awkward in order to trigger something. After all, as they said, it’s not much of a protest if it doesnt get serious media coverage due to an incident.

She deserved some form of controlling response, but slapping her across the face was plain stupid and clearly not the correct response. I guess the problem may be that if he tried a hand pushed into the chest to keep her back then he would now be accused of sexual harrassment or something.

from watching the video on the news, I felt sorry for the other police there as that could have gone very very wrong, as the **** that caused the trouble legged it once he realised what he had done, and left his mates to deal with the potential kicking that was about to ensue.

However due to their professionalism it actually calmed down a bit.

As for she asked for it, she asked to be arrested yes, asked to be smacked around the face, and then beaten with a baton, no.

As for she asked for it, she asked to be arrested yes, asked to be smacked around the face, and then beaten with a baton, no.

She new what she was doing, as for the slap, it was a controled responce I though, not too hard to leave dammage, but with enough force to to warn any normal person to BACK OFF.

uplink – amazing picture – where’s that from?

scratch that – just read the image details 🙂

vdubber67

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/29/newsid_2494000/2494793.stm

This epaulette business…..

When they’re wearing public order overalls, they don’t have numbered epaulettes on the shoulder like they normally would. The white ones show he is a sergeant, red ones identify an inspector, and I think it’s blue for really important people but you rarely see them. No one wears numbers there. I don’t know why that is, but they don’t. So when you see a policeman in public order overalls without numbers on his shoulder that’s because they were never there in the first place, not because he’s removed them. Different forces display numbers differently with public order kit, I have seen some with it one the front of their body armour, some with big stickers on the back of their helmets. Not all the police officers at the G20 protests were in public order kit so that is why you can see plenty with the normal numbered epaulettes and normal hats as well as the ‘riot’ police.

I have a set of police public order overalls (given to me via a few people) and it has Velcro patches where all the identification can be stuck on or removed if required. Removing or covering identification numbers in public order situations is nothing new.

sd

She new what she was doing, as for the slap, it was a controled responce I though, not too hard to leave dammage, but with enough force to to warn any normal person to BACK OFF.

What, back off or I’ll attack you with a baton? I thought the police had a set of rules they were supposed to adhere to which were not dissimilar to the rest of us. I wonder what would happen if the next time a cop speaks to me I decide I dont want him near me and I administer a slap to the face as a warning for him to BACK OFF?

While I agree with you in principle, MG, the slap wasnt the first warning. Its not like it was totally unprovoked. If someone is shouting and yelling in your face you might be forgiven for giving them a slap to warn them off.

To me it looked like she was kicking off over the other chap behind being man-handled when he got mouthy, so she got mouthy too? Very odd thing to do.

beat up hippies with camera’s

so you think that the front line Police should have the right to issue summary ‘justice’? without the need to follow guidelines and best practices outlined by professionals (including senior policeman) who have decades of experience?

“Removing or covering identification numbers in public order situations is nothing new. “

Premeditated cowardice from the most thuggish gang in this country.

I’d be less scared to walk past a gang of hoodies on the street corner.
And to think that I respected them as a yoof.(the cops, that is).

coffeeking
While I agree with you in principle, MG, the slap wasnt the first warning. Its not like it was totally unprovoked. If someone is shouting and yelling in your face you might be forgiven for giving them a slap to warn them off.

Someone shouting in your face is not pleasant, but it’s not to be mistaken with aggressive physical posturing. If anyone here was confronted by a small shouting woman on the way home from work we would simply ignore them, not slap them then beat them. The police SHOULD be professional enough to distinguish between an angry person and a person who poses a threat to their safety.

As I understand it the law of the land allows you to use appropriate force in response to a force that has been acted upon you, or if it’s clear that the other person has adopted a fighting stance and is preparing to strike you. I didnt see that in this case. From the cops body language it’s obvious he wants to lash out.

If one man is shouting at another man, the man who administers a slap to the face is hardly going to calm the situation down is he? It’s an escalation in violence. If the woman was acting illegally (or not) she should have been restrained and arrested for breach of the peace.

If she was trying to attack the officer with a weapon this would be a measured response, she wasn’t, it’s not. It’s wanton brutality because he thought he could get away with it.

What, back off or I’ll attack you with a baton?

Seems fair to me, like I said, any NORMAL person would have backed off.

An officer wants someone to back off. Just because a person (‘normal’ or otherwise)might back off from an assault does not mean it is fair.

They would definitely back off from having their teeth kicked in, and it would have produced the officer’s desired result. Would that seem fair too?

sd

Seems fair to me, like I said, any NORMAL person would have backed off.

So normal people are the kind who suffer a blatant assault at the hands of the police and just happily go on their way? If it’s abnormal to be even more annoyed to have just been assaulted without justification by a police man then colour me abnormal.

The IRA used to have a measured response to police who got heavy handed over here – they murdered them. Two wrongs don’t make a right.

If she’s going to antagonise the police for doing their job (ie being there in the first place to ‘control the crowd’) she deserves a slap. Otherwise, walk away and don’t get involved.

MisterGnar – as jimmy above alludes to I think sd’s take is that through her own actions, her involvement in the protest, the event itself etc, all effectively take her out of the “normal” classification. I kind of agree that she doesnt have exactly the same expectations as to how she will be tretaed by the police as a “normal” person just going about their business on a normal day.

If someone shouts at a police officer in the way she was they should be professional enough to realise that it is directed at the job, not at them personally. That being the case they should also be professional enough to either ignore abuse or use calm language and manner to diffuse the situation. The woman presented no physical threat and as such any kind of violence was wrong. I’ve seen loads of police violence in those “police, camera, action” programmes that goes unpunished, but at a highly media covered protest the response by the police should be even more professional than would normally be expected. In this case it was not.

I love a bit of old time law and order. Judge Dredd.

I’m sorry but that still doesn’t excuse anything. If police are called to an incident where someone is acting aggressively – lets say a homeless man who’s drunk and has been sniffing glue has been shouting at passers by, thats hardly normal is it? So lets imagine he starts shouting at the police, doesnt take much to imagine that might actually happen. Are they then excused for slapping him or beating him with impunity given that he is not a “normal” person going about his business?

Of course not.

The IRA used to have a measured response to police who got heavy handed over here – they murdered them. Two wrongs don’t make a right.

True

So normal people are the kind who suffer a blatant assault at the hands of the police and just happily go on their way?

In that situation, yes, backing off would be the sensible option, why, what other option would you have MG if you were in her shoes?

they should just take him out, what is he doing for society.

sd

In that situation, yes, backing off would be the sensible option, why, what other option would you have MG if you were in her shoes?

Probably exactly what she did, which was to get more angry, given that she had just been assaulted by the police, without justification, in front of dozens of other police officers. It’s not much of an option but it’s one of the few you have when bullied.

Funny how in this situation “sensible behaviour” equates to behaviour which limits your risk of being brutally beaten by a police officer without justification. Something is wrong with that.

And there was me thinking the Police were there to protect and serve. Only if you’re a politician it seems.

The woman was only standing up for something she believes in, something she ‘should’ have a right to do.

what happened there MG [edit] I thought you were in her shoes for a minute 😉

Funny how in this situation “sensible behaviour” equates to behaviour which limits your risk of being brutally beaten by a police officer without justification.

True.

I am a big supporter of the Police, and for the most part think they did a superb job at the G20.

In the case of this particular incident, it does appear that this individual officer went a bit OTT.

The woman was only standing up for something she believes in, something she ‘should’ have a right to do.

Which she does

And gets beaten for it.

The woman was only standing up for something she believes in, something she ‘should’ have a right to do.

You can stand up for things without being outwardly agressive, provocative and abusive to those simply trying to maintain order while you do so. If you chose to kick off, verbally or physically, or both, you can expect someone will react to put you down quickly so as to reduce the number of people who turn around and get caught up in the mass hysteria.

coffeeking If you chose to kick off, verbally or physically, or both, you can expect someone will react to put you down quickly so as to reduce the number of people who turn around and get caught up in the mass hysteria.

Oh right, so it’s official then, we do live under a brutal oppressive regime now do we? Verbal or physical demonstration will be dealt with violently without question.

I think you’ll find that actions such as that only incite more violence or mass hysteria, I can promise you that.

Maybe one day the people in power will get their wish, and everyone will stay home and leave them to do what they wish unchallenged, but it will be a sad day.

ck – really, you’re becoming absurd. Do you honestly think that the cop acted to “reduce the number of people who turn around and get caught up in the mass hysteria” ?? Do you think he succeeded? He was wrong, plain and simple, to raise his hand, to act with violence.

First time I ever wrote to my MP – Ian Tomlinson death
Second time – this incident

The officer concerned should be dismissed and charged with assault – there is no excuse for such mindless violence