STW Police officers

I’m just wondering if anyone can shed any light on what is happening in this video and why.. Apparently the audio is quite biased so I watched it without any sound..

Sorry I can’t find a youtube link

Looks to me like the police were after a couple of specific folk and went in to get them. There’s no way of telling from this video clip who they were or what they had done to deserve such attention and whether or not the police action was justified. Perhaps we might find out more if they are subsequently charged with something.

What do you think is happening in the video?

Don’t blame the police, blame the politicians.

Just seems like a daft bloody move.. I find it really hard to believe that any target would be worth the mayhem that ensued 😯

The first thing that springs to my mind is that nerves got the better of someone..

Could have been an assault way before the camera shot and the suspect was trying to melt in but then spotted.

One (current) camera shooting angle doesnt always tell a whole series of preceeding events in a flowing event passed where hes stood.

Someone sprayed graffitti on the war memorial. I have no sympathy with anyone there.

Someone sprayed graffitti on the war memorial. I have no sympathy with anyone there.

😆 that’s brilliant Hora

Guilt by association?

What are they protesting anyway? The election has just concluded …

Another question is what if someone deck an officer what sort of penalty will that person get? Police record? Criminal record? A10-gunnig?

🙄

It wasnt officially arranged was it? It was designed with antagonism in mind. Peaceful protests should be at least arranged. Cast your mind back to central London, anachist protests. Heres one I remember when I lived there:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/1/newsid_2480000/2480215.stm%5D

I’ve seen police snatch squads taking innocent people at demos just because there has been some trouble and they need some arrests.
And I’ve known some demonstrators who were just (word deleted) out for a fight.
So we shall never know

Just seems like a daft bloody move.. I find it really hard to believe that any target would be worth the mayhem that ensued

Mayhem? Ru nning away to avoid being kettled?
This seemed quite an effective and efficient bit of plodding.
Was it an training video?

not sure if you’re joking reuben

The police will have had plain clothes officers in the crowd and covert video surveillance , one of these may have seen an offence committed and identified the offender.
There may have been a specific target they had identified from intelligence that needed arresting.
It looked like they went in for a specific person,

Easygirl, and others, don’t waste your time. Yunki already knows what he wants to believe.

The truth is that police officers will not go into a large peaceful crowd and cause mayhem, unless they have a very good reason.
I’ve been in large scale disorder situations on numerous occasions, and it is very scary

yeah nice one CFH.. 🙄 I won’t take offence though. Did you watch the video?

I was just shocked at the way a peaceful march (as is clearly evidenced in the video) could be subverted so dramatically and am just asking what may have caused the police to choose that course of action..
I’ve asked the police officers on the forum to contribute because to me it looked like it could have been a mistake, or an error of judgement.. The media reporting was certainly incongruent with the footage

I don’t think I quite match up to the rebel of your fantasies Flash! 😆

Sorry, I didn’t realise this really was meant only for police officers.

All are welcome Colin 😀

The truth is that police officers will not go into a large peaceful crowd and cause mayhem, unless they have a very good reason.

Hahaha good one!

Surprised Easygirl didn’t blame everything on cutbacks. 8)

Surely this one is more relevant Hora?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8593158.stm

57 seconds, you can see they they go in to arrest a masked ‘peaceful protester’ who they had been following and was trying to leg it

Yeah that’s clear enough.. seems like a huge lot of fuss (and risk) over one anarchkid though?

I’m guessing that there were a bunch of ‘anarchos’ in that part of the crowd so they decided to split them off from the main part of the protest?

Is it really cold in London? Or do peaceful protesters always leave the house with scarves, hoodies and balaclava helmets? (And marine flares, cans of paint etc?)

are those items of clothing banned now or something?

Just seems strange that you would leave the house on a summers day to go to a peaceful protest carrying a balaclava

I’m sure there’s a perfectly innocent excuse…

I didn’t want to get into a debate with a wally over this, so I’m gonna err on the side of caution and choose not to engage with you ninfan 🙂

My question was about whether the removal of one or two naughty looking people warranted so much risk to public safety

Glad to see Bristol’s event today proceeded with a little more decorum 🙂

Depends what he did doesn’t it?

We don’t see the context, we don’t see why the police were following him before moving in to arrest him.

Just seems strange that you would leave the house on a summers day to go to a peaceful protest carrying a balaclava

Could have been a couple of welders on their lunch break

Hoods and masks… maybe it was this lot?

https://www.facebook.com/streetfx/videos/10155101143555112/%5B/url%5D

I once wore a mask on a demo, because I was skiving off school and I was worried my mum would find out 😆 Ah, what we would have given for guy fawkes masks back then.

In this case, the police weren’t out simply to provoke imo- they weren’t dressed for it.Whether it was a good idea is another question, I don’t think you can judge without knowing the reason for the snatch. Now, when there’s a peaceful protest or assembly and the police turn up suited and booted, that’s when you want to watch out.

OTOH, perhaps we should all wear masks all the time now, in case we commit David Cameron’s new offence of obeying the law.

Considering there was violence that day and a number of other problems it’s hardly surprising the police wanted to arrest somebody.

Whats more ironic is a group called Truth and Clarity putting out such a blatant piece of one sided propaganda that would probably have Putin smiling.

Whats more ironic is a group called Truth and Clarity putting out such a blatant piece of one sided propaganda that would probably have Putin smiling.

Quite.

There are times when the People have to assert their will directly and overrule the Government and assert the supremacy of the will of the People over the will of the Government.

🙄 🙄 🙄

There was a protest by the courts near our office the other day. Lots of local people supporting the guy, a couple of coppers keeping an eye on them.

Went back past 2-3 hours later, much bigger crowd, can’t all have known the guy, quite a few at the back ready with masks, someone with a hard hat, Go Pro and a hi viz labeled “official observer”. Much larger Police presence, everyone a little tense.

There is an element that are always seeking to provoke the Police and stick it to the man. The kind of asshat that defaces a memorial. I’d be happy for the Police to pull them out of my protest.

Think there are a bunch more of the same peaceful protesters throwing stuff at the police (Smoke bombs, traffic cones etc.)

You will always get a small number of protesters intent on causing mayhem and violence and spoil it for the VAST majority of other protesters.
Then when they are targeted by the police, dragged away by the scruff of their necks and locked up, they start crying and whinging.
They deserve everything they get

The truth is that police officers will not go into a large peaceful crowd and cause mayhem, unless they have a very good reason.

Ian Tomlinson, Blair Peach and other innocent folk who have died at the hands of the British Police might disagree (if they were still alive that is)………..

Some groups contain people who are complete aholes and the police are no exception.

So out of over 30,000 officers one leads to a death that should have been unavoidable. Daily they are dealing with the great, the good and the ugly. What an utterly thankless job it must be in the Met.

Parents tell their children to be good or the bobbies will come and get them/or they’ll be locked up. When really they should be saying ‘if you ever need help, the Police are there for you’.

Sick of reading/hearing grown men acting like they are 17 still smoking weed and talking about the bad Police/the Police state (enter any name here). Yunki, no offence but I get the impression that you are this.

Imagine doing a 12hour shift daily where you receive abuse, are scrutinised and filmed increasingly more and more. Would you do it?

To me it looks like they were going for one or two specific people. It doesn’t make any sense- the majority of the set up is peaceful, surely it makes sense for the wider peace to be preserved than take on one or two offenders then cause a much larger amount of trouble?

It looks to me at least like the police weren’t thinking properly.