Another week has passed. More protests & more apocolyptic reporting of scuffles as if British students were an Al-Qaeda cell bent on the destruction of western civilisation.
The coverage is farcical.
On Sky we virtually get the Met's official live commentary from some rent-a-cop whose explaining that 'containment' is fair.
We've got a Home Secretary who doesn't think her job is to ask the Police questions about their tactics & who reports what she has been told by the Police absolutely uncritically.
We've got Sir Paul Stephenson thinking about adding water cannon's to his arsenal of toys for the boys in blue. O and we've got a rabid, foaming at the mouth response to the possibility that Camilla might have been poked with a stick. It's the end of the world as we know it.
No one in the press seems to want to ask any awkward questions. The police version of events is accepted virtually without question. The most serious injury to a police officer was caused when he fell off his horse but it was reported as if protesters had dragged the poor chap off & beaten him when on the ground. In the meantime protesters were getting whacked about by the police.
One protester, Alfie Meadows, ended up requiring a brain operation after being clubbed on the head and even more disgustingly was the Police initial tried to stop him getting hospital treatment at the same hospital as injured police officers (according to his mother). This is the subject of an IPCC whitewash...sorry report.
I appriciate that policing demonstrations is a difficult job but that's what Sir Paul Stephenson and his colleagues are paid to do. There may be a minority of idiots on any demonstration but current police strategy seems to be to punish everyone via 'kettling' in order to put people off protesting. Why would you want to come on a protest if you're going to spend hours being kettled in the freezing cold instead of being allowed to demonstrate? So what does kettling do except discourage ordinary people from protesting but fail to put off the more extreme elements.
Also I've been kettled and all it does is make ordinary people increasingly angry & frustrated. It's not designed to calm things down at all. To then charge kettled protesters on horse back is aggressive & potentially dangerous.
So my questions are:
Has any journalist checked police statements about people being free to leave various kettles at any time v the reality on the ground?
What is the purpose of kettling? What do the police want to achieve by its use?
Why were horses allowed to charge protesters inside kettles? Who decides when to let police horses charge & what is the thinking behind their use?
Why did the police try & prevent Alfie Meadows getting medical treatment? What facilities did the Metropolitan Police provide for those injured within a 'kettle' to get out & receive medical attention?
Has anyone checked the police figures for their injuries & the nature of these injuries?
Have the police being briefing journalists that disabled protester Jody McIntyre was 'throwing things' to excuse dragging him out of his wheelchair? My reading of the BBC's awful interview with him on Newsnight suggests that this is what's been happening? If so do they have any proof?
What lessons have the police learnt from these demonstrations? Are we going to see tougher response? If so what will that consist of?
Have the police asked for water cannons? Have the Met talked to the Northern Irish Police about 'borrowing' a couple? What would be the rules for their use?
Why does the Home Secretary not think her job is reviewing police performance on demonstrations? Does she check the police version of events against anything except the Daily Mail?
A few questions for now but fundamentally I want the British press who should have learnt their lessons on the lengths to which the police will spin from the post-Hillsborough (and post-Thomlinson/De Menzes) attempts to blacken the names of victims in order to cover up their cock-ups to stop taking the police version of events as the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
