[Please keep things respectful - I am sure there will be people on here who want to support the protesting coppers, and those who want to brick them. Sometimes the world is not black and white and I think what we need first and foremost is a respectful discussion - so we can get all the opinions out in the open and people can make their own informed decisions and action can be planned on these bases. No one's going to convince anyone by going apeshit on the internet]

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My issue is this:

I don't want to do anything that will help bolster the police force. But from the sounds of things the cops have more than enough officers to mount a seriously impressive demo anyway. There are always reports that when cops police demos, actions etc they usually agree with the protesters' views in single-issue chunks, but disagree with their analysis of the state, and with any illegal actions on the day. I've witnessed this myself.

I always feel that cops are worthy of sympathy in that, while disempowering others, they also disempower themselves. They are powerful in some very scary ways, but in the most important way - personal empowerment to act upon one's believes - they are disempowered. I've never extended the cops sympathy for the simple reason that I care far more about other sections of society - the truly vulnerable sections - than I do the coppers who wield power and force horrendous situations onto others. But I feel the injustices they commit are social institutional injustices where the cops are just the cogs in a far more complex machine.

Now we see a lot of cops in a strange position - completely abandoned by the state they always defend. Willing to come out and protest. Far freer to act politically, given they are no longer restricted by their uniforms. I find it hard to justify sending away ex-coppers who want to get involved. So for that reason I find it hard to work out how to handle a police demonstration given this context.

But that's just my two cents - I really want to hear what everyone else thinks.

I'm also interested in how this situation would be handled by the state? Will they use "scab cops" to police the demo? Will they have to use the army? Private security? Or just trust the cops not to break the law?!?!