Does it really need 300+ police officers in full riot gear, dogs and helicopters to disperse a few hundred youngsters in a field?
Widely reported today is the 'clash' between police and revellers at an illegal rave in Essex on saturday night.
The mainstream press report that it was the alleged missiles thrown at police and the minor injuries they received which sparked their violent response.
What seems to have drawn considerably less attention are the injuries caused by the police themselves, to a group of partying kids, many of whom were less than compos mentis due to whatever they may have injested.
These included more than one instance of police dogs having been set on people, head injuries from batons, shields etc, and at least one eye-injury sustained requiring hospital attention.
Although we're told there were many police present and several ambulances, I saw not one ambulance, not one medic.
Despite the police's assertion that they were there to ensure the "peace and safety of the public" the revellers at least, it seems, were one section of the public whose safety did not seem of the remotest concern to the police.
It's also reported that 'a group of 40 or so revellers tried to cross the M11'. Now although I didnt see that, thats not to say it didnt happen, but I can say that if it did occur it certainly didnt happen until after the police had made their presence felt, and in spite of an access road tunnel beneath the motorway readily available for anyone who felt the need to be on the other side.
The legacy of Thatcher's Criminal Justice Bill has made many criminals of our nations children. These are the kids of ordinary families - brothers, sisters, sons and daughters, yet to see the police form up and prepare to charge, it looked more like a scene reminiscent of Gaza or Beirut, with the authorities hell-bent on crushing the resistance.
So why this disproportionate response?
Drugs? There'll be more drugs consumed at Reading and Leeds before breakfast than at the whole of saturdays party.
Trespass? Yes there were a few hundred people on an empty stubble field for a few hours
Safety? There was a greater danger after the police arrived than before.
Criminality? The fact that the most serious offence the police charged anyone with was Suspicion of Conspiracy to Cause a Public Nuisance, says it all really. I wonder if in fact, there really is any such offence.
There is, apparently, a concerted effort to crack down on illegal parties in east anglia, and indeed up and down the country.
The question is, why?
Saturday's party was within a few miles of Stanstead airport and, if current government assertions are to be believed, we are in the midst of a 'critical' terror alert.
If so, is it wise to divert so much police power from covering what surely must be a prime terrorist target? And for what? To stamp the jackboot of authority on a few kids having a dance in a field?
Something is seriously amiss in our country today, that these kids are dubbed criminals and confronted by the full ugly might of riot police law, while the real terrorists and criminals are gradually sauntering back from Barbados and the like, ready for the next round of International terrorism and criminality.
bLiar holds sway with one law for the rich for israel internationally, and here domestic policy does the same for poor people trying to entertain themselves, and therein lies the real crux.
This is about protecting corporate festivals and criminalising anyone who cant or wont pay to participate in them, and about demanding conformity, by force if necessary.
PAGAN CELT
The mainstream press report that it was the alleged missiles thrown at police and the minor injuries they received which sparked their violent response.
What seems to have drawn considerably less attention are the injuries caused by the police themselves, to a group of partying kids, many of whom were less than compos mentis due to whatever they may have injested.
These included more than one instance of police dogs having been set on people, head injuries from batons, shields etc, and at least one eye-injury sustained requiring hospital attention.
Although we're told there were many police present and several ambulances, I saw not one ambulance, not one medic.
Despite the police's assertion that they were there to ensure the "peace and safety of the public" the revellers at least, it seems, were one section of the public whose safety did not seem of the remotest concern to the police.
It's also reported that 'a group of 40 or so revellers tried to cross the M11'. Now although I didnt see that, thats not to say it didnt happen, but I can say that if it did occur it certainly didnt happen until after the police had made their presence felt, and in spite of an access road tunnel beneath the motorway readily available for anyone who felt the need to be on the other side.
The legacy of Thatcher's Criminal Justice Bill has made many criminals of our nations children. These are the kids of ordinary families - brothers, sisters, sons and daughters, yet to see the police form up and prepare to charge, it looked more like a scene reminiscent of Gaza or Beirut, with the authorities hell-bent on crushing the resistance.
So why this disproportionate response?
Drugs? There'll be more drugs consumed at Reading and Leeds before breakfast than at the whole of saturdays party.
Trespass? Yes there were a few hundred people on an empty stubble field for a few hours
Safety? There was a greater danger after the police arrived than before.
Criminality? The fact that the most serious offence the police charged anyone with was Suspicion of Conspiracy to Cause a Public Nuisance, says it all really. I wonder if in fact, there really is any such offence.
There is, apparently, a concerted effort to crack down on illegal parties in east anglia, and indeed up and down the country.
The question is, why?
Saturday's party was within a few miles of Stanstead airport and, if current government assertions are to be believed, we are in the midst of a 'critical' terror alert.
If so, is it wise to divert so much police power from covering what surely must be a prime terrorist target? And for what? To stamp the jackboot of authority on a few kids having a dance in a field?
Something is seriously amiss in our country today, that these kids are dubbed criminals and confronted by the full ugly might of riot police law, while the real terrorists and criminals are gradually sauntering back from Barbados and the like, ready for the next round of International terrorism and criminality.
bLiar holds sway with one law for the rich for israel internationally, and here domestic policy does the same for poor people trying to entertain themselves, and therein lies the real crux.
This is about protecting corporate festivals and criminalising anyone who cant or wont pay to participate in them, and about demanding conformity, by force if necessary.
PAGAN CELT
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