One of the marches against the police's powers to curb protests which happened around the country yesterday was here in Bath. I suppose there were a couple of hundred - mainly young - people walking around with home-made placards, banging drums and chanting.
It is unfortunate that they chose the slogan, 'Kill the Bill' for their protests. For anyone who doesn't know, 'the bill' is a slang term for the police here, so they left themselves open to deliberate mis-interpretation by nasty trouble-makers of the sort who smashed up the police cars - and men - in nearby Bristol the other night.
There were a few discreet policemen following the march yesterday, and a pair of even discreeter (as far as that was possible) riot police on foot, complete with batons, helmets body-armour and visors who took side-roads to keep up with the protesters. They looked very menacing and didn't even bother to wait in a van. Some of the protesters were also raging against police brutality in the light of the vigil on Clapham Common and carried placards saying things like 'police thugs', which probably didn't put the riot squad in a very positive mood. None of this helps the situation on either side.
This morning I thought I heard that the beginning of the end to the lockdown will also include taking away some of the emergency powers given to the police. Is this a u-turn made under pressure, or just the fulfilment of promises made when the new Covid legislation was implemented, and how far will it go?
Twice this week I have seen a lone Policewoman walking round our estate - she looked like a Community Policeman and it was a pleasant sight - I really think they should be brought back if only to try to get good relations betwen members of the public and the police.
ReplyDeleteThere should be bobbies on the street. They don't even bother to drive around in cars anymore.
DeleteI think the legislation's pretty disgraceful. Haven't they delayed it's passage to the committee stage indefinitely or something?
ReplyDeleteThe government seem to want to turn Britain into an (even more) narrow-minded country, with a more authoritarian government and flags everywhere. Kind of off the point, when the Scots finally jump ship, presumably they'll have to take the Scottish element out of the Union Jack? That'll please them no end.
That's the big problem. Scottish Nationalists see Brexit as a way out, and the government see Brexit as a mandate to do whatever they want in snubbing Europe, but are worried about our own union. Europe is finding any way they can to punish us, even if it means punishing their own people. What a bloody mess.
DeleteSo you have honest young protesters, too, with their home made signs on lathe sticks, out for a just cause and then hijacked by the opposition, masquerading as honest youngsters, until they start doing real damage. I think much of the world is a bloody mess.
ReplyDeleteIt has been difficult to hold any sort of political march without attracting violent mobs for some time now, and the lockdown has made it worse by bottling people up.
DeleteThe problem comes in that no matter the subject matter, here there always seems to be some radical group who feels more strongly about it (pro or con), and wants to fire things up. We were protesting the situation of the migrant children a couple years back. A Pro-trump faction showed up to counter protest. They were directly across the street. It was really quite funny. There were a couple overweight women with their overweight children, carrying American flags and yelling insults. They had a rubber mask of Donald Trump that they placed on a fence post. It looked like his head on a pike. They added nothing (neither did they detract from what we were trying to do). In some places though, that confrontation would have surely turned violent. But we kept each to their own side of the street.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of them inadvertently putting Trump's head on a spike. Sounds like Merry Olde England.
DeleteWhatever happened to non-violent, passive resistance, peaceful protest? Back in the day, some in a protest got arrested but violence was generally not part of the equation.
ReplyDeleteIt was in 1968.
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