"The Anarchists"- So Who's Really The Violent Hooligan Here?

[Orwellian_Ghost]

Baton charges and kettling: police's G20 crowd control tactics under fire



Police tactics of containing thousands of people for several hours at the Bank of England protests and using batons against climate camp protesters were condemned yesterday as an infringement of the right to demonstrate.

In the aftermath of the G20 protests in the City of London, politicians, demonstrators and a former police officer raised concerns about the methods used by the Metropolitan police to control crowds of more than 5,000.

Eyewitnesses said hundreds of environmental demonstrators camping out along Bishopsgate in a peaceful protest during the day were cleared from the area aggressively by riot police with batons and dogs after nightfall on Wednesday.

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/03/g20-protests-police-tactics

Much of the protesting, from an estimated 4,000 people in the financial centre of the capital, was peaceful, but some bloody skirmishes broke out as police tried to keep thousands of people in containment pens surrounding the Bank of England on Threadneedle Street.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/01/g20-summit-protests

[Orwellian_Ghost]

1. Officers with batons...

Earlier in the day,protesters targeting the Bank of England were met by lines of police whose tactics were to try to pen demonstrators inside multiple cordons of officers. "It's our street, it's our street," the protesters chanted as they were forced forward on to the line.

At one stage, after midday, riot officers and police dogs and horses removed some 20 protesters who had spent a quarter of an hour ransacking an RBS branch, tearing out computers and telephones. To cheers and shouts, they smashed several of the bank's windows, writing "burn a banker" and "scum" in spray paint. Police in riot gear inside the bank tackled protesters trying to climb in through the smashed windows.

Subsequently, at least 10 protesters sitting down in the street close to the Bank of England were left with bloody head wounds after being charged by officers with batons at around 4.30pm. One woman, said to be an Italian student, was carried off unconscious.

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/01/g20-summit-protests

[JackRiddler]

2. Doesn't that picture tell a story?

20,000 people get together and on rare occasions the media like it (like the 2004 antiwar protests, relatively speaking). They'll tell the numbers and if some window gets broken, it's a broken window. But most protests are unacceptable, and you can be sure the first coverage, the front-page photo (if there is one) will be of a window breaking.

[ColbertWatcher]

3. This picture caught my eye ...

[JackRiddler]

10. Jesus H...

we haven't seen what preceded it, but there's no doubt there about who is the tackler and who the tacklee. Also, who is the older, smaller woman!

[Norrin Radd]

4. kr

[Ghost Dog]

5. The trouble-makers are out in force again

The trouble-makers are out in force again. Dressed in black, their faces partly obscured, some of them appear to be interested only in violent confrontation. It's almost as if they are deliberately raising the temperature, pushing and pushing until a fight kicks off. But this isn't some disorganised rabble: these people were bussed in and are plainly acting in concert. There's another dead giveaway. They are all wearing the same slogan: Police.

/... http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/georgemonbiot/2009/apr/01/g20-policing-climate-protest-riot

[ShortnFiery]

8. Yes, they are seemingly ALL Pumped-Up.

[tkmorris]

6. I would care about this but...

Somewhere a pane of glass is being broken against it's will and I just don't have time for anything else.

[ShortnFiery]

7. ...

:rofl:

[blindpig]

9. Violence or counter-violence?

Every picture tells a story.