G20 chaos - Supplemental 3

Oh dear and it continues, the whole thing is blowing out of all proportion now.

A police officer is being investigated after allegedly writing on a website that he was keen to "bash some long haired hippies" at the G20 protest.

Home Office minister Lord West has defended G20 police saying: "I think we should be extremely proud of them."

And I agree, the majority of police officers where extremely professional. However there seems to be a minority who where looking for a fight... Sound familiar? The protesters where peaceful as a majority with a few bad apples, the major difference is a few protesters are expected to be violent and they should be dealt with according to the law. We don't expect the same from our police, if they continue to abuse the power they are given then perhaps what powers they are given needs to be examined.

The recent anti-terrorism legislation seems to be a particularly dangerous and much abused law. What with people being removed from party political conferences for shouting 'rubbish', people at a peaceful demonstration allegedly being told they would be removed because they where throwing paper airplanes and so on.

I will watch the protests with interest.

G20 chaos - Supplemental 2

it seems the investigation continues to snowball. We have another incident where police officer was caught on camera striking an unarmed woman with a shield. And there are more than 80 people who say they were either assaulted or witnessed an assault by the police.

The police themselves have criticized the IPCC for what they call a 'witch hunt'. The IPCC also attempted to put an injunction on certain footage of the G20 being shown on channel 4, this however was overturned by a judge. You have to ask again; why if they have nothing to hide they should want us not to see recordings of some of the incidents in question?

The whole 'Kettle' tactic of keeping people enclosed for hours in a small space is now being called into question and the whole thing seems to be degenerating into an almighty mess.

It will be interesting to see how the police handle demonstrations a after G20.

G20 chaos - Supplemental

Almost as a supplemental and follow on to my last post. The story grows! Now we have another case of a police officer allegedly striking an unarmed women across the face and then beating her with his truncheon. Whilst the police where under great pressure and had an extremely difficult job to do, there are now three known incidents being instigated; and probably more...

This is the part I find particularly interesting. When asked if there was CCTV footage of a certain named member of the public who tragically died during the chaos, the police watch (IPCC) said there where no camera's in that area. But here's the truly baffling part after further investigation it transpired there was CCTV cameras in the area in question and they had recorded footage relevant to the case. This leaves us with two rather frightening possibilities:

1) The IPCC was attempting to cover up the incident in question
2) The IPCC is so totally incompetent and useless That they either didn't bother to walk to the area in question to visually check for CCTV (And surely anybody could with a quick look around the area see camera's?) or they just couldn't be bothered.

Both are possibilities which do not fill me with confidence. The IPCC however has asked why some police officers felt it necessary to remove identity numbers (see previous post), and think they are very right to do so I commend them for doing so. It will be interesting to see what the official response is.

What do you think? If you have an opinion leave a message and as long as it's not offensive I will put it up.

G20 chaos

The police have a very hard job to do and the police on the G20 protest would all have been following orders. But regardless of how effective they where on the day it seems to be apparent that there where a minority of thugs who where out to instigate violence ON BOTH SIDES.

Here are some facts two police officers are under investigation, one for alleged manslaughter and the other allegedly for serious assault.

These cases individually are not what concerns me here is what does. I was watching the 6 O'clock news on BBC1 and it appears some police officers are not displaying ID numbers. Interesting isn't it, the police have there own camera men to take images of people taking part in the demonstration who cover there faces to hide there identity in case they are up to mischief.

Yet here are the police covering there faces and carrying no ID numbers to hide there identity. the question has to be why? What do they have to hide? I have heard some unsubstantiated rumors that perhaps they are 'beaters' spread out amongst the police who's unofficial job is to step in where violent action is needed, who carry no number so that it's very difficult to identify them. I emphasize these are just rumors with no hard and fast proof to back them up. I personally have my doubts but it is an interesting thought.

What I did see on the news was a recorded piece of footage. Where an inspector is asked for his ID number. He refuses to give it. Now any officer above the rank of Sargent does not have to display their number. But why refuse to give it. If asked reasonably a police officer should give you his number surely? His refusal is very suspicious and again brings up the question why?


My opinion is that all officers should be made to display there ID number by law regardless of rank. When I watched the film 'Watchmen' recently there is the line "Who watches the watchmen". So who's watching the police? The IPC supposedly.

It will be interesting to see what will happen in the future will other demonstrations show a repeat of the G20. Will we see similar investigations made against the police, only time will tell.

Hello my friends

Right well, here we are a blog where I want to discuss current affairs, news, politics. Please feel free to post a comment, and I'll do my best to reply!