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Freedom my ass...

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Oct 04, 2009 Lord~spidey link
This wasn't even a protest people were just standing there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etv8YEqaWgA&feature=player_embedded#t=17
Oct 05, 2009 Whistler link
Uh huh. I live in a city with a lot of protests, and I've seen these tactics time and time again. I'm talking about the protesters, not the police.

That was a protest, and the video was made with a clear agenda. It was supposed to look like casual camcorder footage, but wasn't the lighting good? Isn't it interesting that the voice over the PA (which we are to assume is that of the police) is crystal clear and seemingly at a constant level despite the camera traveling during scenes? Do we really believe that the couple "just talking" in the street failed to notice a huge line of police approaching them? These vignettes were staged for the camera. Certainly police misconduct happens, but even with the editing and additions this was a fairly mild action. I'll bet there was a whole lot of crowd behavior that didn't make the edit.
Oct 05, 2009 Kiith Nabaal link
I've been reading about this quite a bit and from what i gather most of the people there were just there to figure out what was going on, there were probably quite a lot of shit stirrers going on there but lots of seemingly innocent students got there asses kicked.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/G/G20_SUMMIT_NORMALCY?SITE=KMOV&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

the two students probably noticed there approach and the dude told the chick to move back apparently she didn't feel like it and when the cops got close enough assaulted the dude and the girl even though the guy was getting the girl to move back...

i'm not siding with anyone its just kinda odd, there were some asshole protesters who used bricks those twits should be jailed, but it looks like a lot of people ate rubber bullets because of em.

and cops infiltrating protests to set fire and turn the protest intoa riot is not uncommon these days.
Oct 05, 2009 Kiith Nabaal link
It was supposed to look like casual camcorder footage, but wasn't the lighting good? Isn't it interesting that the voice over the PA

they used a 150DB loudspeaker to make the sound unbearable and the video is clipped from many different people filming with half decent cameras, if you look at the vid pretty much everyone has a cellphone/digital camera for filming/pics it wound't surprise me if some of them had decent filming hardware.
Oct 05, 2009 genka link
Oct 05, 2009 toshiro link
Hahaha.

Seriously, though. Black blocs are nothing new. There is even a handbook for the efficient use of riot tactics, but I can't seem to find an online version, and I don't have a hard copy myself.
Oct 05, 2009 genka link
Ah! Here we go, tracked down the image I was looking for in the first place!

Oct 05, 2009 peytros link
oh spidey you have so much to learn about america...err the united states
Oct 05, 2009 Antz link
spidey: Meh, compared to London G20 policing that police action was pretty mild. Read the wikipedia article on Ian Tomlinson (newspaper salesman who got killed by police as he tried to get home after work).

Whistler: BBC footage reveals the same loudspeaker voice saying the same thing. Those two students who got beaten up were clearly being twats and taunting the police. They probably didn't expect to get beaten up, but what they thought was going to happen when they went against a group of men armed with clubs is beyond me.

genka: context please?
Oct 05, 2009 toshiro link
Antz: I have no idea, but I suspect it's old people who were told their pensions were to be lowered >_>
Oct 05, 2009 Dr. Lecter link
This sort of thing always amuses me. Much like Kent State.

You attack armed men with rocks, bottles, and other things capable of causing injury, deformity, and/or death... and you expect them to sort of stand there and hope their armor works?

Many of these people should be supremely glad that a beating was all they received -- deadly force is also perfectly appropriate here.
Oct 05, 2009 genka link
Antz, how much context do you really need for old russian ladies kicking riot cops?

Edit:
Thread reminded me of this story:
http://emporium.turnpike.net/Z/zen/SCA/AUNTIE/STOhara.html
Oct 05, 2009 look... no hands link
Oct 06, 2009 Antz link
Dr. Lecter: In theory, yes. In practice, when "the rain of bricks, rocks, and bottles" reported by police as justification for lethal force turns out to be "a possibility that one plastic water bottle was thrown" upon inspection of evidence (the existence of which is denied by police until newspapers publish it) one starts wondering if police can be trusted with such measures.
Oct 06, 2009 Dr. Lecter link
Wonder all you like, brat: you can't do anything about it.

So get out of the way, or eat baton. Guess what? Those really, truly are the only choices you get. Wondering whether they can "be trusted"? So. Fucking. Cute.
Oct 06, 2009 CrazySpence link
The key is to protest from the back of the crowd, the front is always full of the mouthy hippies that will turn it into a riot/beating.

It's always the mouthy hippies fault.
Oct 06, 2009 genka link
The first picture in the gallery thing is well worth checking out:
http://nrk.no/nyheter/utenriks/1.6804693
Oct 06, 2009 Antz link
No Lecter, I just think I should be able to commute to work and back without fear of bean killed by police, and to defend myself if they try doing so. Just because you disagree and name calling is the best you can come up with does not make you right.

You are also wrong about there being little that can be done about it: the press coverage the police got after videos of them killing the last commuter as he tried to get away from them leaked to news sites meant at a more recent protest they did not even beat up actual protesters, which meant it was able to last its entire week-long duration peacefully. The protest itself was just as moronically stupid as the G20 one (if not more so), but it is supposedly a human right, and I personally have nothing against a bunch of hippies going to a field and singing songs for a week, much less want to kill them for it.
Oct 06, 2009 Pointsman link
hmm, police and protesters antagonizing one another.. how very shocking. and anyway, the footage here is pretty benign. i think you would have to be pretty young to find it outrageous.
Oct 06, 2009 Dr. Lecter link
I just think I should be able to commute to work and back without fear of bean killed by police, and to defend myself if they try doing so.

Think that all you like. It will continute to happen, as a general matter, and all the whining and press and so on will never effect any actual change.

And you know I'm right about that :)