If you cannot stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.

[anotheoldgit]

http://tinyurl.com/39trofw

A typical Guardian report.

Why is it that the police are always accused of being the 'Bogey Men'?

/// Susan Meadows, 55, an English literature lecturer at Roehampton University, said her son was "hit on the head by a police truncheon. He said it was the hugest blow he ever felt in his life.///

He hasn't experienced anything yet. If he didn't expect to get hurt he should have kept away.

/// "The big question is how you can use police on horseback charging across when there are 14- and 15-year-olds in there," ///

Simple the 14 and 15 year old's parents should not allow them to protest.

Do these trouble makers expect to dish out all the violence and then expect the police to turn the other cheek?

[Count-A-Strong]

There was a story on our local Look North about 16 and 17 year old girls who went to protest peacefully and became kettled. They, allegedly, pleaded with the policemen as they were by the barricades and were crying. The police response was, allegedly, to hit them with battons.

[mike11111]

I thought kettled was a euphemism for drunk. Is there something I should know?

[jno]

so what do you want, an England where people may peacefully protest, or an England where policemen can beat up anyone they don't like the look of?

[jno]

mike: yes

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kettling

[Sqad]

C-A S....in the heat of the moment, the swearing, the missiles, the banners etc.how does one sort the "good student´s" from the "baddies?"

You can´t.....so kettle the lot and then you can be certain that you have the baddies.

I think that the police have shown restraint.......dirty, smelly badly dressed foul mouthed youths, giving you a load of lip...........!!!

[Sqad]

jno

<<<so what do you want, an England where people may peacefully protest,<<

Yes.....so how does one get that?

[mike11111]

Thanks, jno. You live and learn.

[jno]

we've got it already - except that the police choose to ignore it.

[ethandron]

i hope they prosecute all the troublemakers they can catch. nothing wrong with peaceful protest but when it becomes violent disorder they need teaching a lesson. i have absolutely no sympathy with any of the students who took part - good or bad - as the writing was on the wall it would just become another riot. you don't want trouble? then stay away.

[Sqad]

jno....really?

In the first of the student´s peaceful marches, we saw what happened to public property when there were too few police......can you imagine what might have happened if there were NO police.

Students initially had a point and the public sympathy.....this has now been eroded....in my opinion.

[mike11111]

Why were 14/15 year olds protesting? What guarantee have they got that they will do well enough to gain a place at university? (Don't answer that, silly me - it's the Caucus race- all must have prizes).

[anotheoldgit]

A couple of images from the other side of the coin.

http://i.dailymail.co...0005DC-44_634x438.jpg

http://i.dailymail.co...00005DC-3_634x473.jpg

[anotheoldgit]

I say bring in the Army.

There would soon be cries of "please bring back that nice friendly policeman"

[mike11111]

This reminds me somewhat of the old joke in which a primary school teacher asked he pupils to write about the police. One boy wrote, "Pleece iz bastads." Shocked, she arranged for a visit from the local police community officer who gave a talk about the hard work the police did to keep people safe, and handed out balloons, badges and lollipops. After the visit the children were asked to write about their impressions of it, to which the same boy wrote, "Pleece iz cunning bastads".

[Sqad]

mike......LOL.....could have been worse he could have said"pleece are black cunnin bastrds"...LOL

[jno]

"What guarantee have they got that they will do well enough to gain a place at university?"

Perhaps they were not simply protesting in their own interests but in those of others?

[Kromovaracun]

I can kind of see both sides on this debate, so I'm completely open to persuasion.

As a starting point though, I find it very hard to see the police as responsible. Personally, I don't blame them for the injuries incurred at the protests - I blame the people who provoked them.

I don't think there's any question that the riot squad are something of a necessity, and if you have a riot squad at all, then the only kinds of people who you're realistically going to have composing it are going to be fairly thuggish and fairly violent - who else would voluntarily go into the job? The riot squad might be brutes, but they're exactly the kind of brutes that we need.

Taking those things into consideration, is it really wise to hurl missiles etc. at people who are extremely likely to be thugs and are equipped with violence in mind? What do people really think is going to happen if you attack someone like that? It's extremely difficult for police to differentiate between troublemakers and peaceful protestors - but the troublemakers know exactly who they are and they're also well aware of the resentment that the rest of the student movement feels toward them. I consider them to have full responsibility for those who get caught in the crossfire.

[Sqad]

jno

<<<Perhaps they were not simply protesting in their own interests but in those of others?<<<

That`s it.......the thugs know that their intelligence level is not of University standards, so they riot causing personal damage and damage to property, so the more "intellectually endowed" can go.

Arrggg! that is nice and so thoughtful of the thugs.

[jno]

it's not a matter of IQ, Sqad: the fees don't take effect straightwaway, so they're protesting on behalf of future students. Have you perfected some way of calculating IQ levels just by looking at them on TV? You should patent it.

[mike11111]

Unfortunately, Sqad, their intelligence IS now of university standard.