Manchester Piccadilly Station Incident

[sunny-dave]

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/manchester-piccadilly-station-reopens-after-14397052

Why the hell did it take THREE HOURS to clear this protest?

It could well have been a terrorist incident and yet seems to have been handled ineptly (to be polite) and without much urgency.

I have the feeling that if a bunch of 100 UK citizens had attempted to close a station in Istanbul (to promote interest in a purely UK issue) it would have taken about 5 minutes for them to have been removed and the next time they saw daylight they would have been minus a few days worth of sleep/food and plus a good few bruises (at least).

It doesn't give one a lot of confidence in the GMP's anti-terrorist capabilities ...

[Theland]

More Muslim protest in a Christian country.
Why not?

[sunny-dave]

I don't give a flying fig who was protesting - what I do care about is the ridiculously inept response of the police - how can we have any confidence in their capacity for major incidents when they allow a major transport hub to be closed for three hours by this rabble?

[EDDIE51]

^they were not terrorists they were peaceful protesters . What do you expect the police to do, round them up at gunpoint?

[sunny-dave]

Yes - I do.

They could well have been terrorists - I don't actually care that they weren't

[sunny-dave]

This weak-kneed response just gives any Tom, Dick or Hafiz open season to screw up our transport system, for any cause, however spurious or irrelevant to the UK.

[Theland]

Cheeky Muslim bar stewards!

[fiction-factory]

I agree with dave about what would have happened if this been in Istanbul- in fact maybe the trains wouldn't have stopped running.

I hope every protestor was held for a minimum of 3 hours afterwards and full security checks are done on all of them before they are released.

[anneasquith]

I think being terrorists or not is very relevant !!

[Jackdaw33]

That would be a start, Eddie.

[Tilly2]

Softly, softly ?

[sunny-dave]

So anne - maybe next time there are 99 'peaceful protestors' and one terrorist who spots a golden opportunity for mayhem ... how can you be sure?

[Jackdaw33]

I see that the ***-loving Tibetan peace-porridge munchers are out in force again today.

[anneasquith]

OK ..

[Jackdaw33]

Oops, I accidentally used a word which I did not know was banned. For clarification it was an abbreviated form of the word 'Muslim'.

[-Talbot-]

Maybe too many officers were allocated to Twitter duty?

[EDDIE51]

In this country we have a RIGHT to peaceful protest. You want that right suspended? Or do you only want it suspended for cases where you do not support the cause?

[vulcan42]

There's a lot to be said for the use of water cannons in these situations.
That wasn't a peaceful protest.

[fiction-factory]

I don't think the right extends to going on train tracks and stopping trains though.
Do you still have to buy platform tickets, by the way?

[-Talbot-]

Ways and means EDDIE, ways and means.

[fiction-factory]

I'm not sure water cannons would have been a good idea given that the railways is electrified. Or maybe some feel that might deter future such protests