Sunny Hundal is to blame for G20 violence
Dear Sunny Hundal,
Along with Rowenna Davis, you have written an article for the Guardian claiming that the police mishandled the G20 protests yesterday and that they are to blame for the violence. Having seen your headline I was intrigued as to what justification you had for this, and on reading through your article I can safely say that your naivety is astounding and your analysis is pathetic.
You predicted that the news coverage would prominently feature the violence from yesterday and you were right. However, you claim that “a broader perspective is needed”. Your account of the day goes something like this. You and Rowenna made your way from the Bank of England down Threadneedle Street before being stopped by a wide police cordon, only to find that by 12:30 “no one was allowed to leave the protest, and no explanation was given. …We said we were journalists trying to cover the protests, but it made no difference. …People were feeling claustrophobic, hungry and aggressive. One woman sat down because she was feeling faint. A few others had just come to see all the fuss, and weren’t protesting, but were not allowed to leave either.” A few bits of food and some paint were then chucked at the police. “The crowd pushed us forward, the police pushed us back – sometimes quite brutally by using batons against people and hitting some. The police were rattled by the crowd and seemed to have little idea of what their plan or position was – other than to contain us. …With so much anger, other protesters started gathering to see what the fuss was about. When they felt they couldn’t leave, they started pushing. The four horses from the protests gathered at the lines ready to charge. They had found a focus point for their anger and started surging forward in waves. When they still couldn’t get through, more bottles began to get hurled, gas was released and individuals pushed through more heavily.” You went on to suggest that “we’ve seen this problem time and time again. The police seem confused about their role. They are not there to control the protesters – they are there to manage and safeguard them.”
My goodness me. What an unbelievably thoughtless analysis of how the police acted yesterday. You and hundreds of other people joined a mass protest that was always going to turn violent, yet you plead that “people were feeling claustrophobic” and relayed the horror of one woman sitting down because she felt faint as if you expect sympathy. Yes, the police pushed back the protestors because – amazingly – they were there to keep a lid on things. Your attempt to portray the police’s decision to ‘contain’ the protestors as some ill-conceived muddle is just ridiculous as I am convinced it was their plan from the word ‘go’. Of course they were there to contain you! Hordes of men covering their faces to protect their identity as they charged the police time and time again, RBS and HSBC smashed up, protestors goading officers and striking them with large poles – and here you are saying that the police “seem confused about their role”. The police were NOT there to “manage and safeguard” anyone. They behaved as they did because they knew trouble was brewing and they were absolutely right. It was only right at the end of your article that you conceded that “protesters may also have something to learn.” Nooooooo, really? The Climate Camp had tea parties and tents; the lunatics at the Bank of England had fireworks, poles, cloaked identities and a desire to inflict damage. If everyone acted like the Climate Camp, there would have been no issue but guess what – lots of people turned up yesterday with a clear mission to cause trouble and I am genuinely amused by your suggestion that the police should have taken a step back and left everyone alone.
I cannot believe that you think that the police have to ”explain why they deliberately hemmed people in and would not allow them to leave”. The protest did not need “more free movement” – it needed the thousands of protestors who gathered at the Bank of England to behave themselves in an orderly way and not start charging, goading or attacking police officers. I absolutely agree that “protestors are easy targets for the media to stereotype” and you know why? Because protestors always turn up in large numbers, ignore the police’s advice and mix in with the troublemakers, only to claim that you are the victims of it all. It is people like you who are to blame for the G20 violence, not the police. May I suggest that next time you and many other people feel like ‘going to see what all the fuss was about’, you stay clear and let the police deal with it instead. From the very outset, you headed straight for the centre of the problems and surprise surprise you found them and contributed to them. I say well done to the police for showing restraint.
Yours sincerely,
A.Tory
H/T Julia
Cheers for link!
Well said, LFaT! I was going to put a mocking link up to Sunny’s Liberal Conspiracy piece on yesterday’s protests, but instead I think I’ll link here
3000 to 5000 ‘demonstrators’ don’t matter a toss. The Poll Tax riots had far more and lets not forget the a million or so marched against the Iraq war.
What made me chuckle was that those morons wanted 3 pretty incompatible things: jobs, environmental measures and an end to the financial mayhem. Environmental measures strangle the economy and impact on jobs. Creating jobs by borrowing money screws the economy. Fixing the economy may involve losing some jobs and binning environmental measures. So what happens? Rent-a-Mob demand that someone magically do all 3.
I think they need more blows to the head to knock that nonsense out of them – luckilly pelting the police with missiles usually leads to precisely that kind of head injury!
[...] The Blame for the Violence [...]
A colleague of mine wondered down there at lunchtime, waved to the sky news camera to great cheer in the room, and came back.
What I find astonishing though is that you could clearly see that there were more photographers than protesters! It was a complete farce.
I just love the hypocrisy of these middle class, well paid, left wing journalists from the Guardian.
I expect them to have many an hour of dinner conversation with their other liberal and left wing chums reliving the horror of what they went through being on the front line. LOL. Maybe they will get PTS counselling and put in claims for visual trauma from the paper for making them view such things, whilst the injured Police Officers go to hospital for their wounds to be stitched up? Shame that they do not condemn the damage, the violence of the demonstrators, many of whom I expect will get a free holiday in Australia and a new car from Mummy and Daddy after they graduate from University to de-stress? Frightfully jolly, is this demonstrating, as long as the Police don’t fight back.
Heard a Muslim Council of Britain spouting in Trafalgar Sq about the US and UK in Afghanistan and that they should respect the peoples human rights there. He got all hot and bothered but not a mention that the Taliban and others are making women cover up, become second class citizens, not allowed in shops, unable to drive a car or work. I love the smell of this mans crap!
Great post.
Great slap down Mr Tory.
Shaun, I also found it amusing that so many groups of people with completely different agendas just got together with absolutely no purpose or objective. I think Rich’s point is also validated by this!
Monoi, that was a great idea, although I bet he wouldn’t have done it if he was wearing a pin-stripe suit.
And thanks BE.
Excellent.
He may have lifted the ‘police over react’ piece from a previous mass demo article written in the Guardian. They have been writing the same thing on every demonstration for years and years.
If anything the police were at their most restrained yesterday.Good for them.
Yer, it’s not the first time people have bemoaned the police ‘over-reacting’. It begs the question of what on earth they expected the police to do when confronted with a large and potentially violent set of protestors – just have a very British cup of tea and leave the banks and their employees to fend for themselves?
I’d heard the Police were ready to Taser anyone who got properly out of hand. They didn’t, as far as I know. What I really wonder is if its extra annoying for environmental protestors getting zapped as they bemoan the carbon created during the charging of the taser?
A few flamethrowers, nuclear devices and coal-powered police vans would have added to their misery.
But, but, LFAT. “Coal is clean” screams the little Arthur Scargill in my head…
Don’t fear – he’s being sent back to nullify the Policeman in my head and won’t cause anymore trouble. Honset.
The treatment of the protesters would have been a lot different in France. You hit a policeman, you’re not going to get off lightly.
On the sky coverage (no choice but to watch it, its broadcast all the time), there were clearly a few looking for trouble, surrounded by cameras. My understanding is that those guys doing the same thing in front of the CRS would have been taken out pronto.
Fiskadelic!
Me ‘at’s off to the duke.
Keep hitting them when we’re down – it’ll give you practise for kicking them when we’re up.
Good post, but let’s not forget George Monbiot’s Guardian piece, which was pretty astonishingly irresponsible, too.
It’s notable that the protestors didn’t manage, as far as I can see, to get anywhere near Canary Wharf. Perhaps that’s because the private security team that looks after the Wharf is enormous, well-drilled and staffed mainly by ex-military types whose patience with this sort of behaviour is probably rather limited.
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