THE Group of 20 (G20) Thread (merged)

[smallpoxgirl]

Police behavior for these sorts of events is routinely and systematically abusive. Every one of these events includes a budget for the millions of dollars in civil rights abuse lawsuits that the city will lose because they behave in a routinely abusive and illegal fashion. Being assaulted by police officers and slammed into the ground while you're trying to walk home from work is absolutely enough stress to produce a fatal heart attack in a vulnerable individual. There is absolutely no excuse for beating up innocent people because they're in your way. None. Pegging this on a single cop though is a huge miscarriage. These jerk offs will be in another city next year holding the same sort of conference. Citizens in that city will be just as pissed off, and the police will be forced to resort to illegal tactics to protect them from the constituency there too. This death needs to be hung right where it belongs. Square around the neck of Barack Obama and all the other abusive rulers of the g20.

[johhnytrash]

He had his hands in his pockets and he was impeding police formation. In a protest situation, that's looking like someone with a concealed weapon. For the police to be safe, they need to form that line. I don't know if you can say for certain that the cop was 100% wrong. Now the cop punching the grinding the face of the guy they are arresting from the subsequent post ... THAT cop is scum.

Police aren't there to protect you, they are there to protect property from you. Laws give them authority and they are trained to submit people anyway they can. I give them a wide a berth as I can. I don't trust them. They are like hungry predators, waiting for you to give them an excuse to kick the crap out of you. I'm not surprised by any police brutality that I see. Angered and sickened, but not surprised.

And when the peak comes and anarchy starts to leak into the system we can expect more brutality, not less. And if the cops go away, the organizations that will fill the vacuum can be expected to be even more brutal and less restrained in the use of force. There is no solution. People suck.

[Chuckmak]

He was walking too slow so they would have had to go around him to get to the crowd and he had his hands in his pockets. Hands in pockets means possible weapon. That is what cops are trained to do. Those police have likely been hitting and shoving people all day. This guy is nothing different. What was different was the guy probably would have been in a Suit and tie if not for the protests. Who goes to work dressed like that? He is probably a pigman banker anyway who was hanging a bit too close under the cops nuts and got bitch slapped for it. I am not really feeling any sympathy for this guy.

We live in an evil time full of evil people under an evil system. There are no innocents.

oh will you shut the f*ck up...damn.

[Dreamtwister]

Between London's CCTV system

Which had been deactivated

and all the journalists on scene

Who either work for the very same corporations who are profiting from this, or are independant and therefore not taken seriously

I'm sure someone has the footage to either prove or disprove those allegations.

There's footage right in front of you.

Also a complete autospy will probably either confirm this or rule it out.

You must be the last true believer out there. How many times per year are the crimes of police buried by their investigators, or left unprosecuted by the courts?

However from the evidence that's immediately available in the video its hard to call the behaviour of Metropolitan PD reckless or dangerous once the perceived threat was handled the police moved on.

You need a new perscription for your eyeglasses. The "minimum level of force" would have been a 1/4 to 1/2 strength push to the upper back and shoulders, not a strike to the knees with a baton, followed by a tackle.

[Jotapay]

After reading mefistofeles post, I know what Morpheus meant when he said that some people wired into the Matrix will actually defend it....

[smallpoxgirl]

You need a new perscription for your eyeglasses. The "minimum level of force" would have been a 1/4 to 1/2 strength push to the upper back and shoulders, not a strike to the knees with a baton, followed by a tackle.

I disagree with even that. The minimum level of force would have been a conversation.

"Sir we need you to move"
"Sorry. I had a long day at work. I've got arthritis. I'm just trying to get home."
"Well Sir, you need to walk faster"

There really is just no need to go beating on people just because they're in your way. That's one of those lessons of human behavior that you're supposed to pick up in kindergarten. Everything about that guy's body language says non-threatening.

[Quinny]

Sergeant Mefistofeles to you young man - now move along quietly now

Or I'll kick your f*cking head in.

After reading mefistofeles post, I know what Morpheus meant when he said that some people wired into the Matrix will actually defend it....

[rangerone314]

I laughed when I read the article, nothing really changes for the better ever.

Unfortunately police everywhere share 3 common traits:

1) They do not really usually PREVENT crimes from happening.

2) At best they are like garbage men cleaning up after a mess has already happened.

3) Generally, they are tools of the gov/elite (read: rich & powerful) who exist to suppress political dissent by people who realize that Republics / Constitutional Monarchies / whatever are just democratic window-dressing for plutocracy.

4) They are revenue agents for rent-seeking governments looking for revenue outside of traditional taxes (income, property, sales)

[mefistofeles]

Lol I'm obviously not going to win this debate. But it is good to see that respect for liberty is high on peakoil. I suppose it is better to err on the side of liberty than tyranny.

Which had been deactivated

Actually according to Sky London's CCTV system was active:

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/UK-New ... _Tightens_

[Dreamtwister]

Which had been deactivated

Actually according to Sky London's CCTV system was active:

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/UK-New ... _Tightens_

I don't know Sky News. I do know the Guardian. And the only footage I've seen was shot by an amature videographer who was on the scene - the same footage that is currently on Sky's front page.

So my source says they were off, yours say they were on, and the only footage of the incident we've seen comes from a third source.

[smallpoxgirl]

Which had been deactivated

Actually according to Sky London's CCTV system was active:

It's actually in the original article if you read carefully. They have 160 fixed cameras which were unaffected. They were trying to add another 60 mobile cameras, but were forced to shut them off.

[carrottop]

you know this sort of thing has went on for years, but because of cameras most people are just now waking up to this fact . these thugs that are in police uniforms are there for one thing that is to protect the rich & the elete not us ! though to get tax dollars they say they are .if you think this is not so , just wait it may be your turn next , for already people who have done nothing wrong has been killed by them . we have saw it here several times already.

[dorlomin]

These riots were consciously engineered by senior officers in the metropolitan police. Four marches set out to converge on the bank of England, the police created lines to prevent some of those marches from reaching their goal. This is contrary to official doctrine and contrary to subsequent statements. This was designed to frustrate and enrage the marchers. The police new ex WOMBLES, black block, CIRCA and others would be among the marchers as well as many unassociated with any political groups. Their aim was to enrage these people are provoke reactions. This was achieved when they started trying to break police lines to reach their destination; the justification for the subsequent violence. Once the first police line was broken low and behold an unboarded up unprotected branch of RBS was offered to the protesters. The police made no effort to defend the building inspite of being within 20 meters of it. 5





Thats right 5 people attacked this building.




5 people.


It was the scene that spread around the world as 'anarchy on the streets of London.

The police were already inside the building, probably FIT (forward intelligence teams: video crews who would have been on the roof).

The casual violence of the police (especially their storm troops the TSG) was utterly out of proportion of the levels of disorder inside the cordons and that disorder was fed by being penned in without food, water or toilet facilities for 8 hours.

The police actively prevented journalists from moving in and out of the area and actually went so far as to 'kettle' members of parliament acting as legal observers and deny MPs access to the Bishopsgate non violent sit in. The police now believe they can instruct the legislative where they can and cannot go to observe their handywork.

I posted a video of the early attacks on the Bishopsgate. You can clearly see protesters with their hands in the air chanting "this is not a riot" getting shields turned on their sides and used as a weapon, the improper use of police issue equipment to attack MOPs (members of the public) is assault.

All UK police in uniform have a FID or collar number on their uniform to identify them so they can be held to account for their actions by the British law. Many officers on this day had those numbers covered.

They swear an oath to uphold the queens peace and in return are issued with the queens uniform and a queens warrant to act as citizens in uniform maintaining law and order. Part of that remit is to facilitate free expression and political dissent even when laws are being broken (recently reiterated by the March 2009 Parliamentary committee on human rights investigation into protests). The thugs on the streets of London on the first of April removed their uniform by removing their identity numbers and disgraced themselves by actively seeking to break the Queens peace.

Their commanders have acted to no longer act as citizens in uniform and have instead chosen to act as an arm of the executive implementing political will not parliamentary law.

BUT they have made some mistakes.
-Their thuggary intersected itself into the chain of events that led to the death of a man.
-They have directly annoyed members of parliament of some influence and may have annoyed parliament itself.
-The attack on climate camp was filmed as widely recorded.
-Their senior officers have sought to ingratiate themselves with the home office by being malleable to the labour government. A government that is on its way out and its enemies on its way in.

Time will tell if they have stirred enough shit for a bit of blow back.

[dorlomin]

Over the past two weeks in the UK an utter sh*t storm has broken out. Between the death of Ian Tomlinson, the 'pre-emtive' arrest of 114 climate activists with no charges, the attack on climate camp, the arrest of tory MP Damien Green and the subsiquent fishing expidition on human right lawer Sami Chakrabati, the attack on climate camp, the attack at the Tomlinson vigil and loads more.........



Da police have some big questions to answer.

[dorlomin]

Ya feel me?

[argyle]

You need a new perscription for your eyeglasses. The "minimum level of force" would have been a 1/4 to 1/2 strength push to the upper back and shoulders, not a strike to the knees with a baton, followed by a tackle.

I disagree with even that. The minimum level of force would have been a conversation.

"Sir we need you to move"
"Sorry. I had a long day at work. I've got arthritis. I'm just trying to get home."
"Well Sir, you need to walk faster"

There really is just no need to go beating on people just because they're in your way. That's one of those lessons of human behavior that you're supposed to pick up in kindergarten. Everything about that guy's body language says non-threatening.

I second this!!!

[Sixstrings]

“The leaders of the G-20 are meeting to try and salvage their power and money after everything that has gone wrong,” said Benedicto Martinez Orozco, co-president of the Mexican Frente Autentico del Trabajo (FAT), who is in Pittsburgh for the protests. “This is what this meeting is about.”

The draconian security measures put in place to silence dissent in Pittsburgh are disproportionate to any actual security concern. They are a response not to a real threat, but to the fear gripping the established centers of power. The power elite grasps, even if we do not, the massive fraud and theft being undertaken to save a criminal class on Wall Street and international speculators of the kinds who were executed in other periods of human history. They know the awful cost this plundering of state treasuries will impose on workers, who will become a permanent underclass. And they also know that once this is clear to the rest of us, rebellion will no longer be a foreign concept.

The delegates to the G-20, the gathering of the world’s wealthiest nations, will consequently be protected by a National Guard combat battalion, recently returned from Iraq. The battalion will shut down the area around the city center, man checkpoints and patrol the streets in combat gear. Pittsburgh has augmented the city’s police force of 1,000 with an additional 3,000 officers. Helicopters have begun to buzz gatherings in city parks, buses driven to Pittsburgh to provide food to protesters have been impounded, activists have been detained, and permits to camp in the city parks have been denied. Web sites belonging to resistance groups have been hacked and trashed, and many groups suspect that they have been infiltrated and that their phones and e-mail accounts are being monitored.

Larry Holmes, an organizer from New York City, stood outside a tent encampment on land owned by the Monumental Baptist Church in the city’s Hill District. He is one of the leaders of the Bail Out the People Movement. Holmes, a longtime labor activist, on Sunday led a march on the convention center by unemployed people calling for jobs. He will coordinate more protests during the week.

“It is de facto martial law,” he said, “and the real effort to subvert the work of those protesting has yet to begin. But voting only gets you so far. There are often not many choices in an election. When you build democratic movements around the war or unemployment you get a more authentic expression of democracy. It is more organic. It makes a difference. History has taught us this.”

Our global economy, like our political system, has been hijacked by a tiny oligarchy, composed mostly of wealthy white men who serve corporations. They have pledged or raised a staggering $18 trillion, looted largely from state treasuries, to prop up banks and other financial institutions that engaged in suicidal acts of speculation and ruined the world economy.

They have formulated trade deals so corporations can speculate across borders with currency, food and natural resources even as, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, 1.02 billion people on the planet struggle with hunger. Globalization has obliterated the ability of many poor countries to protect food staples such as corn, rice, beans and wheat with subsidies or taxes on imported staples. The abolishment of these protections has permitted the giant mechanized farms to wipe out tens of millions of small farmers—2 million in Mexico alone—bankrupting many and driving them off their land.

Those who could once feed themselves can no longer find enough food, and the wealthiest governments use institutions such as the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the World Trade Organization like pit bulls to establish economic supremacy. There is little that most governments seem able to do to fight back.
http://www.obamasquagmire.com/?p=1870

Well, I guess we saw this one coming.. combat-hardened Iraq war vets keeping "civil order" here in the US. Now to be clear, I'm all for civil order.. but isn't having these high-profile globalization meetups sort of like rubbing crap in peoples' faces? Why can't they just have their meetings in Switzerland for crying out loud?

[rangerone314]

Well, I guess we saw this one coming.. combat-hardened Iraq war vets keeping "civil order" here in the US. Now to be clear, I'm all for civil order.. but isn't having these high-profile globalization meetups sort of like rubbing crap in peoples' faces? Why can't they just have their meetings in Switzerland for crying out loud?

Par for the course...

Let them eat cake

I wonder how they will "save" globalization when peak oil hits?

[eXpat]

i wonder how long till the rules of engagement are the same for Irak that for USA?
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5177956987382860214#

[AgentR]

One Mercedes driving Mexican elite once told his American, BMW driving friend, as they were sipping margaritas on the beach, "You gringos, you're making a big mistake, you have problems not because your workers don't make enough, you have problems because they make too much. Your workers, they whine and moan and gouge you for every last penny every time they see you; my workers, they tremble in my site, for if I were to be interested in saying anything to them at all, it'd be GET OUT OF MY SHOP! They'd then leave, and then starve."

This is all proceeding as planned, do not worry my children, soon you too will enjoy the security of making just enough to pay for your day's bread and cup of dirty water.