21 December 2010

Police Violence and Media Propaganda





Below is an interview with student protester, Jody McIntyre. 

I am not sure which is more shocking. The fact that the police in London pulled this sufferer of cerebral palsy out of his wheelchair and dragged him across the tarmac, or this shockingly biased and agenda driven interview by none other than the BBC, who are supposed to remain balanced and impartial.


One has come to expect the police at such demonstrations to take the side of the State against the public, but note the role of the Established media in defending the indefensible on behalf of the Government. Luckily, the gross incompetence of this presenter and his bias here makes the propaganda obvious to most. Everyday media propaganda is usually more subtle.


7 comments:

  1. There is nothing wrong per se with a policeman removing a person from a road who refuses to move aside, disabled or not, we should not discriminate.

    Remind me Monty, did you vote for or against the offensive conduct law in the States? The very law that empowers Jersey police to act as arbiters of what constitutes offensive conduct and to arrest people as they please. These same police who can arrest someone for not obeying their orders, not matter how unreasonable. I think you should look to the powers that Jersey Police have which far exceed those that the UK police do.

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  2. Biased and one sided - YES! A disgraceful piece of interviewing. Luckily this young man was able to hold his own, which I think rather riled the interviewer. I had already watched him on a breakfast TV programme questioned by a sympathetic female presenter and she got the same answers to similar questions in a far more professional manner.

    As for the shocking behaviour of the police, nothing, but nothing can excuse this sort of reaction. Sadly it is something we are becoming more and more used to seeing, and I would actually give some credance to Jody's claim that he believed it was done to provoke more reaction from the crowd.

    Quite sickening.

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  3. Monty

    The police are just as brutal in Jersey, and the lies which accompany the brutality are even more disturbing!

    The local MSM are just as reprehensible

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  4. Darius - I would beg to differ greatly with you. This young man, wheelchair bound and with cerebral palsy was hardly the number one threat in the throng. He himself said he could only get mobilised in his wheelchair by his brother pushing it. Fortunately his mental faculties are very intact which enabled him to be honest and articulate in his responses.

    Look at that footage again, and explain how you can justify THAT being reasonable behaviour whoever it was and whatever he was doing.

    You seem to be a man of little compassion Darius.

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  5. shocking journalism and Jody hits the nail on the head when he says the media are trying to distract issues. Shame the journo never answered his question whether he thinks a person in Jody's position is a threat.

    Darius, I dont think there was any need to drag him across the floor, non discrimantory or not, they could have pushed him in his wheelchair across the road instead. I cant believe the lack of shame these policemen in that incident must have.

    I agree with him that it could have been an act to incite violence because as soon as a peaceful protest becomes violent the whole point of the protest is no longer reported on as much as the violent part. What is unfortunate though is that some people will join any protest for an excuse for violence anyway but the peacefull protesters would probably be able to identify the problem areas themselves and perhaps point the police towards them instead of the police taking an all out everyone is a target of a baton approach.

    It looks as though the police in uk are starting to get the mentality shown in some other european countries whereby in a situation where they dont know who the real violent individuals are they go round and hit everyone on the basis that by doing so they will have at least hit the people that are causing the violence.

    It is highly unlikely all the police there were happy about the violoence by the police likewise the protestors being unhappy about violent protestors but there is one slight difference and that is the police are paid to protect not to dish out more violence.

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  6. Authoritarian responses to civil unrest are now common around the world and have been effectively condoned by liberal democracies. This is why it was such a terrible thing when the US and the UK began using or condoning torture because it tells the rest of the world it is okay.

    Kettling is just arbitrary arrest as far as I am concerned. You are being detained against your will without committing an offence. Are the police hoping to intimidate people into not going on peaceful demonstrations?

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/video/2010/dec/21/metropolitan-police-kettling-student-fees-demonstration

    The guy who was dragged from his wheelchair was not a threat and was not doing anything wrong. Ian Tomlinson who was beaten and killed at the G20 protest while coming home from work was doing nothing wrong. The police are just using violence against people to deter them from being on protests, regardless of whether those people are on a protest or not.

    I don't think people in Britain generally realise how civil liberties have been rolled back in the last 15 years. Stop and Search, ASBOs, Restriction Zones, surveillance, the RIP laws, detention without trial, Control Orders, suspension of your assets without a hearing, to name a few.

    You now cannot demonstrate without asking the police's permission first. Any more than 5 people on the street together is an 'illegal gathering.

    Add to that, nearly every government now has mechanisms in place to filter what you see on the Internet. We need Liberty and WikiLeaks. And Neil McMurray :)

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