1. the quality of that is awful.

2. The police are clearly giving people multiple chances to back off and move away from where they are trying to make an arrest? escort someone to/from that building? and are constantly being rushed by people. Its surprising that the officer not wearing the flourescent actually managed to remain so calm and had the courage and resolve to repeatedly risk being assaulted and give warnings when he had a justifiable and legal ground to strike people running at him.

How is that peacefull protest? You're all behaving like savages.

1. the quality of that is awful.

2. The police are clearly giving people multiple chances to back off and move away from where they are trying to make an arrest? escort someone to/from that building? and are constantly being rushed by people. Its surprising that the officer not wearing the flourescent actually managed to remain so calm and had the courage and resolve to repeatedly risk being assaulted and give warnings when he had a justifiable and legal ground to strike people running at him.

How is that peacefull protest? You're all behaving like savages.

3 mins
9.7 Mb
windowsmedia

 http://uk.indymedia.org/local/webcast/uploads/near-riot.20.3.03.512k.wmv

I wasn't trying to make any point by posting this, I just wanted to show how badly things had deteriorated. The police had a difficult job to do, and they were doing it badly. People were annoyed by the violent attitude that some officers had been using all day.

I apologise for the quality, you should remember that nobody gets paid for posting on indymedia. I've been trying to upload the high quality version.

You should also realise that most of the protestors here were schoolchildren, being charged by grown men with batons. Not much "courage and resolve" there in my opinion.

To be honset, in that clip, the officers were doing exactly what they're supposed to do. I didn't see them hit anyone, if you have proof of this of course you will upload it and show me.

The fact is, you can't deal with an aggressive protest (my description of an aggressive protest is one where the people will charge the police/whoever they are protesting against, and throw things - there's also a lot more they could do) by singing lullabies round a little camp fire, i.e. you have to be forceful with your words, to ensure they understand they can't throw things and charge and shout abuse at the police.

The police could quite legally have batoned quite a few of those protestors (incidentally I noticed 1 school child - I'm not saying there aren't more, but unless the other school children looked like grown adults, I didn't really notice any), as you only have to give 2 verbal warnings before striking them once, and can continue if you are continually charged/attacked.

At the end of the day, I can't see what you're moaning about. Protest against the war, sure, but the police did nothing wrong (either legally or morally) so don't complain about that.

And, in circumstances where an officer believes he is about to be subjected to immediate unlawful violence, he doesnt even have to give a warning.

It disgusts me that people are fighting an antiwar stance using violent protest... what sort of hypocrisy is that?

If you want to see someone hit by a policeman, fast forward to 1:36, where a policeman attacks a steward who could be seen earlier trying to calm the demonstration. The steward was left with a bleeding face. The policeman then went on to attack an ITN cameraman.

There was no verbal warning given by the police before they charged and used their batons at 1:25 into the footage.

For your information I would say that the majority of the people in this clip were aged about 16 or so. It may be difficult to see on a web video, but if you want further proof, just turn on your television and look at the broadcast reports.

If I'm complaining about anything, it's the failure of the police to deal with a peaceful demonstration in a peaceful manner. A girl was earlier left unconscious after the police used force against a sit-down protest, and the day before there were eye-witness accounts of girls as young as 10 being punched in the face by policemen. You think this is ok?

fast forwarded to 1:36 ... didn't see a policeman hit anyone. it seems its a bit open to interpretation, as all you see is someone on the floor (which DOESN'T mean he was hit by a policeman) and then the camera shake (which DOESN'T mean he hit the cameraman). Most likely someone tried to charge the police, as the protestors do throughout the video, and someone fell over. The cameraman then had to quickly move back, causing the camera to jerk.

If i took the clip as you seem to be, I could say it's quite obvious the police used tanks and armoured vehicles against the civilians, as the camera shaking obviously means there was an explosion.

Re; age of the people... I couldn't really say from that high quality clip you could all say they were under 16 as opposed to 20 ish, so we'll just have to agree to disagree on that one.

Also re: girls as young as 10 being hit, and a girl left unconscious - you don't give any details, and in addition to this there is no proof. The way i see it, if it's something that would stand up in court, i's good enough - not a hard and fast rule tho!

I do not believe for ONE minute that a police officer twatted a 10 year old girl in the face. This is bullshit. Stop telling lies. Everypiece of shit you add to the propaganda war does nothing but detract from legitimate protest.

Stop the War. Stop the lies.

I am sick and tired of people using the antiwar and anti capatalist banner to push their filth out and market it as truth.

It might not be clear in the web video, but in my footage it is clear that a policeman hits the steward. He falls back with his head to his hand and a few seconds later can be seen to be bleeding.

This happens when there is one person on the floor, and a steward and another protestor helping him up. The policeman attempts to hit the protestor on the floor, and ends up hitting the steward. The policeman then pushes the steward back, who is clasping his face.

You might not like it, but I saw it, and it is confirmed by the video I shot.

As for the reports of policemen hitting young children, I did not see that, but several children who were there told me that. Take a look around at the other reports on indymedia.

Regarding the age of the children, you weren't there, I was. I would say that makes my testimony more reliable.



The footage of the girl who was left unconscious by the police is here..

 http://www.uk.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=58140

I do have more information than you on what happened, because I was there, and I have the original footage. Maybe if the police would release the footage that they shot, we could settle this, and maybe take action against any officers who can be seen assaulting protestors?

A very grainy low quality avi that doesnt really let you see what is going on at first. It seems from my angle that this girl fainted or was crushed in the crowd. It doesnt look like shes been batonned. But again the quality of the film doesnt let you see that much detail. In addition, it seems the police's response when they are aware shes unconscious is to create a space around her and put her in the recovery position, having checked she is breathing and her airway is open etc. Not exactly the response you'd expect from 'brutal stormtroopers' you reds are accusing the police of being.

As for the steward being batonned.... if that did happen then from your own words he wasnt intentionally struck. An officer was dealing with a particularly agressive/irritating member of the crowd who was consistantly ignoring orders to get back and stop harassing the police who were in the process of arresting someone and the steward got in the way of a single baton strike aimed at this other invididual. Obviously thats part and parcel of the role and an unfortunate problem with having violent anarchists inthe crowd who care less about a peacefull antiwar banner and more about using any opportunity to cause annoyance to the police or disrupt peacefull marches to make their points.
Occasionally police officers themselves are struck by other officers whose batons miss their intended target.

You could argue its similar to J18 where anarchists began throwing bottles and pieces of curb at police lines outside the Liffe/futures exchange building and the majority of these hit the non violent protestors in the crowd. Then the pictures of them bleeding were stuck on the web with comments like 'police subjected the crowd to violence' trying to t people into thinking the police had caused the injuries.

Re the steward being hit, yes, that child lying on the floor probably was " consistantly ignoring orders to get back".

As for the girl who collapsed, she had been thrown out of the crowd and onto the floor by officers, as you can see happening to other children in the preceeding part of the footage.

Once again, I must apologise most wholeheartedly for the low quality of the footage. Next time I see police beating up children I'll set up my tripod and ask the police to move into shot.

Children who were at the protests spoke out against police brutality at today's rally in Hyde Park. They spoke of policemen punching 13 year olds. Don't believe them either?

if i believed everything little kids said (and that's excluding bandwagon jumping) i would think they never ever did anything wrong and were all little angels. so who are those kids i always see vandalising my area?
couldn't be the same kids.....COULD IT?

Witness accounts from children are acceptable in a court of law, but not by you.
You asked for evidence, I provided it, and you still don't believe the police used excessive force against children.
And now you're saying that the kids at the demo vandalise your neighbourhood. You really are priceless.