Thanks for taking the time to put this together.

You know the bit where the riot cops came in and smashed your reality?

The tents were not packed away and the banners were not taken down. The whole climate camp was trashed by the cops who came storming in at 2am battering everyone and smashing down the tents! Before that there was a big stand off when hundreds of riot police tried to clear the camp around about 7pm in the evening. See this video footage of the first police attack on the camp:
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t244-zEENSs

"Concerned of Hampstead", your sarcasm and cynicism convinces no one, except maybe yourself.

Everyone else, thanks for your encouraging comments, this makes my hard work worthwhile.

However, my visit to London was very brief, so I didn't witness the sad end of Climate Camp brought about by state sponsored thugs with a uniform fetish (seems to be happening more now doesn't it?), but if anyone had the wherewithall and courage to take pictures of this, please post them as an addition to this article, because the more often these images get posted on the web, the more likely people will find them in search engines and be shocked by the brutality of the state.

A picture is worth a thousand word political thesis!
;-)

However, regardless of the Riot Cops doing their worst, just bear in mind that whatever they do to our bodies and property, they can never touch our souls, and that's where revolutionary spirit resides.

There will be another Climate Camp and we won't give up.

Change is coming whether the powers that be like it or not, because change HAS to come, lest the world we leave for our descendents is so trashed that it's just not worth living in.

Time has not run out yet.

Aww cameraboy you're getting all romantic and nostalgic on us.

But, what exactly is revolutionary about coralling yourselves into a street complete with riot cop vans parked on the sides, collaborating with opportunist Lib Dem MP's, getting young farmers (the bastions of revolutionary consciousness) to give out food, and hippies prancing around to Samba?

Keep dreaming along in your reduced Lilliputian world - there's social unrest right around the corner and it aint gonna be climate camp shaped. It's gonna be angry, righteous and revolutionary!

See you on the streets proper or get outta our way!

Now come on Concerned of Hamstead, stop being a silly police off...sorry, indymedia reader.

Who's reality was smashed here?

It wasn't really the climate campers, nor the anti-war heroes, nor those who were protesting against the corruption in the City of London and the financial crisis they brought about. Was it?

The reality that was smashed here was the reality of the Metropolitan Police SERVICE. Yes thats right, SERVICE...as in business service. With targets, bids and performance targets. The reality that says I am not a victim of crime, I am a customer. That I am not in need of protection, I am instead a business user. The reality that says the police operate in the public interest, but only if its financially viable.

What the police did on Wednesday was planned for a fight while at the same time offsetting the cost of that fight against next years budget settlement. Someone does the figures before-hand and if its doable: it goes ahead.

Its all business to you. The business of common thuggery.

Your reality was smashed this week. So get the dustpan and brush and get sweeping.

I agree with the above comment.

The police PLAN these attacks in advance, and yes they do even budget for the resources (including overtime) that is required to carry out these operations with almost military precision.

These tactics work on at least two levels simultaneously.

At street level it's about attempting to intimidate people into doing nothing and being good, obedient citizens ('ooh, these demos are dangerous places, I won't be doing this any more'), but it's also about provoking an equally violent reaction from the crowd - doesn't matter how many or how few respond - because they also know that the world's media is watching, and more corporate concerns can take the footage of protestors fighting the police and use it to discredit whatever else may have happened that day, therefore sending out a message to anyone else thinking of taking to the streets that this could also not only happen to them, but they could also be associated with 'these violent anarchists' - you know, the usual bunk we're fed.

Case in point: it's very telling that all the news networks concentrated on the destruction of property (long, lingering shots of masked up people smashing windows...) outside the NATO summit and showed only glimpses quite literally from a distance of the more peaceful protests that took place - in fact in the mainstream media the more peaceful aspect got very little airtime indeed.

What was that I hear..?

Oh yes, that's right, MEDIA BIAS AND SENSATIONALISM!!

SPECTACLE CULTURE STRIKES AGAIN!!

And when I talk of never letting the police break our spirit with such warmongering tactics I mean it, because if we let them break us down with such premeditated acts of thuggery, our kids may as well forget about having a planet that's fit to live on, as it'll get used up and spat out in the endless pursuit of short term monetary profit.

So no, I'm not being fluffy as you seem to be implying, I'm being both pragmatic and stubborn in the face of a system that doesn't give a shit about the long term fate of either the planet or the species that live on it.

Is it extinct..?

Oh well, we can still make a buck out of it, because we can either stick it's remains in a museum and charge people to see it (T-Shirts and books available in the museum shop at reasonable prices), or we can turn it into a cute computer generated cartoon character and sell it back to y'all that way too, and after this we'll do a state of the art game adaptation on the latest consoles, oh yeah and we'll sell you cute cartoon animal branded sugary soda pop while you're watching our movie about this extinct creature that was killed by capitalism.

"This extinction was brought to you by [add multinational of preference here]!"

Welcome to the future of planet Earth and all living things on it.

Unless we intervene.

Now, which side are YOU on, "Concerned Of Hampstead"?