Yawning @ the repsonses
RE: markfiend
"Painting with a very broad brush aren't we?...." And referring to an event from the dreadful economic depression of just after the Napoleaonic Wars is not? Please tell me the last time you saw the Metropolitan Police deploy mounted cavalry complete with sabres.
RE: Rich Bryant 1
"....But coppers not wearing their numbers (purely and simply so that they can't be identified or reported for abuses of police power) is illegal....." Really? Never heard of undercover? I'm sure serious criminals such as druglords will love your childish attempts to make it difficult for the Police to operate incognito. And how do you know the coppers were not displaying numbers "simply so that they can't be identified or reported for abuses of police power" - you sure it wasn't so they stood a better chance of catching any illegal activities being practiced by so-called "protest organisers"? You may recall that organisers of such events also carry responsibilities for the behaviour of their protestors, especially if they use inflamatory speech to incite the rabble to do such delightful activities as what the G20 protestors did at the RBS and HSBC buildings in Threadneedle Street. Gathering evidence of such "organising" allows the Police to stop such groups getting permission for future protest marches as well as locking up the mugs that commit the actual crimes.
RE: Graham Marsden
"....You know, the ones that we fought a war to protect?...." I'm quite comfortable in guessing you've never fought any war anywhere. Oh, do you mean WW2, during which a pair of my relatives were decorated? Believe me, both of them were from working backgrounds and both would tell you exactly where you could shove your video cameras, in no uncertain terms.
RE: AC
"Ah, I see: any protest is terrorism, any protester is a terrorist...." Of course not, just like I shouldn't take your opening comment to reach the conclusion that you must be a complete tool. I had to read through to the end of your post to really cement that suspicion. But, should the pics of Police be distributed to those that subsequently use them to avoid arrest or to help them commit a crime, then the suppliers of the pics would have a legal case to answer to, even if it was just obstruction rather than the more serious interference in a Police investigation or aiding and abetting.
"....If the legislation says, for example, "sell land mines to any bloke in a military uniform and look the other way" just because it has for the last n years, it isn't inappropriate to bring that legislation to people's attention and to seek to improve it...." Which just highlights your own lack of knowledge. Against military advice, the UK signed up for the landmine ban. You need to keep more up-to-date with your trendy protest topics, or are you too busy quaffing frapachinos and discussing existentialism? You may have noticed that ban hasn't had an iota of effect on the Taleban or the "insurgents" in Iraq, whose illegal landmines and IEDs actually kill far more locals than they do US or UK troops, but does stop those same troops using mines to legally defend their bases. But I'm sure it bought Blair and Brown a few more votes from the naive, such as yourself.
"....These people may be "childish" to you, but they're acting in a way that strengthens our democracy....." Democracy is essentially a big fudge, where the majority gets the say, or the largest minorities strike a balance. Protests like these are from the tiniest of minorities, and because they cannot garner enough support to make the democratic system work for them. They won't get far becasue the majority simply don't believe them or support them. Just wait for your next local or national election and look for the numbers of these twits losing their deposits as protest candidates. The only thing they strengthen is the Police's argument for more funds, and other countries' arguments for hosting business offices elsewhere.
RE: Another AC (what, you think the Thought Police can't track your IPs?)
"....Well, if you think you'll have enough time to bulldoze a runway, unpack the fighter jet, take off and shoot him from the air before he hacks your arm off then by all means give it a try. We don't sell handguns, just weapons that can be used to keep entire populations under control (missiles, fighters, warships, chemical weapons etc)....." Actually, until Blair and co went all kneejerk and killed the UK firearms industry, we actually had a quite reasonable one. At one point, we even owned Heckler & Koch, which put us back in the premier league of firearms producers. Of course, our illustrious leaders sacrficed that profitable and legal business for a few votes and sold H&K back to the Germans, where it has carried on making a profit. But we still do sell arms to Third World countries, mainly old Army weapons such as SLRs, which get shipped to places like Sierra Leone. I'm told we also rather cheekily sold on a lot of what we captured from the Argies at the end of the Falklands War. After Britain started the mass cut backs triggered by the end of the Cold War it has become one of the largest shippers of second-hand kit (including handguns, rilfes, submachineguns, machineguns, mortars... need I go on?), which I hope really upsets you and your kind.
"....The reason that they are third world countries in the first place is often because more "advanced" countries are taking a HUGE slice of their GDP in exchange for arms....." Oh for Lawd's sake, haven't you guys moved on from the "it's all the nasty white man's fault" nonargument? Yes, don't tell me, we forced them to buy weapons from us, and we forced them into tribal wars and revolutions because we're just such bitter imperialists. Rubbish! The truth is companies that do business in places like Africa do so most profitably in times of peace. Just look at Sierra Leone - international companies paid for mercenaries to put an end to the fighting so they could get on with the business of making money, which they couldn't do with the RUF running wild. When international "do-gooders" protested to the UN and managed to get the payments to the mercenraies stopped, the RUF came back and the country was knee-deep in it again and the businesses packed up and left. Sierra Leone is a case where big "white" business wanted to end the fighting, not supply it, and it was the do-gooders that ended up perpetuating more war and suffering, to the delight of the largely African arms suppliers involved. Oh, didn't you know the vast majority of weapons supplied into Sierra Leone came from black arms dealers in neighbouring Liberia and Guinea, and near-bye Nigeria? Another big surprise - not!
But let's really upset you lot. All the London Police forces have done their sums and said they can't supply the manpower required for the security plans for the 2012 Olympics. To fill the gap, they will use private security companies, and they will supply - amongst other services - "intelligence gathering teams" that will do the similar work to that of the Police FIT units. Just to really upset you, companies bidding for the work include those that previously worked in Iraq and Afghanistan, and even an offshoot of the mercenary outfit that was involved in Sierra Leone. Is that the sound of libtard heads exploding? Don't forget to use that democratic process to air your dismay at your Government's plans to protect you. Enjoy!