Monday 2 August 2010

Here's A Saving We CAN'T Afford To Make...

Demonstrations. A perennial problem for the police. There's the huge costs, the risk of injury, and not just to the police.

So, you can understand why some of the police chiefs would like to ban them, if they could, and freedom of speech be damned. Luckily, in the UK we have oversight of the police by Police Authorities, who help to rein in the...

Oh. Oh, bugger:
Police should have the option of banning public demonstrations to help the force cut costs, a leading Croydon and Sutton police authority member has said.

Cabinet member Steve O’Connell questioned whether dissenters should continue having the “luxury” of public protest as the Metropolitan Police prepares to cut 25 per cent from its budget.
Let me help you with that one, Steve, since it seems you're hard of thinking.

The answer's 'Yes'. It isn't a luxury, either. It's a right.
Speaking to the Croydon Guardian after the meeting, Coun O’Connell said such proposals would only affect large scale protests such as the G20 and Tamil anti-war demonstrations.

He said:”I’m not pursuing a position where we ban demonstrations - it’s a British tradition.

“But we’re looking at a minimum of 25 per cent (police) budget cuts, and if we’re going to look at things like Safer Neighbourhoods and operational policing we need to look at everything.

“The large majority will go ahead, but there are demonstrations like the Tamils and G20 that are so large the police are chucking enormous amounts of resources at them.”
So, you'd ban 'large demos' only. But you're not about 'banning demonstrations'.

OK, well, that's clear...

4 comments:

MTG said...

Finally some words of wisdom. You know it has become far too dangerous for any citizen to protest.

English Viking said...

I actually think that if an organisation wants to roam the streets with load hailers, usually protesting about a load of old rot, they should be allowed to, so long as THEY cover the costs.

Why should I pay for a load of scruffy hippies and muslims to be allowed to attack the Israeli embassy every few weeks?

JuliaM said...

"Finally some words of wisdom. You know it has become far too dangerous for any citizen to protest."

Hence we will see more of the 'professional protester'. The ones that usually cause the trouble. And there will be more assaults. And more calls for this sort of thing.

And round and round it goes...

Why should I pay for a load of scruffy hippies and muslims to be allowed to attack the Israeli embassy every few weeks?""

That's easy. It's so that when YOU want to protest,you can...

English Viking said...

'That's easy. It's so that when YOU want to protest,you can...'

No, if I want to protest, I'm willing to pay for it. I don't expect others to do so for me.

Also, I'm sure you are aware of the numerous EDL marches (and such-like) that have been banned.