Very glad to learn of your protests against the appalling programs being inflicted on England, and hope they awaken others to what is happening. I happen to have returned recently from Mexico, a poor country, unlike the US and UK. I was privileged to speak at the national university, UNAM, and was again impressed by its high quality. Ten years ago the government attempted to introduce tuition, but backed down in the face of mass student protest. It remains free.
Student protests: Met under fire for charging at demonstrators Video footage on YouTube shows mounted police riding at speed into a crowd of around 1,000 protesters in London
The video shows mounted police advancing towards protesters at 1min 10 secs
Scotland Yard is under pressure after video footage emerged of police officers on horseback charging a crowd of protesters during a demonstration against increases in university tuition fees, 24 hours after they denied that horses charged the crowd.
Footage posted on YouTube showed mounted police riding at speed into a crowd of around 1,000 protesters who had gathered south of Trafalgar Square on Wednesday night.
The footage of the horse charge came as Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, declined to rule out joining future demonstrations against fees increases. Asked on BBC radio if he would join future protests, Miliband said: "I was quite tempted to go out and talk to them [the protesters]. Peaceful demonstrations are part of our society. As Labour leader I am willing to talk to people who are part of them."
The Tories accused him of "dithering" over the issue.
At a meeting of the Metropolitan Police Authority the day after the protests, the Met's commissioner, Sir Paul Stephenson, was asked if there had been horse charges at the protests. He replied: "I was at the debrief last night, there was no reference to that whatsoever and I have no reference to it."
The Met was also accused last night of provoking protesters into criminality. Another piece of footage from a Sky News cameraman 12 minutes before the police decision to contain the protesters showed demonstrators milling around by a police van, which the Met said they had abandoned because "officers felt vulnerable". The video has now given rise to accusations that the van was left deliberately to "bait" protesters. It was later vandalised.
At Thursday's MPA meeting, Joanne McCartney, a MPA member, pressed Stephenson to clarify the situation over the horseback charge by officers. He said: "Of course I will, but in doing that I don't want to then create a headline saying I'm acknowledging something's happened."
Later that day, a Met spokesperson said: "Police horses were involved in the operation, but that didn't involve charging the crowd." The spokesperson said horses may have been used "to help control the crowd for everyone's benefit", but added "police officers charging the crowd – we would say: no, they did not charge the crowd."
In a statement after the YouTube footage was posted, the Met said: "The use of police horses to disperse and distance the crowd was an appropriate and proportionate tactic at that time in the given circumstances."
The force's public order tactics have been under intense scrutiny following last year's controversial handling of the G20 protests, which resulted in the death of newspaper seller Ian Tomlinson. The force was later investigated by the Independent Police Complaints Commission over allegations it "deliberately misled" the public over Tomlinson's death. The IPCC concluded its inquiry last year, but the findings have yet to be published.
The video of the police charge was taken when students, some hurling missiles at police, congregated to call for the release of fellow protesters trapped inside a police cordon for six hours. The footage was shot by Fred Tscepp, a 22-year-old graduate, from Brunel University.
The charge – believed to be one of two horse charges in the space of an hour missed by TV cameras – sparked panic in the crowd, which included school pupils, at least two mothers who had come to collect children and a pregnant woman.
It is not uncommon for police to use horses in public order scenarios, but charges into crowds are rare.
The charges in London took place without warning around 7pm, after a line of officers holding back the crowd on Whitehall suddenly parted, allowing mounted officers waiting behind to surge through.
McCartney, a Labour representative, said she would seek further clarification from the commissioner. "[Sir Paul's] was a response I expected, however knowing what happened at the G20, a lot of evidence came out later from citizen journalists, and it was quite clear when I mentioned the charging that he wasn't aware that there had been that activity with horses, that he hadn't got all the information there, but we'll have to wait and see I think."
Eleven witnesses came forward to confirm they were charged by horses around 7pm, in an incident that was also witnessed by journalists.
Moments after the horse charge, the video shows a pregnant woman in considerable distress. The radio station LBC identified the woman, named Anastasia, who said she was pushed by the horse into a corner. "I thought: 'That's the end of me and the baby' – that's the idea that went through my head," she said.
Sara Tomlinson, 45, and Margot Turner, 55, two mothers, also confirmed they were charged when they arrived to collect their children, who were being "kettled".
"We were running and trying not to fall over," said Tomlinson.
Jenny Love, 22, who graduated from Bath University in July, said: "When the horses charged I was fairly near the front of the demo, where we were very tightly packed in, and found myself very quickly on the floor where I assumed the foetal position and covered my head while people simply ran over me."
Yesterday student occupations were continuing in at least nine universities – including sit-ins in Leeds, Cambridge, Manchester, Edinburgh, University College London, Brighton, Newcastle and the School of African and Oriental Studies in London. More than 16,000 people are signed up for the next day of action on Tuesday.
Sir Alan Langlands, chief executive of the Higher Education Funding Council For England (HEFCE), warned yesterday that the row risks hitting institutions financially by damaging their reputation in the lucrative overseas student market. "There are a lot of risks attached to this," Langlands told the council's annual meeting in London.
"One of the things to think about is a loss of reputation. People are watching this very carefully indeed."
The government plans to raise the basic threshold for tuition fees at English universities to £6,000 a year, with institutions allowed to charge up to £9,000 in "exceptional circumstances".
Joined: 24 Jun 2006 Location: Lost Londoner ..Nr Philly. PA
Posted: Wed Dec 01, 2010 3:56 am Post subject:
Quote:
If these are students committing violent acts, they are going to be in for a shock when they graduate College and go out into the real world. This type of behavior will not get them anywhere in life in general, except perhaps the slammer. A thumbs up to the coppers who manage to catch any of these little wretches vandalizing or breaking shit. Unfortunately, they'll probably only get a slap on the wrist even if they do get caught.
"Joe Chapman
10 December 2010 at 17:59
I think many people in these comments do not appear to understand the politics of this country or its history.
The previous Labour Government was not socialist. Like the Tory governments before it, it was neo-liberal.
Since the times of Thatcher the people of this country have had their aspirations preyed upon in order that the minority of people with a disproportionate amount of the wealth and power can gain more wealth and more power.
We have been pacified by being given the idea that we can acheive our aspirations by getting into debt and living beyond our means.
This has had a knock on effect right the way through society both nationally and globally. The imbalance and divide between rich and poor has increased and most of us have not realised this because we have lived our lives on credit. Our relative wealth (relative to how things were before the 1980s) has been an illusion.
We have allowed our society, our country and our government to be ruled by big business and making a profit.
Our manufacturing industries have been destroyed. Small businesses have been destroyed by big business such as Tesco who pay farmers less for a pint of milk than it costs the farmers to produce. Farmers have quite literally committed suicide as a result.
We have been scared into allowing governments to spend billions of pounds of our money on a stockpile of 200+ nuclear warheads purchased from Lockheed Martin of USA. Even if you still believe we need a nuclear deterrent how many nuclear warheads do you think it takes to wipe out millions, potentially billions of people or put off a mad man from bombing us?
Our police force should be there to protect us in the streets but is rarely there. Instead we have glorified civilians with little power called PCSOs who also aren't there much of the time. People get stabbed, robbed and then right down to the small issues which breed inconsideration in society such as cycling on the pavement or spitting which are now tolerated, ignored or even laughed at by the police. Instead the police are only seen out in force when they are protecting the property of big businesses owned by companies like Vodafone who potentially owe us billions in tax or other tax dodgers such as Phillip Green. Instead of protecting us in the streets the police are set upon us to protect a government which is itself in the pockets of big business.
Because we've all lapped up consumerism and ignored basic manners and consideration for each other we have allowed this creeping rot to set it. Then when we notice it instead of sacrifing things, getting together and taking action against it on the whole with just moaned about how politicians are all the same, we've been apathetic and not bothered to vote or voted for the same people who have manipulated us all along.
People have forgotten that there is a direct correlation between who you vote for (or not voting at all) and the state of the country both locally and nationally.
We occassionally complain about the main 2 or 3 parties being all the same yet don't look around or past that.
Politics and government is run by big business. The main parties are funded by the rich. The Tories spent £400,000 on a single billboard advertisement in the run up to the election. Imagine what your local school or hospital (if you've still got one) could have done with that money. It's obscene.
Because the main parties are all about money and big business it means that we have a government that is run for big business instead of for the people who are supposed to have elected it and whom the government is supposed to represent.
People who spend their time pointing out violence amongst protesters are missing the point. This country and our albeit fragile democracy was not founded by people who complied with the establishment all of the time. Sometimes there comes a point when people are pushed too far. When we are told that we are all in this together by people who can afford to pay someone to clear the snow and ice off their drives whilst the local council is bled dry and people with their own jobs to do are expected to go out and do it as part of the Big Society.
All the time this is happening our top companies are still making record profits for what is really a handful of shareholders. Even the majority of shareholders are just there as padding, they are gambling and keeping the system afloat for the rich.
After so many years of pessimism, moaning and apathy we ended up with a generation or two that knew no different. What a breath of fresh air it is to find out that out of that generation a new wave of students, young people and others have the balls to question, challenge and take action even when the risks to themselves are so great. They could have just stayed at home and watched the X factor as we expected them to do so.
I am so pleased and proud that they didn't stay at home and be the kind of vacuous, self serving inviduals that hang around newspaper websites and the like moaning about other people standing up for what they believe in whilst offering little or nothing constructive.
This is just the beginning, I am not a student, I don't consider myself to be a young person anymore, I do not condone violence but I will stand up for what I believe is right and I will not be put off by bully boy tactics from this government using the police to oppress the people and justify the rancid, selfish ideology of the few."
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Except I'm not necessarily averse to a bit of violence - especially against the state or its tools when they are so ready to use indiscriminate violence themselves.
This video shows a guy with cerebral palsy having been dragged out of his wheelchair and across the street by a cop who had run over to him. He then had to be dragged away by his cohorts, but I'd imagine that was because they were scared rather than because they thought he'd done wrong.
The cop is nothing more than a street thug who only got away with getting a beating from the people there because he had a uniform on. Would he have done anything like it without the protection his uniform gives? The pathetic fucker.
jody mcintyre is his name, he gave a great performance against some twat news presenter on the bbc the other day - the bbc 'received a considerable number of complaints' because of it
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