London Police

It's been a while since the G20 and the death of Ian Tomlinson, but new video footage of the police behaving appallingly continues to surface, from the minor (but illegal) act of refusing to identify themselves to the more serious acts of police assault (towards the end, one officer appears to knee a protestor in the family jewels, and all the officers appear to be trying to cause serious danger to the crowd by repeatedly crushing them into a confined space).

If you can get over the annoying middle-class-teenage-whinyness in the voices of those taking the video footage, then there's serious issues here, and I shouldn't have to point them out. But I will anyway.

The police must be accountable for their actions, and they must remain neutral at protests. It's not their job to interfere with a peaceful protest, and it's certainly not their job to assault people who are doing nothing illegal. They are there to keep the peace in a neutral fashion.

When did police assault become an acceptable tactic for policing peaceful demonstrations?

It's odd that the police attacking hippies and students is now kind of common place and seen by many as just another demo.

I've never been to a major demo, though I would have been to the one prior to the invasion of Iraq if I hadn't been ill. Normally I simply whine a lot, which makes me feel better for much less effort. But now I'm waiting for somebody to organise a demo specifically against the London Police, so I can attend.

I figure I may as well exercise my right to peaceful protest while I still can. But if I'm near the front, I'll be expecting to get a few hard knocks from the police, even if I do nothing but stand still.

It's sad that while I still have the right to protest, I am a little nervous about actually doing so. But maybe that's the whole point.

Scary.