TheCoalman (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} thecoalman) wrote,@ 2003-11-19 17:24:00 |
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Gearing up for the protests
Yessirree. George has come to London, England to stay with Liz and talk up his bosom buddy Tony. After enjoying the last anti war march earlier in the year I'm heading up there again. Feelings are mixed though because the thought of several hundred trigger happy Americans is not one I'm happy to entertain. Especially when you add in how emotive a subject the Iraq War and general colonialist attitude of the West is (and that's before we even bring religion into it). If I were a terrorist though it's the last place I'd think about taking a pop at him. The big question really revolves around the British police force and their reaction to matters. It only takes one spark and you have a riot on your hands which really is not part of my intended agenda. But, the estimated numbers of like minded folk is up at around 300,000 so far and hopefully more people like myself and my friends will be going. If it gets to that many I really don't see the police doing anything other than keeping as low a profile as possible. Because no matter how you slice it: 14,000 police are not likely to be able to control a mob of several hundred thousand. For a while training and equipment count but once you reach a certain critical mass things are no longer controllable. So this really is a hopeful prayer to no deity in particular that both sides show restraint. And as Ken Livingstone said "let's not lower ourselves to the level of the person we're protesting against". Then again, I don't think it's necessarily fair to demonise a single person (namely Bush) for all this. He is, after all, just a figurehead for the faceless corporations wanting to increase their slice of the pie by all means fair and foul. If he resigned tomorrow we'd get another figurehead to implement the same policies. So, we should all spare a thought for that before our vitriol focuses on a single person. Hopefully I'll get some photos anyway so if I don't get trampled to death by a bloodthirsty mob or shot by overeager bodyguards I'll post them later.
Yessirree. George has come to London, England to stay with Liz and talk up his bosom buddy Tony. After enjoying the last anti war march earlier in the year I'm heading up there again. Feelings are mixed though because the thought of several hundred trigger happy Americans is not one I'm happy to entertain. Especially when you add in how emotive a subject the Iraq War and general colonialist attitude of the West is (and that's before we even bring religion into it). If I were a terrorist though it's the last place I'd think about taking a pop at him. The big question really revolves around the British police force and their reaction to matters. It only takes one spark and you have a riot on your hands which really is not part of my intended agenda. But, the estimated numbers of like minded folk is up at around 300,000 so far and hopefully more people like myself and my friends will be going. If it gets to that many I really don't see the police doing anything other than keeping as low a profile as possible. Because no matter how you slice it: 14,000 police are not likely to be able to control a mob of several hundred thousand. For a while training and equipment count but once you reach a certain critical mass things are no longer controllable. So this really is a hopeful prayer to no deity in particular that both sides show restraint. And as Ken Livingstone said "let's not lower ourselves to the level of the person we're protesting against". Then again, I don't think it's necessarily fair to demonise a single person (namely Bush) for all this. He is, after all, just a figurehead for the faceless corporations wanting to increase their slice of the pie by all means fair and foul. If he resigned tomorrow we'd get another figurehead to implement the same policies. So, we should all spare a thought for that before our vitriol focuses on a single person. Hopefully I'll get some photos anyway so if I don't get trampled to death by a bloodthirsty mob or shot by overeager bodyguards I'll post them later.
