Time to Let the Police Fight Back

It is difficult to know where to start with Saturday’s “March for the Alternative.”  Do I comment on how, despite the name, no alternative except for “spend more, tax more and deny the deficit at all costs” was put forward?  Do I challenge the protesters’ claim to represent the majority of Britons, when considering the turnout was around 400,000 they cannot even claim to represent the majority of public sector union members (approximately 4 million) even if one ignores the fact that the majority of the crowd were students and rent-a-mob?

My initial thought was to point out that the Suffragettes, the American Civil Rights movement and the South African anti-apartheid movement that Ed Miliband unironically tried to compare the protest to, were all fighting for freedom from state tyranny, not trying to impose such tyranny on others as the radical marchers wish to do.


Yet as I thought of the above, all made me chuckle and shake my head.  The thing that made me really angry about the whole march was the left’s treatment and disregard of the police, and I do not just mean the violent minority.
As much as the left in both Britain and America try and stoke up fear about the rise of the “violent right”, such groups have absolutely nothing on the organisation, aggression, and sheer violence of the violent left.  Every time there is a G8 protest, a tuition fees protest, or an anti-cuts protest, you can guarantee that London is getting smashed up, and police officers will be injured.

We knew this for weeks, and yet organisers and marchers seemed not to care either before or after.  The organisers were too busy worrying about whether the police response would be a bit too rough for their liking, and the so-called non-violent protesters on the day were cheering the violent ones on, not calling for them to stop.  The most telling of pictures is the one that accompanies this article – one violent protester attacking a police officer, while three grinning lefties film the officer with glee in the hope that he retaliates so that they can send their images off to the BBC as evidence of “police brutality.”


After the march, there have been the typically vague statements of “regret” by organisers of the violence, yet such statements seek only to assure us that they were “a minority” instead of showing genuine remorse for the violence, destruction of private and public property, and injured Bobbies that they left in their wake.


Since then we have had articles in the Guardian informing us that actually the violence is all exaggerated by the media.  The Guardian’s Michael White informs us about how wonderful and “carnival-like” the march was, describing the trespassing UK Uncut (who broke into private stores and defaced and smashed them up) as “wholesome”, and condemning TV for covering the hooligans and not the “real” story.


Well, the real story was that 31 police officers were injured, 11 of which were taken to hospital.  Protesters used smoke bombs, petrol bombs, and light bulbs filled with ammonia – all three of which can kill a police officer.  But instead, the left are more concerned that the camera didn’t pick up on their “witty” signs.


We have seen no videos of police getting injured, we know of none of the names of the officers, nor have there been any interviews with the officers in question to see if they are okay.  We do not even know what the injuries are that they received.  Yet all the “non-violent” protesters were lurking with their phones and cameras, waiting for that moment of police “brutality” that they can run off with to the BBC, howling like a child with a bruised knee at the injustice of it all.
Whenever a protester is injured, we are told about it at length and in detail, along with interviews with the “victim” about how scarred and traumatised they are by the whole thing.  We are lectured constantly about the sheer, unadulterated horror of kettling – the “controversial” (so says the Guardian) tactic by which our poor, persecuted student revolutionaries have to suffer the indignity of standing around for a bit.  Yet, cave a police officer’s head in with a piece of wood, and no-one seems to care -just as long as no-one hurts one of our precious Che wannabes.

What is so abhorrent about this whole process is that 31 officers didn’t need to be injured on Saturday.  Yet, the Met have bowed to the pressure of the professional left who howl about how shocked and appalled they are whenever an officer dares to swing a baton in the direction of a protester.  It has resulted in a softly softly approach that only served to put police officers in danger of serious injury or worse.


It is time to stop kowtowing to the professional left and to start protecting our officers by allowing them to fight back against these cowards posing as revolutionaries.  If these latte drinking Bolsheviks want a fight, then fine.  They can bring their ammonia filled light bulbs, and our boys in blue will bring tear gas and a good baton swing – let’s see who goes home crying to Mummy.