The State We Are In

'Mounted and riot police later divided the protesters between two fronts: one on Great George Street and the other at the mouth of Whitehall.', reported the Evening Standard of the demonstrations against the war criminal George Bush and his 'British' Prime Minister nose-picker. So far, so as it always was, although the aluminium lathis have a retrograde, imperial smack to them that was not present in Angels' demonstrating days.

'"Snatch squads" then patrolled the area, arresting people who had earlier been filmed by officers and highlighted as troublemakers.' This is not standard at all. There used to be spotters pointing out people to arrest to officers while the demonstrations were at their height, but sending organised gangs of policemen to arrest demonstrator/by-standers after the struggle has died down, on surveillance camera viewing, is a development from Ireland's Troubles (and doubtless Aden, Malaya and other 'emergencies').

Arresting a demonstrator in the thick of a fight with the police is one thing; picking up suitable accusees chosen solely for propaganda purposes belongs in what were once other political hell-holes.

So now demonstrators face rastrellamento (the Fascist practice of locking in a body of protesters and then holding them there for hours, often in blazing sun or other extreme weather conditions, beating up any attempting to break out or even sit down), armed assault (the Raj practice of permitting an organized, authorised demonstration and then attacking the people with everything from boot and fist, staves, to gunfire), and snatch squads (the Soviet and east European-developed technique, used widely too in Northern Ireland) of arresting nominated victims after the event to cause the greatest fear-inducing effect among potential future dissidents.

The oppressed people learn to cope with all of these, and still the regimes are overthrown. It is our turn to learn now. We have learned there is no longer such a thing in Brown's 'Britain' as a peaceful demonstration; it will be precipitated invariably into violent confrontation and consequent arbitrary arrest.