Friday, October 21, 2011

Riot police make sense for riots...

...But not so much for when peaceful protesters are peacefully protesting.  When that happens, and the police decide to take off their name-badges (Or so I hear, from those who were watching) and get all violent, it only makes them look bad.

I am not convinced that this movement travels as well as the organisers of the global companion protests hope.  That is, I think that the particular circumstances of the US make the protest much more meaningful there than it is in, say, Melbourne, Australia.  But if any government wants to build support for a protest movement, actions like the one linked to above are only going to help the protest.

One might also consider that the Victorian police force is not exactly renowned for being a shining beacon of professionalism.  Perhaps they should take more care of their public image, and refrain from senseless violent retaliation against peaceful protesters?

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Interesting also to read the comments to the above linked post.  A lot of people who are not just openly sympathetic to the protesters, but actively opposed to the restrictions that underly the government response.

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