Man-handling climate change protestors

[Leafyhouse]

Anyone else watch with horror as a climate change protestor was forcefully removed by Mark Field from the Mansion House speech? I mean, I'm no fan of political activism, 'direct action' and so on, but she wasn't presenting him with any direct threat, just shouting and being annoying. AIBU to think that his behaviour was totally unacceptable there?

But security people should have been on it more quickly and professionally.

That's a fair point, but an irrelevant one.

And the security in the actual event will have been primarily aimed at ensuring the event ran smoothly rather than providing close protection to guests, since routine checks on entry to the building will have ensured that no weapons were being carried.

Actually I read the letter that it was the local residents and businesses that had an issue and had approached him as their MP to see if he could do something.

The same as any MP would write and see if something could be done if a constituent had a problem with something.

Sounds like a pretty standard letter.

As an aside I am often on Oxford Street or in the vicinity most weekends and a lot of protests are fine, small and not really holding up pedestrians but every now and then you get the ones where they disrupt everything and it is a massive PITA

I wonder how many of you would be more than a little put out if your local town centre was out of bounds virtually every Saturday and Sunday because there is someone protesting about something or other

Regarding his letter, ironic that he called for the law to be applied to its full extent. I guess he won't have a problem with the law being applied to him, the .

Where we’re the security?! Someone had to get her out, so he did. Nothing to do with being male or female fgs. She crashed a private event and presumed no one would challenge her, but they did!! Tough

@Alsohuman , actually quite a few posters have been on here to say he must beat his wife because he looks like he does.

I have no problem with the law being applied to him to the full extent, if the CPS choose to prosecute him where the police forward something to them. Why wouldn't I?

Nobody “had to get her out”.

He was totally over the top in his reaction but it was also so odd that there didn't seem to be any security.They could have been a serious security risk.

Someone had to get her out, so he did.

Yeah and didn't he look like he fucking enjoyed it as well. He was ready and waiting to teach that young lady a lesson and looked very comfortable doing so.

Grim.

All women have to agree with you or they’re “sad”. Is that right, @smilethoyourheartisbreaking?

How little you trust individual women to make up their own minds, trust the evidence of their own eyes and ears, and the wisdom of their own experience, and arrive at their own conclusions.

No - either we all toe the party line, or there’s something wrong with our thinking. We’re “ingrained with a devalued sense of women’s place in society” and it’s “astonishing”.

Have you any idea how patronising this sounds? No wonder so few women think of themselves as feminists.

I’m a woman and I’m happy to defend Mark Field. His actions, in the heat of the moment, were justified.

But then I don’t see the world through the ideological lens of “men oppress women”. If I did, I could quite understand how you would interpret what happened in the way you do, and women who support this MP’s actions as engaging in ideological wrong-think.

The woman has been on television saying she doesn't want to press charges.
It would have been interesting to see if the CPS think there is a case to answer.

• ^As an aside I am often on Oxford Street or in the vicinity most weekends and a lot of protests are fine, small and not really holding up pedestrians but every now and then you get the ones where they disrupt everything and it is a massive PITA

I wonder how many of you would be more than a little put out if your local town centre was out of bounds virtually every Saturday and Sunday because there is someone protesting about something or other^

you've just contradicted yourself in multiple ways. How can you be in Oxford street most weekends if it's out of bounds virtually every weekend? You said every now and then there are disrupting protests. Again, that's not the same as every weekend...

We have a right to peaceful protest in this country. It's one of our underlying principles.

Total failure on bolding and italics there! I was quoting Oliversmumsarmy stupid ipad user issues

I really don't the like disruptive tactics that activists use, I think it's ineffective and turns opinion against whatever cause they are fighting for. Had I been at that dinner I would have been angry at people barging in to disrupt it.

That said, he behaved like a violent thug. Even if you accept the argument that he didn't know she was not a physical threat he could have summoned security to deal with her or confronted her or blocked her without shoving her and as for grabbing her around the neck, that made me feel sick to watch. I had a strong visceral reaction as that was exactly how a stranger grabbed me and tried to drag me with him when I was walking alone to a restaurant in New York years ago. I hadn't thought about that in years but watching the MP's actions brought it back like it just happened. I'm trying to avoid coverage of the incident now.

This is from a barrister, on Twitter. It really doesn’t seem to me that anyone on here can credibly argue with a barrister about this.

‘Looking at the #MarkField incident with my barrister's hat on: there is, prima facie, a common assault by him against the lady. She is not a threat to him and the generic 'she is a protestor, therefore may be a threat' would give anyone a right to assault anyone protesting.’

Protest is meant to be disruptive

Have you any idea how patronising this sounds? No wonder so few women think of themselves as feminists.

Oh dear, you disagree with another woman so you can’t be a feminist do you have any idea how unintelligent that sounds? Whether or not you agree with the woman next to you, or whether someone has ‘patronised’ you, should have no bearing on your own personal principles. Grow up.

Looking at the #MarkField incident with my barrister's hat on: there is, prima facie, a common assault by him against the lady. She is not a threat to him and the generic 'she is a protestor, therefore may be a threat' would give anyone a right to assault anyone protesting.’

^ this.

The reason people think this violent act is ok, is because of the really crap attitude British people have towards protestors, stemming from your class system really. You like to look down on certain groups, and then they can be treated any way you like. Add that she’s female and it’s really going to get people excited. It’s like a sport in this country.

She had no right to be there. He didn’t know if they were armed or what their intentions were. He did no lasting damage, indeed significantly less than a milkshake which the woke left thought was fine on Farage. You don’t have a right to protest on private land, if you do this you run risks and they were happy to take their chance. I wish security had done their job but I’m not really bothered by this. Even more ridiculously we’re the only country who’ve said CO2 neutral by 2050, why were they protesting?

Another one here who doesn’t think he was more aggressive than he needed to be to restrain what was a security threat.

He didn’t do anything he didn’t need to do to take her out and it wasn’t because of gender

There’s an excellent editorial on the incident here, warning how Mark Field has lowered the bar: www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jun/21/the-guardian-view-on-mark-field-at-mansion-house-playing-the-thug

I doubt that any of the apologists for male violence on here will read it though.

@JessicaWakefieldSV
She was not removed for protesting, but trespassing. A world of difference. And I have seen a legal opinion that says his actions were entirely justified. It was from a law lecturer at Liverpool university.

My DP is in security and takes his job pretty seriously.

I showed him this video and asked, is this reasonable force?

He laughed at me and said, "he throws her against a pillar and puts his hands round her neck....of course it's not, unless she was carrying a knife or a gun..."

He says definitely assault. I agree.

Buster72 please provide a link to the legal opinion from the law lecturer at Liverpool University.