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?

fiddle you don't think grabbing someone by the neck is abuse?

When you are twice as strong as them?

K.

pan we aren't discussing those events though. We're discussing this one, so it's irrelevant.

But the discussion has included farted out nonsense about there is "nothing more Tory" than this incident and that this is basically the entire Tory manifesto. So it isn't irrelevant to point out heavy-handedness at Labour conferences.

He looks far too controlled for me for it to have been an intuitive, spur of the moment action.
After Jo Cox's murder I think most MPs would have a plan for what to do in threatening situation. Perhaps he'd practiced the moves.
He got her out of the room and didn't injure her.

let us say that was in your place of work and someone did that to you, would you consider it ok? She was a woman protesting vocally not a suicide vest terrorist. There will have plain clothes officers in the crowd but the assailants response may well be seen as ott. If that was you or your daughter would you say it was acceptable and she 'got what she deserved' or would you be seeing a solicitor today?

fiddle you don't think grabbing someone by the neck is abuse?

When you are twice as strong as them?

K.

IAALU - in a word, no!

She was the intruder. He did not start the trouble. She was clearly intent on disrupting proceedings. She clearly was not going to leave by being politely asked. And I assume if she'd suffered lasting injuries we would know about it!

Yes, he's stronger than her, he's potentially able to hurt her disproportionately. But in fact he did not.

I can't believe the outcry around this. It's ludicrous. I cannot abide the Tories, I cannot abide bullying violent men, but he was clearly right.

People saying he grabbed her by the neck - he didn’t grab her throat in a strangulation, he pushed her head downwards by his hand on the back of her neck. I’ve seen police do that a million times - isn’t it a standard method of restraint?

Also, in the first few seconds, she resisted him so it wasn’t entirely one-sided initially.

Not to belittle the situation and turn anything into a game, but I kinda wish this was a voting thread. It’s so unbelievably divided; would love to know the actual numbers on both sides of the argument.

John Prescott punched a man because he threw an egg at him. And suddenly became a 'man of the people' with quite a lot of sympathy for reacting like this. Roughly escorting someone from a room seems quite tame in comparison. When you feel threatened, there is an instinctive fight or flight response. The law certainly allows you quite a wide latitude for responding to a perceived threat, as it should do.

It was disgusting.

Maybe they didn’t want the activists to disturb the human trafficked call girl orgy antics later on in the evening.

@Pedallleur There will have plain clothes officers in the crowd but the assailants response may well be seen as ott

I tend to doubt your opinion on that, because had there been, there is no way that protestor (her sex/gender is irrelevant) could have got that close and on her way towards the Chancellor. Or at the very least they'd have been up and taken over from Field escorting her out. They didn't. Ergo, it does look as if those media outlets reporting that there was no security are probably correct.

Which in itself is ridiculous.

Even if you are right and there were plain clothes officers there, where the fuck were they?

pan really? Is it amusing to you? the abuse of women?

Are you really going to play 'the abuse of a women' card? She was a loud disruptive protester marching with unknown intent towards a government minister, not some poor innocent women who was pounced upon while popping to the shops.

The sheer amount of hyperbole on here is amusing.

I have seen plenty of footage of male protesters getting manhandled, wrestled to the ground or physically carried out of buildings or off private premises without it being described as 'abuse of a man'.

I am gobsmacked that there are women on here apologising for this man's appalling behaviour. Watch the footage again and give your heads a wobble, ffs.

He had his hands around her neck, which is a singularly intimidating and frightening action, and a tactic frequently used by men who abuse women.

Climate change protesters are generally not violent. She was wearing a lightweight sleeveless dress and carrying a small handbag, some leaflets in one hand and a mobile phone in the other. She had nowhere on her person to carry a weapon bigger than a penknife.

His action was totally disproportionate to any conceivable threat and he should be charged imo.

Apparently there was no security there although I find that hard to believe. Maybe none in the room. He had no idea of her intention and could only assume it would be aggressive considering how she marched up to the front there. It's unusual for women to harm men but it's not impossible and if she had have had a knife and killed someone then the outcry would have been 'why didn't anyone try to stop her'. No one could have imagined that Jo Cox would be murdered before it happened.
Yes he was rough but from the way she was marching up, she wasn't going to be stopped if he'd said, excuse me madam but you're not allowed there'.
Either way. She got what she wanted and if anything, she was way more successful than she could have thought. Publicity and sympathy.

Is it amusing to you? the abuse of women?

It wasn't abuse FGS. He did what he could to restrain her and got her out of the room. No doubt he'd have done the same if it was a man.

If the woman was my daughter, I would be deeply ashamed that she had scared people so badly. Protesting in fine in an appropriate manner.

Going into a private function and shouting the odds, risks making those present think you have gone beyond "peaceful protest" and are trying to get at someone. That's if they are even able to process what you are shouting, whilst they are in shock.

Hindsight is wonderful, and now we know who she was and why she was there, his response looks heavy handed. But the people in that room didn't know that AT THAT TIME and that is how the situation should be judged. It will be by the police at least.

Would people seriously rather have a situation where someone can breach security, enter a room shouting, trying to access the speaker and do God knows what, and just have to sit there and do nothing?

If it was a room full of women and a man entered, I bet people here would feel differently. They wouldn't be saying "oooh he could have been hurt, he was assaulted".

*Protesting is fine

this from another forum.

You wonder why he didn't take the same approach when the angry man was protesting at Esther McVey's leadership launch and just let him rant and rave.

Now let's look at the response when a large man is protesting 'noisily'. Mr Field was present at this. Maybe not so well placed.

I am gobsmacked that there are women on here apologising for this man's appalling behaviour.

Hi Lakie,

I'm not apologising, I'm positively praising him! And again, I can't stand Tories, and would be sympathetic to the protesters (who by the way, are getting fantastic publicity from this!)

He did exactly the right thing. And to turn this into a feminist male-bullying issue is frankly ludicrous (and embarrassing).

She didn't scare him. He's very angry in that video, not scared. He threw her against the wall with practiced ease and didn't think twice about squeezing her neck or hurting her. Being drunk is no excuse. This is typical male violence and the apologists here (as on the other thread) are disgusting.

Going into a private function and shouting the odds, risks making those present think you have gone beyond "peaceful protest" and are trying to get at someone.

Where is she shouting?

When she started to approach the top table she changed the threat level. If she had been standing at the back shouting then it would be hard to argue she presented a direct threat. When she started to move purposefully towards Philip Hammond then I can understand why someone might have felt she might want to cause harm.

@Lakielady
Do a quick Google search on breach of the peace, trespass and reasonable force.

Then give your head a good old fashioned MN wobble.

She walked past several other people who did not assault her. He shoved her against the wall violently. He grabbed her by the neck. His default mode to whatever feelings he was feeling was violence. His actions were not justified. I would not like to be his wife.

When she started to move purposefully towards Philip Hammond then I can understand why someone might have felt she might want to cause harm.

Incidentally, it doesn't matter whether she wanted to cause harm, or whether she was entirely silent, good as gold, and just wanted to sit quietly in the corner. As a trespasser who wouldn't leave by other means it is legitimate to use reasonable force to remove her from the premises. If she has no injuries (and I would guess if she had the slightest bruise it would be all over the internet by now) then the force was reasonable!