For there is always light. Thread #123 is belong to President Biden

[PerkingFaintly]

"For there is always light
If only we're brave enough to see it
If only we're brave enough to be it."

— Amanda Gorman, 20 Jan 2021, inauguration of President Joe R Biden

Moving on from the Trump threads, last one here:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4141056-Its-officially-time-to-say-ta-ta-to-Trump-its-inauguration-day-trump-122

I do just want to post this. It's very relevant. It's what really kicked it all off and now it is subtitled in English.
Navalny's film about Putin's $1billion palace. To say it is gobsmacking is somewhat of an understatement.
78 million views.
The world is watching

cycling a peaceful protest would have been those protestors staying outside the Capitol, waving their flags and chanting. That would have been fine.

That wasn't what happened. At the very least, those inside the Capitol are guilty of trespass, which is a crime.

And I'd shop my relatives too if they burst into the Dutch parliament and tried to derail the political process. Nothing to do with China, everything to do with respecting democracy.

prettybird, your DS's course sounds awesome! As you say, what a time to be studying it!

Plus, pointythings, there's that difference between investigating, and detaining.

Second should always need a rather higher threshold.

Ah, thank you Roussette, you've saved me the trouble of going to look for Navalny's film.

I shall watch some of that later, if only to see what it is that has galvanised so many people.

Any links to back up your claims cyclingmad?

@cyclingmad

Well the US is one to hardly talk, people who went to protest peacefully are having the FBI turn up on their doorstep just for being in the area even if they didn't even go inside the building or do anything wrong. All based on pings feom mobile phones.

People snitching on their friends again on those who didn't take part in any violence or trespassing
.
End of the day soon the whole world will be like China where you cannot express your views or protest peacefully without severe consequences.

But they’re either involved - or witnesses, either way they should be expecting to be questioned.

Tbh, if I’d been part of a peaceful protest where that also happened, I’d have volunteered a witness statement anyway.

Navalny has a long history of opposition to Putin, arrests, unrelated Court cases at key moments, culminating in the recent poisoning.

Yep, Lweji.

And Russia is what happens if you're OK with armed mobs breaking into the seat of government to prevent the peaceful transition of power. A transition of power decided by a stonking majority of the electorate in a free and fair election.

@pointythings

cycling a peaceful protest would have been those protestors staying outside the Capitol, waving their flags and chanting. That would have been fine.

That wasn't what happened. At the very least, those inside the Capitol are guilty of trespass, which is a crime.

And I'd shop my relatives too if they burst into the Dutch parliament and tried to derail the political process. Nothing to do with China, everything to do with respecting democracy.

I said quite clearly that it was people who weren't trespassing and were being peaceful. And its anyone that didn't go past the security barriers that the police opened that were being peaceful.

People still have the right to protest without being labelled terrorists or having their voices silenced

I've just voted in my own Presidential Election. Much less drama.

Did anyone else see the photo of St Petersburg and find themselves thinking, "Navalny got a bigger crowd for his demo than... a certain person who is very sensitive about his crowd size?"

twitter.com/fabrice_deprez/status/1352948165805297664/photo/1

Nice one, Lweji. Elections without drama. Ho yes.

Yes. 34 journalists have been murdered in Russia since Putin. If not killed, brutally beaten.
The video ... I've read about excesses, I'm old enough to remember the Marcos's. They stole billions from the Filipino people.
But this is a whole other level that I can't quite get my head round. The estate he has comandeered to build it on is 39 times the size of Monaco

www.forbes.com/sites/andrewsolender/2021/01/23/biden-administration-calls-for-unconditional-release-of-navalny-russian-protesters/?sh=2098454033d3

The Biden administration has harshly condemned the recent actions...
In a statement, spokesperson Ned Price noted the protests follow “years of tightening restrictions on and repressive actions against civil society, independent media, and the political opposition.”

“We call on Russian authorities to release all those detained for exercising their universal rights and for the immediate and unconditional release of Aleksey Navalny,” Price continued, while also urging Russia to “fully cooperate” with a probe into Navalny’s poisoning last year and “credibly explain the use of a chemical weapon on its soil.”

In perhaps the most revealing part of the statement, Cline concluded that the U.S. will “stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our allies and partners in defense of human rights – whether in Russia or wherever they come under threat.”

Lest we forget...
Trump called Putin 'a terrific person'

Cycling has a point.
Peaceful protesters should not be gased for presidents to cross the street.

As for people protesting the result of a lawfully held election... and demanding that the result is overthrown, peaceful or not, it's still an attempt to prevent the course of a Democratic process.

BTW, I had that same conversation with a police officer this week, when I too had the police turn up on my doorstep.

They're investigating a very serious violent incident in my neighbourhood, in which someone died. They're asking absolutely everyone for information. Even when I said I hadn't witnessed anything useful, they took down my physical description so they could rule me out of any sightings reported by other people. They actually said to me, it's old-fashioned policing.

While one filled in the forms, the other passed the time with me about the inauguration – which they'd watched – and we agreed how nice "boring" was.

While one filled in the forms

I still maintain that some form of technology could speed up - and secure the process. Having had to spend 30 minutes watching a policeman manually write out in longhand our address.

Depressed that we've gone from Trump (who I hated) to Biden who is seeking to wipe out the rights of women. Not celebrating here.

I would be very surprised if the FBI was arresting and charging protesters who were peacefully protesting. Not involved in trespass or going past the barrier.

Do you have any stories or links to stories where people have been arrested who did nothing wrong in the Capitol protest?

I've been on many peaceful protests and on one occasion a brutal attack happened. The police came to my house and asked questions about what I had was doing at the time of the assault, but they didn't arrest or charge me.

When I participate in a protest, I know should a crime happen the police will ask questions. This is perfectly appropriate within the laws.

Biden who is seeking to wipe out the rights of women

Yes, that's exactly what he and his VP Kamala are trying to do.

cycling would you rather the FBI just didn't investigate crimes at all?

If you were dumb enough to be there (and demonstrating against the result of a legitimate election), then if the price you pay is getting asked some questions, that should be no big deal. Now if they start jailing people just for being there then you'd have a point. So far that's what they're doing in Russia, not the US.

When someone compares the FBI investigating people at the rally that led to the storming of the Capitol to the way the Russian security forces have dealt with the protestors, that tells you all you need to know about them.

That ought to be true, 'pointythings, but actually under Trump the police did arrest people just for being there (although – importantly – not actually jail them, unless they were remanded awaiting trial).

They targeted journalists...

www.nytimes.com/2017/01/25/business/media/journalists-arrested-trump-inauguration.html

www.businessinsider.com/journalists-facing-charges-covering-anti-trump-inauguration-unrest-2017-1?r=US&IR=T

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/30/riot-charges-dropped-three-journalists-inauguration-protests

As we've discussed recently, there are legitimate questions to be asked about what the boundary is between "only" a journalist, and filming while being part of the violence. But these cases didn't appear to be marginal: it looked like they'd been targeted for daring to cover something the Trumpies didn't want seen.

@cyclingmad which country are you from and reside in? I'm guessing UK.

Two different types of forms, DGR! As one said, "Because it's the police..."

We had a good discussion about data-retention, and the fact that some of the data was being collected only for use in this one investigation.

In fact it was a lovely doorstep chat. Or would have been, if it weren't for the reason they were there. I don't usually post this stuff on the threads, but it's just awful and obviously there's a lot of upset among the neighbours.