Anyone seen this clip of a seemingly OTT police raid? Is there more to the story?

[flashbac]

Apparently they raided the building because it had an Extinction Rebellion sculpture on the roof. Apparently arrested the landlord too; just swooped him off his bike when he came to investigate. Scary if true. 40+ police!
twitter.com/Damien_Meade/status/1411643988902354945?s=19

Also I hate to say it as I was brought up left ish mc but it's the left who are more exhibiting of totalitarianism nowadays. What is cancel culture if not totalitarianism. Eg "Think as I say you should or be gone from me. I will not tolerate debate."

Ok so I get it. Animal rights activists and ER are apparently so odious that anything goes in order to suppress them. After all, it's not as if any of you will protest or have issues with animals being experimented on to see if womb transplants can become a reality, for example. Only today I was reading about mice being grafted together to sustain a pregnancy in a transplanted womb. One for the womb and one for the blood supply. GREAT!

Nobody cares if, for example, a bit of the ocean is on fire because of our love of burning stuff, if houses subside because of climate change etc.

Also forgotten are the police actions at the Sarah Everard vigil. We obey and trust don't we!

In any case, in my op I asked if anyone knows the other side of the story. Instead all I get is people trying to justify OTT policing.

@CuriousaboutSamphire

Most of us recognise it no matter what guise it takes.

Parts of the ALF of yesteryear, parts of ER and many other similar organised groups of today.

These groups don't have enough power to do what you think. Straw man.

@LemonRoses yes I do know some of them unfortunately as they used to live next door to me so I won't be naming names.
@flashbac I don't specifically think that the murdoch group are unbiased anymore than I do any other press group but that's part of having a free press. Any attempt by any group to prevent any news group from publishing because you don't agree with them is an attack on all press outlets. If you don't agree with a newspapers particular bias then don't buy it .

@flashbac was you there at the Sarah Everard vigil?

@flashbac

Have YOU heard yourself?!!

Linking to random things which have no sound and you can only see a small part of it.... then proclaim it to be police being OTT!! You have no idea....zero....of what's ACTUALLY happened or what intel is involved. None. You are embarrassing yourself

Some people arrested, and others held in handcuffs for 2 hours, were artists who rent studios in the building. No connection to ER. Police smashed in studio doors and damaged artworks even after they offered to open them. Completely over the top and thuggish behaviour.

This is a rather pointless argument. We can't make a judgment without knowing the facts, and we don't know the facts. I wouldn't believe the police or XR.

@flashbac

Ok so I get it. Animal rights activists and ER are apparently so odious that anything goes in order to suppress them. After all, it's not as if any of you will protest or have issues with animals being experimented on to see if womb transplants can become a reality, for example. Only today I was reading about mice being grafted together to sustain a pregnancy in a transplanted womb. One for the womb and one for the blood supply. GREAT!

Nobody cares if, for example, a bit of the ocean is on fire because of our love of burning stuff, if houses subside because of climate change etc.

Also forgotten are the police actions at the Sarah Everard vigil. We obey and trust don't we!

In any case, in my op I asked if anyone knows the other side of the story. Instead all I get is people trying to justify OTT policing.

I think what people are trying to point out is you don't know if it is OTT. Great that you're asking if there is another side to it but it makes it sound like you have already made your mind up.

@LemonRoses

Early warning signs of Fascism from Holocaust museum.

Powerful and continuing nationalism
Disdain for human rights
Identification of enemies as a unifying cause
Supremacy of the military
Rampant sexism
Controlled mass media
Obsession with national security
Religion and government intertwined
Corporate power protected
Labor [sic] power suppressed
Disdain for intellectuals & the arts

Feels like we’re a good way along that path

I’m about as unwoke as you can get and to my eternal regret I even voted for Thatcher’s government. I’m not exactly traditional ultra left.

Sorry but this is simply untrue and the comparison to the real hardships suffered by many groups under fascism is offensive.

Nationalism- Outside of football, the UK is the least nationalistic country in Europe. Far right groups regularly lose deposits and have done so repeatedly since the second world war.

Disdain for human rights- We have a proper separation between the judiciary and government and properly protect human rights.

Identification of enemies as a unifying cause- which enemies would these be exactly? The UK, US and the rest of Europe would be nieve not to respond to growing cyber and other attacks from Russia, China and North Korea.

The military is not supreme

Sexism is a significant issue, but is not rampant.

Religion and government are not entwined.

Corporate power is subject to the same laws as everyone else. In the last week, we have sen large fines for Southern Water and Lloyds for breaching legislation.

Labour power is not suppressed, and we have a very healthy arts sector envied around the world.

MurielSpriggs

This is a rather pointless argument. We can't make a judgment without knowing the facts, and we don't know the facts. I wouldn't believe the police or XR.“

Yep, exactly this.

Meanwhile the police will often not bother turning up for real crime. It's very concerning.

@flashbac
Yes I and many other people do care about these issues. What we don't agree with is the tactics that these groups use.
There are many different legal avenues that people can take in a democratic society including standing for Parliament, but all of these avenues require people to be able to not only articulate their views but to be able to have a reasoned debate taking account of all views which is something none of these groups seems to be able to do. I wonder why that is 🤔

Straw man?

And I was part of ALF until I saw the lengths they were prepared to go to.

Was at Greenham Common for a while.

And I know 2 of the original ER organisation - I did say I was local to them.

They are as capable of closing down businesses as town centres, causing all sorts of mayhem and damage as any other kind group if disruptors.

Don't blind yourself to the reality if the extremes some parts of such organisations will go to, the official strap line can hide a multitude of horrors.

Arresting people before they commit a crime? Have you heard yourself?

Yes. It's called Crime Prevention.

I don't really feel we have enough information to comment.

We have two video clips, without sound, which someone has ascribed a narrative to on social media which we have no way of proving.

Maybe the police were completely OTT (it wouldn't be the first time) or maybe there was something else going on.

I'll reserve judgement for the moment.

@seashells11

Meanwhile the police will often not bother turning up for real crime. It's very concerning.

All crime is real crime. There is no such thing as an imaginary crime. Magnitude has no bearing on legality.

@iklboo

Arresting people before they commit a crime? Have you heard yourself?

Yes. It's called Crime Prevention.

It's also illegal!

Mhm, looks ott. Could have been ER reporting themselves for something else to get raided and some self-righteous publicity.

They seem pretty obnoxious.

I think we should just get some kind of technology to predict whether or not people are like to commit a crime and lock them all up. That would be proper crime prevention.

And isn't the point of a protest to ve somewhat disruptive, otherwise how would anyone notice.

Totalitarian states happen because....

@PeskyIsland

Mhm, looks ott. Could have been ER reporting themselves for something else to get raided and some self-righteous publicity.

They seem pretty obnoxious.

Or it could have been because the tenant of the flat has a brother who was rude to the daughter of the superintendent in the pub last Wednesday night.

I do hear that some of those police can be quite vindictive.

What's the point in making things up that might have happened?

.

All crime is real crime. There is no such thing as an imaginary crime. Magnitude has no bearing on legality.

Well let's change that to "serious" crime then.