London Protest Police Horse which Bolted

[kgal3542]

I am not able to load the videos of what happened due to dodgy internet connection, I have seen some photos. Can anyone update on the condition of the horse? The poor thing looked looked so frightened, am concerned for the horse and it's rider. There are also conflicting reports that the horse trampled a protestor, and another that a protestor was bitten.

Water cannon..tear gas...rubber bullets..I believe all of those were used by the British army in Ireland during 'the troubles'

Oh I see. Are you offended that police used those things against the Irish, and not against the current protestors?

They use them in London on NYE. They face the flow of the crowd and then turn them sideways to stop the crowd pushing forward almost like gates. From that video they were riding in a line toward the crowd which seems like things must have been getting out of control anyway. We really need to know why they were charging the crowd in the first place. It was going to be dangerous for everyone.

Oh you want to start from that angle now is it?
No not offended more once again shocked by British ignorance and attitudes. 'Ooh no we couldn't use those things here '.... well weirdly those things have been deployed for decades.

The met police stables are pretty much opposite downing st in Whitehall so if it was from there, not far to go.

Pretty traumatic situation for all involved, no one reasonable condones this sort of action against The police, their horses, or their dogs.

I see. Hopefully the fact that they haven't been used recently means that they feel that there are kinder ways of doing things. What do you think?

But I have to say, with respect Destroyed, that it was you who brought 'that angle' to the table, with your post about water cannons etc being good enough for the Irish and not for the current protests.

Police horses are absolutely enormous, they are used generally to push people back in a line or singly to get prior to back off. If you don't move then you get knocked over and possibly badly injured. And yes of course there have been occasions where people have been deliberately knocked over by police because the police are not perfect and can lose their temper/ there's nowhere to go, the person can't move fast enough for some reason.

I'm sure if you Google you will find plenty of images of people being injured by police horses.

In fact there was one from USA just the other day, this happens in the UK whether you like to imagine it or not.

The charge, at the canter, was chilling to see.

Well yes I may have hinted at that in response to your post expressing horror at such methods being used here....those methods have been used in these islands for a long time. Not sure why you seemed surprised. That's all

*Shiny^, let's say they do retire all the horses, then they're left with water cannons, tear gas and rubber bullets though. What's the answer? No crowd control? Just let it all get out of hand, and if people get hurt in the process, not to matter? I realise people get hurt even when the police are attempting to control the crowd, but it might be worse with no crowd control at all.

I haven't seen it on News but it must have been terrifying if a police horse bolted ..they are so brave & stoic. Glad to hear both horse & rider are well... hopefully they'll be back at work & confident together again soon. Catch the offenders & put them behind bars.

I don't think it's fair to use animals like this.

The fact they are animals doesn't make them not dangerous either.

A PP called for tanks instead if that helps with ideas

TheSparklyPussycat interesting. Have you seen alternative footage that shows the ‘charge at a canter’?

Because I see one horse bolting forward, injuring a police officer, and the others rushing to form a protective cordon. The intention in the video linked here seems clear, otherwise surely they’d have carried on ‘charging’ the protestors rather than immediately stopping as soon as they’d reached their injured colleague.

Destroyedpeople in fairness it’s a bit of a reach to expect people to immediately compare civilian policing crowd control methods in 2020 with methods used by the British Army over a decade ago. I’m absolutely not saying it was right of the British Army to do that, but it’s not a connection or comparison everyone could be expected to make.

It's wrong they use horses this way, I suggest engaging in reasonable dialogue with protesters and acknowledging the justice of their cause instead.

'Over a decade ago' oh please. ....

Over a decade ago, so dismiss it, seriously?

....are you trying to suggest that over the course of the last decade British policing and crowd control has moved away from the techniques used in Ireland towards something. ..fluffier and more'compassionate?
Do me a favour...

They did it in the poll tax riots and other times I'm sure.

Don't be facetious Shiny, it was a genuine question. You know tanks would be a very bad idea.

I think they were trotting in a line not cantering FWIW. It's hard to tell from the video but it looks more like a trot to me.

They are however most definitely charging the crowd in a line.

27 police officers were injured.
The horses were ok.

If we - that's all of us in this discussion - were to sit down with Cressida Dick, do you think we could come up with some ideas of how to, or even whether to, control crowds other than horses, water cannons, tear gas or rubber bullets?

Could we?