MP Mark Field grabs female protester by throat

[summerofresistance]

I hope she presses charges. Totally unnecessary and unacceptable.

Wouldn't be at all surprised if he has form for DV.

twitter.com/PaulBrandITV/status/1141819192020295680

Well, we’ll see if it’s sufficient, but thank you awfully for over explaining a point I hadn’t even made

A right to protest means they should be allowed to stay, surely?

No, you can't protest just anywhere. You can't go into a meeting and expect to protest in a disruptive way without being escorted out, though in some instances it's overlooked. But if it was always allowed you could just stop any sort of event you didn't like.

Aright to protest means they should be allowed to stay, surely?

The protesters had as much right to be there as they would have had to make their protest in your private dining room.

It goes without saying that I do not approve of any violence between humans regardless of gender but it surely cannot be denied that sometimes it is legitimate to prevent anti social behaviour.

I'm not sure it does 'go without saying' but however.

Anyway, who made Mark Field the guardian of 'anti social behaviour'? Surely violence should always only be used as a last resort. Mark Field is not trained or authorised to use force. He is not a law enforcement officer. And as has been said, even if we buy the spurious 'she may have been armed' excuse, no trained security officer would have dealt with a potentially armed person in such a way. Her hands were still free, so she could easily have grabbed the gun, knife or whatever lethal weapon we're suppposed to think she had tucked away in that tiny black handbag.

It's nonsense.

I think most victims of DV recognise that deranged look on that mans face. He needs help.

Guess who's talking sense?

Our very good friend, young Jonesy himself:

Field’s defence should be treated with derision and contempt. He claims that “many guests understandably felt threatened and when one protester rushed past me towards the top table I instinctively reacted”, and that “there was no security present and I was for a split-second genuinely worried she might have been armed”. The term “gaslighting” – used to describe psychological abuse in which the victim is made to doubt their recollection of events and even sanity – is often abused in political debate, but here surely is a prima facie case. Mr Field, we can see the video. No one appears threatened by a young Greenpeace activist in a red dress, and a friend of the ITV journalist Robert Peston – who was in attendance – vouches that they did not feel so. She does not “rush”, but calmly strides. She doesn’t even acknowledge Field until the moment he pushes her against a pillar. Anyone who believes a climate protester would be armed needs an urgent appointment with reality. Anyone watching the video can see not fear, let alone panic, in Field’s eyes, but rather rage: unsurprising for a man who just two months ago wrote a letter demanding the Metropolitan police adopt “a much firmer grip” on climate protesters.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jun/21/mark-field-conservative-grabs-climate-protester-neck-far-right-cheer

Saucery
God forbid anyone else dares state a point that you haven't even made.

I know , MrsBethel, what kind of pedantic dick would do that? Tchuh.

Bizarre.

Yes Iced

LOJ has suddenly remembered that VAWG is bad when there's political capital to be had from it.

twitter.com/ruthserwotka/status/1141997724889419781

Well, what is it they say about stopped clocks? They have a particular habit in being 'right' when, as you say, there are gains to be made.

Totally agree with Owen jones there.

Phew, LOJ quickly turns the focus round to himself. I was worried for a minute there that he had managed a whole piece without Me-ing it up.

Some actual quotes from the AIBU thread:

*He went into protective mode that's all. He got up to stop her walking any further and you can see her pushing aggressively against him so he stepped up his force to remove her as he probably felt a slight surge of panic and anxiety as to why she wasn't simply turning around and walking away.

It's an insult to Greta Thunberg the way these women behaved last night,

a nobody is getting her 15 minutes of fame

I think it's being somewhat over-analysed!*

And leaving the 'best' till last:

I think he was quite brave actually and acted in the moment to get rid of someone who shouldn't have been there. You can see in the video she pushes back on him so he had to use more force than he had anticipated to remove her

If I had a weapon and he grabbed me by the neck like that I'd be like 'make my day punk'
I mean come on, was that really the best excuse he could muster

His actions are the actions of a violent man with anger issues. If in real life I saw a man act like that towards anyone walking past him, woman or man, I would conclude he was an abuser, probably with a criminal record. He acted like a thug. Who are these people? In what world is that kind of reaction normal? The Tory party are a bunch of pigs.

And the gaslighting on this thread from some posters... wow. I have no words. And this is FWR on Mumsnet. Imagine what people are saying on the Daily Mail et al. This normalisation of violence against women is becoming mainstream, even on here.

Every 2 years frontline staff at my Health Board have training in how to deal with aggressive patients/members of the public. If we ever used the kind of force and technique that Mark Field did we would be disciplined . And that is even if someone is actually attacking you. Totally unsafe and unnecessary.

God munsnet is such a magnet for MRAs these days. 'Coulda shoulda weaker sexer blah blah blah...'

Phew, LOJ quickly turns the focus round to himself. I was worried for a minute there that he had managed a whole piece without Me-ing it up

Why? Because he wrote a column? That is his job

It sounds like he has a big issue with climate protestors.

It does, Goosefoot. So while everyone else there was, if not happy, at least willing to sit and let security deal with the protest, he definitely was not. My first thought on seeing the video was that she had entered his ‘zone’ and that’s what triggered his physical response.

Yes, or he was getting angrier and angrier, and so he decided to take action when someone came near him, it wouldn't be odd for someone who tends to lose their temper. If he'd taken her out the same way the security guards did it likely would have been fine. But that's why people working security really should be calm, not actually pissed off at people, it always a bad combination. I have a bad temper myself though it is a slow burn but I know if I try and do something about an issue once I have lost it I have a much higher chance of being disproportionate. I learned this in school though after giving a few black-eyes and getting in trouble.
If he'd been drinking it wouldn't have helped either.

I think this is a classic because, broadly:

1. I can see why people think it's fair enough to frogmarch trespassers off the premises. (It's not necessarily legal, but it does seem 'right') vs
2. I definitely think he was unnecessarily aggressive.

The problem is, a civil discussion about the merits of each of those broad positions - the sort of discussion where someone might actually persuade someone else to condemn him - just isn't possible.

Instead, you get people setting up camp in one or other position and becoming willfully blind to the alternative, talking themselves into a corner, and grasping at anything to destroy the other camp or bolster their own.
The net result is that many people basically end up talking complete bollocks.
You see it on both sides.
The worst of the camp 1 bunch are saying she asked for it, or she deserved a bloody nose, and horrible stuff like that.
The camp 2 bunch go the other way, sometimes saying he must beat his wife, or saying he only did it because she was a woman, etc.

It's all utter nonsense.

My boss was there last night and he said there was 20 of them and when she rushed towards the chancellor she had something in her head and no one was sure what it was so was quite worrying as there was no security to be seen...

However, there's one thing to block a path of someone and another to grab them round the throat and frog march them out.

In her hand.... not head bloody typo