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

The other people don’t seem that worried.

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...

In her head? I guess you mean her hand, but it was pretty obvious she was holding a phone.

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')

Define what you mean by 'frogmarch'.

I don't think anyone - including the lady herself - would have complained had she been escoted off the premises by professional security officers. In fact, I'm sure she was fully expecting just that. That is exactly what happened to several of the other protesters. However, for an individual with no such authority to behave the way Field behaved is entirely different.

I am pretty sure that terrorists don’t campaign for Greenpeace and turn up to places wearing red ball gowns and high heels.

Yep Mrs Bethel. It's as always polarised therefore pointless.

Do you have a right to turf people put when they come uninvited onto private property? Usually yes.

Does it makes you look weak if you respond to peaceful protest in a heavy handed manner? Always (in Tbilisi yesterday, the govt opened fire on protesters with water cannons and rubber bullets. One journalist is now blind, having lost both eyes. This is probably wank material for the UK govt, who don't at the moment dare silence people forcefully too brazenly- they are mad for it behind the scenes).

Should this man have touched her? No.

Did he grab her by the throat, choke her, raise his fist? Can you tell that he is a domestic abuse based on this? No.

I can't believe some of the posters here, excusing the attack of a Government Minister on a woman. How can you watch the extended clip and justify this?

1. There were bag and security checks to get in, so "she could have a weapon" is bullshit

2. There were plenty of security staff there. No one else assaulted a protester.

3. Robert Peston said several of his friends were there and the protest as peaceful and there was a good atmosphere, not "oh god, immininet threat"

4. everyone in the room (as witness Hammond being told to pause his speech) was aware of the (many) protesters.

5. Anyone invoking Jo Cox's murder by a violent man to defend a violent man attacking a peaceful protester needs a good hard look at themselves

I am pretty sure that terrorists don’t campaign for Greenpeace and turn up to places wearing red ball gowns and high heels.

Oh, I'd not assume that. Environmental terrorism is a real thing and I expect it to increase. Greenpeace would be an organisation that could go that way, they've always liked to push the envelope. Terrorists wear whatever allows them to blend in.

That doesn't seem to be what was going on here though. Although it would be interesting to know if they'd had threats.

I just know that if it was me, I'd be terrified.
Presumably as she was wearing a dress, she was wearing heels.

She was protesting (peacefully) at a gathering of ladies and 'gentlemen'.
She was unexpectedly slammed up against a wall, had her neck squeezed from behind and forced to walk.
She must have been shocked.
It's disgusting and it shouldn't be allowed.
Watching it alone is triggering.

Under English law, you can use self defence for the facts as you believe them to be - so if you think someone is about to attack you, you can pre-emptively use reasonable force against them even if they aren't going to attack you at all.

Not quite. Your belief has to be reasonable. Otherwise anyone could simply attack anyone we like and claim that we thought they were about to attack others.

Field can't claim that he reasonably believed he or anyone else was about to be attacked, given that he was sitting in his chair watching this woman as she approached. Moreover, none of the other 350 guests or the trained security guards believed that these women posed sufficient danger that it was necessary to manhandle them in this way, so Field would have major difficulty in showing that his alleged belief was reasonable when it wasn't shared by anyone else who was present. The plain fact of the matter is that he was clearly irritated by these uppity women spoiling his jolly and wanted to show off by picking a weaker target.

nstead, you get people setting up camp in one or other position and becoming willfully blind to the alternative

Im curious

Which camp are you in

It's arguable actually that where he was squeezing her neck (watch the video closely) could have hit a carotid artery.

The cunt could have done a lot worse than what happened her.
What happened her was assault. Pure and simple.

I think Greenpeace protestors trying to get into a private event are expecting some sort of incident. Which isn't to say it would not be scary, but I don't know that it would be a shock.

The woman, ie, Janis Barber, speaks.

Note the last line:

*“I remember a chair being pushed out. Then being shoved. I was saying, over and over: ‘This is a peaceful protest, a peaceful protest.’ I was saying it quite audibly, certainly loud enough.”

She could not see the man’s face, and had no idea who he was: “I just knew it was a guy. And that he was very, very angry. You could hear that in the tone of his voice.

“I knew he wanted me out,” said Barker, 40, who was carrying a phone and a small handbag. “ I thought if I just keep saying ‘peaceful protest, peaceful protest’ you hope to diffuse the situation. But there was no diffusion in his anger.

“He continued to grip me by the neck and the arm all the way to the door of the building. Then, when we got to the door, he shoved me outside on to the street, and said: ‘This is what happens when people like you disturb our dinner.’”*

And:

Field refused to relinquish his grip, she said. “I kept saying: “Look, just let go. I will walk on my own. I am not about to start a wrestling match with you. I will walk.’ He said: ‘I’m not letting go until you are out of this building.’

Then there's this:

*She said Field’s anger shocked her; it was palpable in his voice and grip. “The pressure on my neck never eased all the way down the stairs and until we were outside.” The inside of the top of her right arm was still red on Friday morning.

Once at the door, he shoved her with such force, she said, she struggled not to fall over. A woman, also at the door, told her: “You’re not welcome here.”
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Once outside, Barker realised she was trembling.*

www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jun/21/greenpeace-activist-mark-field-needs-anger-management

In this climate of mass shootings, knife attacks, acid attacks and suicide bombings he acted promptly and correctly.

Nonsense. Police advice if you genuinely believe that someone may pose that sort of danger is to keep well away, not go up to them and take action that can only make an attack even more likely if that is their intention.

How many people would really assume that women wearing climate change sashes with sleeveless dresses and evening bags would be carrying guns, knives, acid or bombs? If people at the event thought for a moment that any of the protesters were carrying anything dangerous they obviously wouldn't have been sitting at their tables as shown in the videos. So why would Field alone apparently think that could be the case?

If Field had genuinely believed this woman carried a weapon I'm 100% sure he wouldn't have dreamt of going anywhere near her.

So much utter bollocks being spewed out on this thread. And the leaps in assumptions being made are just laughable. Not one person, apart from him, knows what he was thinking at that time. The protestor had something in her hand. He stopped her getting past the pillar and had his hand on her neck (NOT throat) to remove her. She wasn't stumbling as if he was using excessive force. Nor was she screaming out as I felt in pain. She's a seasoned protestor invading a private space heading towards a prominent politician. Whilst no one would condone the use of his means of removing her if she had just been standing passively, her actions suggest that there may have been a possibility, given the current high terrorist alerts, that she was going to do something more serious. He reacted, she got her moment of infamy, and now everyone wants his head on a platter. 'How dare he use his size against a helpless femail in a sleeveless dress' 'he has cleary assaulted women before'. Hindsight is a marvellous thing. We can all watch the video over and over again, 'look at the anger on his face', 'look how he's throwing her against a pillar and strangling her'. Regardless of what this man is like in his day to day life, he responded to a perceived threat in the best way he knew how. You don't go in all nicey nicey and politely ask someone to leave when you believe that they may be about to do someone harm. context is EVERYTHING!

Is that you, Mark

The protestor had something in her hand

Yes. It's usually known as a 'phone'. And has been said many times already, if you genuinely believe someone is armed, the very last thing you would do is antagonise them and leave both their hands free.

Hindsight is a marvellous thing

None of the other attendees needed 'hindsight' though did they? It was only Field who behaved in such a manner.

he responded to a perceived threat in the best way he knew

I might 'perceive' that someone who scowls at me on the train is posing a threat. You don't just get to go around doing what you like because you 'perceive' that someone is a threat.

You don't go in all nicey nicey and politely ask someone to leave when you believe that they may be about to do someone harm.

Actually, unless you have good reason to believe the person poses an imminent threat - obviously not the case here - a person trained in security would first try to persuade them to leave verbally. They certainly would not behave as Field did.

Some of us might have done security work before - he wasn't appropriate or proportionate in his response. You can't be angry.

It's not a great way to make a protest, it does tend to lend itself to these kinds of problems because it makes people angry in a personal way. People should be able to meet without having their events interrupted. It doesn't make it cleaer to the people or the public that you objet to what is being said or done, it's done to be annoying.

Looks to be pretty much what any bouncer would do to any trespasser.

Except none of the professional security people present did.

Well I know I wouldn't take it upon myself to assault someone.

what he did was totally uncalled for and exposes him as a practiced perpetrator of violence against women.
He was triggered and couldn't resist this opportunity to physically dominate intimidate and humiliate a women who posed no threat to him
he acted out of instinct, and his instincts are those of an abuser

The fact that he could force her to walk, exemplifies the sheer amount of enraged force he used on her.

A professional security person would have responded appropriately

Who among you would have done this to a protestor?
And if you say you would, and you've only posted on this thread in your entire time on MN, I'm ignoring you as it's safe to assume you're male and sympathise with the poor men being victimised for assaulting women.

Whilst no one would condone the use of his means of removing her if she had just been standing passively, her actions suggest that there may have been a possibility, given the current high terrorist alerts, that she was going to do something more serious.

Nonsense. She was a woman in a sleeveless dress wearing a climate change sash, a member of a group with precisely zero record of violence; she could not have been carrying any weapon because she'd just come through security, and she wasn't carrying anything in which a weapon could have been concealed. No-one else present, including trained security guards, thought she or her colleagues were terrorists or about to do anything serious, otherwise they wouldn't all be calmly sitting at their tables in those clips.

These attempts to justify Field after the event are really all looking a bit desperate.