KETTLING - is this Police tactic wrong?

It is reported today that Liberty is challenging the British Police tactic of Kettling in the European Courts.

I have said before that I believe that there are to many bleeding hearts out there with big budgets and bigger mouths shouting about the human rights of all and while they are looking after and complaining about peoples rights being violated, we the ordinary and law abiding people of the country who want to get on with our daily lives, are being ignored by the minority who shout and stamp their feet the loudest.

Now, don't get me wrong, the core principles of Liberty are manifestly well intended but, as with everything else they end up ignoring the rights of the majority.  Ok, I know that they and others like them will argue that they are looking after and fighting for the rights of me and others like me, but I am 55, I am law abiding and I am white and want to get on with my life and not have it disrupted by protester's or the police who don't stop and search me because I am white, but who are out in large numbers to attempt to manage another protest.

But this blog is not about stop and search-  and I believe that this rule should be challenged as it has been proved over and over again that it appears to be a racist policy aimed at non whites, so Liberty keep going with that one, no - this blog is about KETTLING.

Again, I am with Liberty to a degree, that in some instances it does seem to go to far, but that is not to say that it is a tactic that should never be employed by the Police, that is Liberty's argument, BUT, it is not mine.

I wrote a blog recently entitled Jody McIntyre - Police Brutality I finished of the article with these comments:

You say,  "the Police incite violence", I say, "you and the protesters incite violence"

You say, "The real issue is the cuts that the government are making in education" I say "what a bunch of prats" People are starving all over the world, the 'under privileged' as you call them of this country are oppressed and ill educated IN EVEN A BASIC EDUCATION and have nothing AND YOU ARE PROTESTING AND RIOTING IN THE STREETS BECAUSE FEES ARE BEING INTRODUCED FOR FURTHER EDUCATION. Now if you were rioting because the basic education of the masses in this country was suffering and that millions of our children are being condemned to a life of ignorance, I might just have had some sympathy for you and these 'educated morons' but you didn't, so I don't.

So while you promote anarchy then I promote giving the Police bigger and thicker batons, giving them more guns, allow then to kettle you as you join the rampaging mob and I will continue to not have a problem when the Police drag you and your likes off our streets.      

Lets face it, and I think everyone must agree, you do have to have permission to hold a protest on our streets, that is only right and proper, so no one can say that they did not know that a protest was scheduled to take place in an area where a) they might be working in or b) where they might have planned to visit for social reasons.

Now it is pretty difficult if your place of employment is smack bang in the middle of an area that is going to be passed by a protest march to do anything about that and you really have to just get on with it, but is it not ridiculous when before a 'peaceful' protest takes place that we see images of businesses and local authorities boarding up those business premises, of course it is.  So most of us know that a high proportion of protest marches are not going to be peaceful because peaceful does not get the message out, but they still have a right to protest!  Is it ok then, Liberty, for the protesters to destroy and burn businesses and for the minority to disrupt the majority and not just for the day of the protest but for the days weeks and months that it may take them to recover and get their business up and running again, what about their rights?

What about the rights of individual Police officers being pelted with bricks, bottles, and fire bombs, I do not believe that I have ever heard you say that their rights are being abused, or is it that they lose their individuality and the rights that accompany the individual once they become Police officers?

I am not a Police officer, never have been, but I have had dealings with them over the years in the various jobs that I have in fact I even recall, although I can not recall what it was about, but many years ago [early 90's] I laid in to them in a letter to the Police Gazette.  I continue to be a critic of them today and no doubt tomorrow and let me make it perfectly clear, I do not have a problem with people taking to the streets in peaceful protest BUT, I do have a problem with protesters, whether it has been engineered by a minority within the protesters or not, then turning that protest into a running riot and street battle.

Every single time that happens or before it happens then I am happy that protest marches should be KETTLED.  Yes, the police need to review and manage the situation better and YES they need to take into account that there may be innocent protesters or members of the public contained within that action, BUT, if KETTLING means that the protest does not denigrate to the level of Neanderthal savagery, them I am happy for them to do so.

Looking at your website there is an article entitled, "Inside the kettle" written by a 'child'  the article clearly written by a SCHOOL pupil, not a COLLEGE or a UNIVERSITY student, and all I can say to that is, she and the rest of the SCHOOL students that were there, were truants on the day and should not have been there and for you to justify your arguments by using this 'article' really does your cause  a disservice, please grow up and join the rest of us in the real world.  I do not believe that I am naive in MY outlook on this nor is it down to my suburban existence that I write these comments, no, it is a sense of frustration from the point of view of the person sitting at home switching on the TV and once again seeing someone from Liberty or other similar organisation blaming the riots and problems on the Police and that the poor downtrodden protesters are once again victims of Police Brutality.