What is all this nonsense?
Superintendent David Hartshorn, who heads the Metropolitan police's public order branch, told the Guardian that middle-class individuals who would never have considered joining demonstrations may now seek to vent their anger through protests this year.
He said that banks, particularly those that still pay large bonuses despite receiving billions in taxpayer money, had become "viable targets". So too had the headquarters of multinational companies and other financial institutions in the City which are being blamed for the financial crisis.
Hartshorn, who receives regular intelligence briefings on potential causes of civil unrest, said the mood at some demonstrations had changed recently, with activists increasingly "intent on coming on to the streets to create public disorder".
Hmm, ok. But who are these 'activists'? It's never fully explained. And who are these 'middle-class' rioters, innocent lambs sucked into protesting because of the bad men telling them bad things? Something a little bit odd is going on, surely? Where's all the evidence for this? And why don't people riot during cold weather - is it too chilly brrr for the poor bastards?
Eek! Anyway, and:
More than a third of adults fear the Army will have to be brought in to deal with riots as the recession bites.
A total of 37 per cent thought 'serious social unrest' was likely in British cities, a poll showed.
The YouGov poll is here. Of course using the same figures you could say that 51% of people polled felt that such an event was either likely or certain not to happen, but then that wouldn't have the same impact, would it? Also, it would appear from the stats that the older and more conservative your views, the more likely you are to worry about panic on the streets of London, panic on the streets of Birmingham... and so on.
Nevertheless, the 'summer of hate' and 'army being drafted in' rumour is gathering pace at the moment. That copper we saw interviewed earlier is part of it, but the new strand is this rather frightening idea:
In a stunning conversation with a friend, who is a serving member of the Armed Forces, over the weekend, it was revealed that transfers to regiments and other units in the UK on home duties are being undertaken by the MOD based upon whether an individual was prepared to 'open fire' on UK citizens during civil disturbances.
Your reaction to this depends on how much you trust the source, who in this case is Ian Parker-Joseph of the Libertarian Party. There doesn't appear to be any more evidence than a rumour. Is there any more to it than what some bloke heard from some other bloke down the pub? I hear all sorts of "Apparently, what they're doing now" nonsense down the pub. Are soldiers really being asked if they're prepared to fire on their own people? If so, why haven't any of these (presumably hundreds of) soldiers come forward and said something about it, even anonymously?
Parker-Joseph backs up his argument with reference to someone else hearing rumours about something possibly happening. It's all very interesting, and if it's true, it's very worrying, but is it really happening? That's the key question. There really isn't enough evidence to go bundling around with a stack of conspiracy theories just yet. Far one thing, no riots have happened. They may well not happen. They may well happen, just as possibly, but gunshots being fired at citizens? Is this really plausible or not? There would be absolute anarchy if that happened, surely? Wouldn't there?
There's not a great deal of doubt that this Government is the most illiberal and anti-freedom bunch of bastards there has been for decades, but does that mean they're actively seeking to create a state of emergency? I'm not too sure about that, I have to say. I mean, I wouldn't put it past them; it's just that I don't think there's really much evidence. I just hope I'm not proved wrong.
2 comments:
I wouldn't be at all surprised if the police, in the form of ACPO, are trying to deliberately drum up fear of riots. After all, if they are succssful it means more resources for the rozzers.
NETCU was recently caught out bullshitting that environmental protesters were the next big terrorist thing which presumably had a similar motivation as well as perhaps attempting to provide a justification for the farcically OTT policing of Kingsnorth Climate Camp.
Oh and of course ACPO is actually a private company which claims to be a world authority on 'extremism' and presumably makes a pretty penny out of 'consultancy' services.
All in all there's a number of incentives for the rozzers to punt lots of 'climate of fear' BS.
I vaguely recall hearing somewhere (probably on the internet so take it as utter bullshit) that there is a particular temperature at which riots/unrest is likely and the scuffers have to be primed for outbreaks of fighting and civil disorder on a massive scale. I imagine it'd be a lot like a mass outbreak of Dave Syndrome.
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