There is something very wrong in this country when six young people meeting to discuss politics in a Quaker Meeting House are arrested by the police after a mass (twenty officers) invasion of the building (armed with tasers).
The freedom to protest, or even the freedom to meet in a room to discuss current affairs, are central to a democracy... if this freedom is now compromised (further), as it seems to be, we are in a very bad place!
h/t @Thebratdragon
@Bssr4 @ChrisMayLA6 @Thebratdragon
This was in England. Under a Labour government!
@hugh @ChrisMayLA6 @Thebratdragon
Getting off track, but Trump is pulling the same things over here.
the lesson the suffragettes learned, peaceful gets you nowhere and arrested, so give them something worth arresting you for.
Same Police, same government mentality.
@Palky55 @ChrisMayLA6 you mean the ones that turned into riots when the Met got heavy handed?
that is the whole plan, stop the protests gathering in numbers too big to handle, so send in the Gestapo to take out the organisers.
@Thebratdragon @Palky55 @ChrisMayLA6
It's gone worldwide now.☠️
❝...𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐤𝐞𝐞𝐩 𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐝𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐯𝐢𝐨𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞? 𝐂𝐨𝐨𝐥, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐥𝐞𝐭'𝐬 𝐛𝐞 𝐜𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫 - 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐦 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐧𝐨 𝐬𝐮𝐜𝐡 𝐪𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐦𝐬. 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐞 𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐬 𝐖𝐈𝐋𝐋 𝐟𝐮𝐜𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐲𝐨𝐮, 𝐭𝐨 𝐤𝐞𝐞𝐩 𝐝𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐜𝐚𝐩𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐦 𝐨𝐧 𝐚 𝐛𝐨𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐞𝐭. 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐲'𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐚𝐬𝐜𝐢𝐬𝐦 𝐬𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐝𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐚 𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐢𝐜𝐞, 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲'𝐫𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝 𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐫, 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐯𝐢𝐨𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 - 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭'𝐬 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐰𝐡𝐲 𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐜𝐞𝐬 𝐞𝐱𝐢𝐬𝐭, 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞...❞
--𝐀𝐧𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐍𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐖𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐬
Whatever the reasoning, it will be justified in legal terms around conspiracy to protest in a way that would prove illegal, would be my guess - essentially its the thought police!
@Stevenheywood @ChrisMayLA6 @Thebratdragon
We've known for a long time that the MET has a deeply dysfunctional organisational culture - it really has to be broken up into much smaller forces with entirely new leaderships, drawn from elsewhere. The interaction of its existing chauvinist ethos with repressive protest legislation really is dangerous.
And there's another context to this police repression: their utter failure to deal with real crime, with detection and conviction rates at truly shocking, miniscule levels - hovering around 2% for serious crime like rape and burglary. The good are targeted, the criminals are laughing.
@GeofCox @Stevenheywood @ChrisMayLA6
ALL UK Police forces are the same.
If you are against the Quakers, then you really are on the wrong side of the line.
@spanghero @KimSJ @ChrisMayLA6
Quakers (all the ones I have known) are lovely but very determined people. And they know lots of non violent ways to make your life hell having had 400 years of practice.
Yes, that's an interesting issue; what (who) tipped them off?
Yes, I only saw it as @Thebratdragon posted the Quaker statement
@ChrisMayLA6 @Thebratdragon Have you looked at the world recently? We are in a very, very, very bad place.
The COVID debacle made it embarrassing to be human.... but 2025 has made me ashamed to be human.
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