{"id":4158,"date":"2010-11-24T21:06:41","date_gmt":"2010-11-24T21:06:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/?p=4158"},"modified":"2010-11-25T08:40:26","modified_gmt":"2010-11-25T08:40:26","slug":"one-story-more-than-one-angle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/?p=4158","title":{"rendered":"One story, more than one angle"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Students are revolting.<\/p>\n

Today has seen the second student revolt in a couple of weeks.<\/p>\n

The first student revolt didn’t go down too well. There was bad behaviour, wanton destruction, mindless vandalism and mob rule.<\/p>\n

Yes, the police were caught with their trousers around their ankles; they admitted as much.<\/p>\n

But for today’s revolt, the police were prepared for a violent, rampaging mob of uncontrolled thugs, vandals and violent protesters.<\/p>\n

Anyone who thought the police would not come down hard on today’s protest is clearly devoid of all common sense.<\/p>\n

Let’s ask a question.<\/p>\n

Do you:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. think the police would, as happened last time, paddle about ineffectively, whilst fires are set, public buildings are ransacked and private property is wantonly vandalised? Or do you<\/li>\n
  2. believe that, at the first validated report of serious crime, the police would assume full riot mode, and come down hard?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    If\u00c2\u00a0 your answer is 2. welcome to planet Earth. If your answer is 1., you’re wasting fresh air, please leave now.<\/p>\n

    And let’s stretch things even more: what do we imagine is going to happen at future protests?<\/p>\n

    I have seen 400,000 protesters – get that kids, at least four times the number of the people you have turned out with – peaceful protesters turn out for the Liberty and Livelihood march in 2002.<\/p>\n

    I have seen one million peaceful – I’ll say that again – peaceful protesters take to the streets of London for the StWC march.<\/p>\n

    And yet less than 100,000 students, who expect to be taken seriously and treated like adults, are incapable of organising, policing and passing off a peaceful protest.<\/p>\n

    In what I can only take as a sign of irony, various Tweets are being pulsed around the internet this evening.<\/p>\n

    I’ve seen several people retweet the thoughts of @josayoung<\/a>:<\/p>\n