MrMoor

http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=4582592

"Some of the men were in military khakis and many had their faces covered by" their keffiyehs.

At one point, while Bakri was speaking, a group within the crowd set light to the Stars and Stripes and a wooden cross just yards from the front steps of the embassy"

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/a...source=PA&ct=5

"Some among the crowd burned an effigy of Tony Blair on a crucifix and then set fire to a Union flag and a Stars and Stripes."

What is this leading to?

Hudson

Enrichment through multiculturalism, I think they call it.

UKIP MAN

the other one aint working


this is london


a little less adjectives and toned down slightly. :?

MrMoor

Guarded by a small detail of police? Guarded from whom? Do they need guarding?

Predict the consequences if people stood outside the Saudi embassy and burned a Saudi flag and the Koran. maybe someone will, they would deserve to be arrested, why are people who burn crosses not arrested, maybe they were not wearing hoodies and are thus rendered invisible.

Maybe the spirit of McPherson only let's the police arrest certain people for certain things.

I know Nick Griffin is not representative of most of us in this country but what he said was nothing toward what Bakri was saying. The lack of police action will be seen by many as an absolute vindication of what they have been saying for years and I may be inclined to believe it now.

The incitement to cause disharmony does not come from our quarter.

TomPhil

Who benefits from this? The BNP. That's who. I think that there will be many, many people sitting there at home today, who have for years resisted the charms of the party, will see this and decide that the only solution is the BNP, that things really are that bad that they are now our last hope.

I don't support the BNP at all. Yet time and time again I see the Government and the authorities doing things like this, doing things like not arresting anyone at that "protest" yesterday, and I just know that more and more membership forms must be flooding INTO phpbb_the BNP. Constantly the Government shoot themselves in the foot. They say how repulsive they find the BNP, yet their actions drive more and more people towards the party.

Yesterday was a complete farce. If you want a textbook definition of "inciting racial hatred", surely yesterday must have been it? Flag burning, cross burning, death threats, chants such as "Kill, Kill, USA", "Nuke New York!", "UK, you will pay, Zarqawi is on his way", posters urging people to ignore British law. Yet no arrests. It totally defies believe. Absolutely, totally defies belief.

Imagine for a single moment that it had been the other way round. That the BNP had decided to stage a protest, burning the Koran, chanting "Nuke Mecca", "Kill, Kill, all the Muslims" etc. They would hardly have got those things out of their mouths before they would have been all arrested and charged with "inciting racial hatred".

I'm trying really hard, but I really can't come up with any reason why nobody was arrested yesterday? I really cannot see how the decision to not arrest anyone yesterday was made on anything other than racial grounds. The BNP would have been jailed if they had staged a similar protest. And probably rightly so.

__________________
"A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government."

In Labour we trusted and now we are busted... again. It's the economy, stupid.

social observer

Most likley the individual officers on that protest would have dearly loved to have started dragging vocal group members off to the cells but I have absolutely no doubt that the pre-protest briefing would have stressed low key policing.

Also, you can bet that this group would have loved to see people getting arrested and no doubt would have made their feelings known along with the un numbered 'extras' they would have strategically placed in the area to swell the numbers.

That means that there would have been insufficient officers to deal with it. To arrest one crowd member in a protest safely with at least a reasonable chance of success needs at least 4-6 officers to launch in quickly. One or 2 going INTO phpbb_a crowd to grab someone is a recipe for a kicking.

It comes down to the commander in charge not wanting to be seen to 'over police' the demo, so they use less officers and thus have insufficient to take this action.

Plus they are thinking about the later ramifications (night time disorder, tying up large numbers of officers trying to deal with detainees who will all have been briefed in how to obstruct the legal process to maximum effect etc.)

Another problem is that the law states that whenm you take action for an offence, the evidence should indicate an individual's guilt. It won't allow you to prosecute someone from a group simply because the group in general is 'provocative'. A standard defence is the 'bystander' tactic - I was part of that group but it was the others that caused the problems.

To counter that police use evidence gathering teams (camera crews) to film individuals, then have to sift it all to identify individual offences to pin to specific people.

These are common tactics used by animal rights protesters, anti road demonstrators and things like that.

basically, action can be taken, but the commander has to plan for it. Woe betide the individual officer who decides on a bit of unilateral action.
If they did, they would most likely be beaten up, lose any prisoner they managed to grab, start a riot that there were insufficient officers to quell, have serious complaints (malicious or otherwise) of overbearing conduct, assault, racial prejudice, you name it, and be faced with other disciplinary charges of endangering colleagues, defying orders, neglect of duty etc.

Personally, that is not an enviable position to be in.

I'm not defending the lack of arrests, I would prefer to see some positive action. I know that senior management in the police is constantly flagellating itself to be seen as uber politically correct.
But I am also very aware of the practicalities, legal restraints and safety issues involved.

Just in case people have noticed that I tend to try and rebut criticism of the police - I do, because almost nobody else does and police have traditionally never had right of reply.

I do have other interests too you know.

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If you don\'t like what I think, attack the opinion with Logic and reason, don\'t attack the opinion holder!

Roger Gough

The protesters couldn't have been arrested for racial hatred as they were mouthing off at the USA and the UK (countries) as opposed to a specific race. They might have been arrested for a breach of the peace but that then involves freedom of expression and legitimate protest. You must also consider that the Met is now incontrovertibly in the grip of the Government. Ian Blair will have been briefed well and truly as to how not to deal with demos like this. I hate this behaviour as much as any right minded anglo - just trying to be devil's advocate.

Hudson

Never mind, I'm sure Turkey joining the EU will make everything just fine.

smooveOp

I've been thinking about this.

I've come to the conclusion that you may have something here Tom but perhaps not what you think.

Let's ask your question again. "Who benefits from this?". Let's assume that more people vote BNP. Who did these people vote for before? My guess is probably Tory for the most part. So, who benefits?

I would suggest, New Labour.

Just a thought.