Carnival of Full Enjoyment
With the papers and websites today filled with pictures and stories of yesterday's trouble in Edinburgh city centre there seems to be a lot of focus on the small number of troublemakers who were fighting battles with the police.
Yet the side I saw to the demonstrations was a completely different one. A group of protestors dressed as clowns were dancing around, pretending to be dead, kissing the riot police and generally making a nuisance of themselves in a comic way which wasn't going to cause any damage to property or harm to those around.
While I don't agree with the clown's politics and assuming they weren't a diversionary tactic to move police resources away from trouble being caused by more violent protestors I have to say that I don't have a problem with the way they went about their protest. Sure they caused trouble tying up the centre of Edinburgh for 6 hours, but the organised Make Poverty History march caused more roads to be closed and caused just as much hassle for local residents (albiet for a more focused cause).
Civil disobediance such as this makes a point that an organised march can't in that it causes hassle for the Police and forces Government to realise that even a small number of the unsatisfied public can make trouble. The only shame is the clowns didn't really seem to make their point clear to the hundreds of bystanders who came to watch the action.
Much of the congestion caused by the protest was caused by Edinburgh citizens who turned out at lunchtime wanting to see what was happening. While protestors filmed the police and the police filmed the protestors, the city of Edinburgh were filming them both.
Accusations of heavy handed Police tactics are flying about but again aside from one instance where a Police horse charged forward into the crowd and a heavy presence of Police in riot gear, the policing I saw was all reasonable.
Yet the side I saw to the demonstrations was a completely different one. A group of protestors dressed as clowns were dancing around, pretending to be dead, kissing the riot police and generally making a nuisance of themselves in a comic way which wasn't going to cause any damage to property or harm to those around.
While I don't agree with the clown's politics and assuming they weren't a diversionary tactic to move police resources away from trouble being caused by more violent protestors I have to say that I don't have a problem with the way they went about their protest. Sure they caused trouble tying up the centre of Edinburgh for 6 hours, but the organised Make Poverty History march caused more roads to be closed and caused just as much hassle for local residents (albiet for a more focused cause).
Civil disobediance such as this makes a point that an organised march can't in that it causes hassle for the Police and forces Government to realise that even a small number of the unsatisfied public can make trouble. The only shame is the clowns didn't really seem to make their point clear to the hundreds of bystanders who came to watch the action.
Much of the congestion caused by the protest was caused by Edinburgh citizens who turned out at lunchtime wanting to see what was happening. While protestors filmed the police and the police filmed the protestors, the city of Edinburgh were filming them both.
Accusations of heavy handed Police tactics are flying about but again aside from one instance where a Police horse charged forward into the crowd and a heavy presence of Police in riot gear, the policing I saw was all reasonable.
posted by Unknown at 9:08 AM
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