UK Politics

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If a blind protester in a wheelchair is considered a terrorist, anyone can be treated as a terrorist (www.councilestatemedia.uk)

submitted 4 days ago by geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml to c/uk_politics@feddit.uk

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Yesterday marked one of the most shameful days in the history of the Metropolitan Police as they arrested peaceful protesters including a blind man in a wheelchair, an 81-year-old woman with Parkinson's, a former British army officer, and a bunch of, um, Quakers. All of them were protesting against two things: the UK's ongoing participation in the Gaza genocide and the proscription of Palestine Action. All of them were arrested under the Terrorism Act.

Imagine being the police officer whose job it was to wheel this man away. You can see the shame in his face as he lowers his head. These officers must know history is not going to judge them kindly, but they must also know just following orders is not okay. If I was a police officer, I would not have made those arrests, even if it cost me my job. Doing the right thing is infinitely more important than just following orders.

Yesterday police made twice the number of counter-terrorism arrests than they did in all of 2023 and one-fifth of those arrested were over 70. One police officer was wearing a hat that suggested he came from a Welsh police force. Remember this when police say they can't send any officers out after you've been burgled. Police are dealing with the real criminals now, and the real criminals include quakers. Yes, quakers were arrested.

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[–] Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

In Britain it starts well before University, when the scions of the elites attend very exclusive "Public Schools" as teenagers (in typical British fashion, "Public" here doesn't mean state-sponsored like everywhere else, it means private and "open to anybody who can afford it" and even that last part is a lie for the most exclusive ones).

Mind you, whilst I wrote my previous post I kept going back and correcting things because the more I thought about the US in this context the more it seemed to me that the US nowadays does have a lot of that, it's just not as old and entrenched as in Britain plus the mindset of most people there isn't one of "people should know their place" as is in the UK.

I supposed you could say that whilst both countries are not at all meritocratic, people in the UK accept it as "the way things are" whilst people in the US still now (though it seems to be changing) deceive themselves into thinking "one day that might be me".