i do not think that our views are too far apart, but I think it’s wrong to pick on the police, yes they must be accountable, but they are vulnerable and an easy target. I still maintain that a pregnant woman is wrong to expose her child to risk, whether in a demonstration or for example going to a football match at Arsenal!

But even if she’d kept out of the main gathering with the intention of leaving pretty soon after she got there, the police arrived behind everyone, and didn’t let people out. We weren’t given a time to leave, we weren’t given a warning. We were just enclosed. I was standing around talking to friends, and all of a sudden, we’re penned in on a public order offense! It was insane, unexpected, unlawful, and certainly not something that a pregnant woman with a political opinion to express should be made to feel guilty about.

The right to protest is something that runs very deep in the British psyche. Political dissent is something we do well. I’ve been on so many political demos over the last 5 years, thanks to the government being involved in a LOT of stuff that I disagree with, none of which I was able to express an opinion on by any way other than protesting and blogging.

I’m happy to lend my presence to a protest to support something I agree with. In all that time, I’ve seen violent behaviour twice. I didn’t even see any on the G20 demo. It was localised, not widespread, and the areas where there had been NO visible violent behaviour were still treated as though we were involved in a criminal act. That’s the great injustice here, the stupidity, the dangerous behaviour, certainly not that of the woman wanting to voice her opposition to the behaviour of the leaders of the g20 nations.

Therefore, to expose it to such risk is irresponsible, surely? If the demonstration was to be peaceful all well and good, but there were people, on both sides, that turned it into a less than peaceful demonstration.

I have met and talked with people who went there specifically to cause trouble. I’m sure there were police officers spoiling for a fight but, IMO she was negligent in exposing her child to a known risk and now to capitalize on that!

Fuck that. It’s people like you who should be attacked – once it’s happened a few times you might start to realise what shit you’re talking.

I went down there expecting to be there for an hour or so, then head home – it was walking distance from where I live, so I went over to lend my voice to the protests, take some pics and grab some video, before heading back to work in the afternoon. No such luck.

Why shouldn’t a pregnant woman expect to be able to exercise the right to peaceful protest, and have her health protected by the police?? That seems nuts to suggest that she was responsible. Very few people had any idea what the police were planning, and even if they did, no-one thought it would be an impenetrable wall of police around the vast majority of peaceful protestors.

I’m baffled how you can describe her being there and being mistreated as a waste of police time…

Would you extend your argument about disruption to the massive disruption to many, many lives that environmental profligacy has and will cause? How’s about the disruption that the chaos in the financial system has caused to many peoples’ attempts to live their lives within the structure of western society? On a simpler level, does any of us live a single day without causing someone, somewhere some disruption?

If you have a suggestion of a way that people can engage in free and effective protest without causing any disruption to anything other than government policy, I’d love to hear it!

It’s almost certain the young woman whose attack by a police officer has attracted so much attention could have behaved better, but it’s absolutely clear from the video that a well trained police officer could have restrained her in a much more civil manner which would have made him safer and had much less risk of further worsening relationships between police and protestors.

That said, a long hard look clearly needs to be directed at the Metropolitan Police whose scare tactics bordering on incitement is likely to have upped the stakes, generated considerable fear, and made this whole situation far more likely. And a similar look needs to be had at the press – a friend of mine posted a photo on flickr showing the Evening Standard very clearly implying violence had broken out in the G20 protests two hours before any real reports of violence. Such sensationalist reporting similarly heightens tensions and makes it much more likely that people will feel threatened and respond accordingly.

The thug concerned (a sergeant no less, so not even some hot-headed young recruit) has been suspended. When he is prosecuted for assault he’ll suffer the consequences of *his choice* to attack a person who was no physical threat to him, and rightly so.

As for your comments about other incidents in other areas with other people – where’s the logical connection between one person and any other? Are you suggesting that all protestors should be treated as a single entity?

After seeing the video evidence of police brutality I hope that next time the protesters are better protected and better prepared. There’s no jury that would be able to convict a person who is shown to be defending themselves against an unlawful attack…