G20 London Protests!

Hectic Glenn

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Well a lucky thing I don't have to go into central London today for university, meaning I don't get set on fire / beaten up! With the G20 meeting going on in ExCel today, the riots are in progress from the footage I've seen on TV. The royal bank of scotland have had their windows smashed up nicely and their offices ransacked and thrown at the police. Seems the protesters are being penned in for a while now with riot police and police horses...but tension is building D:

Pretty impressive co-ordination of the protests using facebook and twitter etc:
*1100 BST: Financial Fools' Day protesters leave Cannon Street, Moorgate, Liverpool Street and London Bridge stations to march to the Bank of England.
*1230 BST: Climate Camp converging on European Climate Exchange.
*1400 BST: Stop the War Coalition march from US Embassy to Trafalgar Square.
*1700 BST: Protest on Mall outside Buckingham Palace

Going to be a long day, Obama is meeting the Queen at 17:30 which is why they are moving to Buckingham Palace before. Apparently this is a 24 hour protest so much more to come yet. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7975851.stm

edit: Oh and they arrested 11 protesters dressed in police officer uniforms who were inside an armoured vehicle approaching the protest. That could have been bad :eek:

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edit2: majorly cool you can track the crowds through central London on this map - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7975220.stm
 
At least you guys care. When we get angry we forget all about it as soon as American Idol comes on.
 
Don't worry. It's BBC's April Fool's for this year.

Isn't it? D:

On a serious note, I think we all knew this would happen. A mate of mine is there now and saw some of it happen. Apparently it's all pretty violent and looks like something out of a horror film.
 
I'll never get why so many people go apeshit insane over nothing.

Anarchists for you, just love to riot.


Oh and I hope they deport all the protesters who came from abroad just to protest.
 
dont forget it's in the best interests of the media and government to show people getting unruly at protests ..even though they always make up less than 1% of the protestors. If 35,000 people were rioting, london would be burned to the ground by now
 
At least you guys care. When we get angry we forget all about it as soon as American Idol comes on.
^^ This.

The rest of the world are doing protests like this but in America it will be recorded in history books that it was quiet. Back in The Great Depression people were protesting and whatnot. Now people just complain by texting, by posting a blog, or by making a video on youtube. The world is truly in a sad shape and I think the only way for the world will come out of this is a WW3. People like Hitler emerge out of recessions and with WW2 it brought in a tons of jobs. It also wiped out a lot of the population like population control. I'm not saying that WW3 is a good thing but at this point I'm just watching the world slump while I'm in my 4th month of being laid off.

I also find that companies and people still don't get it. You still have companies do the same thing in the past like making stupid mistakes and AIG executives getting bonuses. Really nobody just gives a shit anymore but in Europe they actually do something about it.
 
Yada yada. There were 4.000 people. That's nothing and certainly not the 'people in general' Warped is referring to. Of course, tomorrow and Friday there will probably be more, but it would surprise me if the crowds exceed 30K. This whole anti-capitalism or neo-Communism is quite stupid if you ask me.
 
What he said.

But saying that, today there were some people with some really valid points, views and everyone wanted to be heard. Some of these people really feel that they've been let down time and time again by not only England's Government but the world leaders, and the frustration was obvious. Capitalism hasn't done us many favours recently really.

I met some really lovely people today, seeing as I went down there alone to take some pictures but got more involved than I thought I would.

etc
 
Public protest is dumb. People just get hurt. 90% of the people don't even know what the point is that they're supposedly trying to make. One of the funniest parts is that basically if you attend a protest, and you want to fit in, you can just wave a sign that says "**** you" even if you have no clue what the protest is all about. It's always valid in the context of a protest. I should start a company that manufactures fold-up signs with various insults written on it, like the aforementioned suggestion to **** ones self, or a variation like "piss off". The anti violence protests are the best. They always turn into a display of the opposite from what they're trying to prove. I laugh at protests. But I know nothing.
 
Public protest is dumb. People just get hurt. 90% of the people don't even know what the point is that they're supposedly trying to make. One of the funniest parts is that basically if you attend a protest, and you want to fit in, you can just wave a sign that says "**** you" even if you have no clue what the protest is all about. It's always valid in the context of a protest. I should start a company that manufactures fold-up signs with various insults written on it, like the aforementioned suggestion to **** ones self, or a variation like "piss off". The anti violence protests are the best. They always turn into a display of the opposite from what they're trying to prove. I laugh at protests. But I know nothing.

I'm pretty sure the majority there know why they are there. If I saw a protest I'm not going to just jump in because it may just be a gay pride parade.

Also most people protest the rising Police state in their countries after 911
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Clt80KpHx7c
this was just taken Sunday
 
Public protest is dumb. People just get hurt. 90% of the people don't even know what the point is that they're supposedly trying to make.

lol you havent a clue. I've been to several protests and have never seen anyone hurt much less arrested for anything ...then again I havent attended any of the G summits


One of the funniest parts is that basically if you attend a protest, and you want to fit in, you can just wave a sign that says "**** you" even if you have no clue what the protest is all about.

I can tell you've never been to a protest and only go by what you see on tv ..the overwhelming majority of people carry no signs

It's always valid in the context of a protest. I should start a company that manufactures fold-up signs with various insults written on it, like the aforementioned suggestion to **** ones self, or a variation like "piss off". The anti violence protests are the best. They always turn into a display of the opposite from what they're trying to prove. I laugh at protests. But I know nothing.

agreed
 
Like I said, I know nothing.

It's my escape route in case there is a risk of an argument.
 
you should go to one ..start off something small like "boycott sunday driving; it saves lives" and then move right on up to full fledged molotov cocktail chucking anarchist in south korea
 
I might try that but I'm to frightened at the thought of nobody else showing up. Then I'd be alone and on top of that probably waving one of those self made fold-up signs that says "**** you"... that would be embarassing!!!
 
I might try that but I'm to frightened at the thought of nobody else showing up. Then I'd be alone and on top of that waving one of those self made fold-up signs that says "**** you"... that would be embarassing!!!

bring some friends??
 
I have none. And even if I did, I'd certainly have none after that.
 
I once attended a protest against the abuse of the Peruvian fruit fly. Attendance was low.
 
one thing I will like to know about this ones whit the banners of "capitalism isnt working" and such
when there wasnt any reccesion do they where doing this same protests?

also by the look of things they should be happy and it should be a giant party on the streets
 
Yeah, I saw that on the news. Not really a huge protest, but it's nice to see there's a little passion left in the masses, even though I probably don't agree with most of their ideals.
 
'Most' of their ideals? Also, why the hell does your monkey still wear a santa hat in April?
 
Because it's cold.

Look, communists and anarchists aren't exactly my favourite people, and I don't condone violence, but in today's passive environment, it is a change to see some action.
 
I'm all for protests, so long as they don't disrupt everday life.

Half of the "anarchists" probably don't even have stable jobs. Too busy revolting against our oppressive and brutal government.
 
I like how they smashed the RBS bank, which we the taxpayer pretty much own. So it's us who gonna have to pay for the repairs, not the bankers they are protesting against.. Bloody idiots are protesters any excuse to get violent, damn hippys.
 
You can't glass 'em all like that. As far as I know through my intense studies of human nature, protests are always composed of a) People who care, b) People who want to be part of a protest, and c) Jerks.

Jerks are almost always the dominant specicies.
 
People have a right to be angry, from the unemployed to students. Sure some of them seem to be just hippies as you say, but this protest had a lot of backing from your average working person because of the economic climate. The irresponsibilities of the banks is directly affecting others who haven't done much wrong. This protest, although not your standard riot, happened to just highlight a point.

Also, tomorrow the actual G20 talks occur in the ExCel centre which I've been to. In fact I've been pretty much to the exact room in ExCel where it will be. Its not far from the Docklands Light Railway stations, which will probably get bombarded with people tomorrow. The police presence and protesters will probably be there en mass again, I have no idea what its going to be like. But one thing is for sure, with it being out of the city centre its going to be more difficult to pen in protesters, and secondly....docklands contains many of the financial institution buildings (citigroup & barclays) which I suspect will be heavily protected.
 
The government seems to have done a remarkable job of bait 'n' switch if you ask me. Whip up fury against the banks (and use one man as a scapegoat for the whole situation), deny any responsibility for the current misfortune and step in as rescuer. Gordon Brown was the chancellor for the last decade FFS, where is the anger at the "not me guv" teflon government?

Pissed all our money up the wall when we had it, left us utterly screwed now we don't have any, pushed for greater deregulation of the banking system in the first place, sold off our gold reserves at their lowest value in decades and moved us to a fractional reserve banking system, engineered the takeover of HBOS by Lloyds which is what caused the fall of Lloyds, colossal levels of waste on public sector bloat and on keeping their snouts in the trough...

Sure, the people in charge of the irresponsible banks are obviously accountable, but it's not all their fault by any means. And I'm sure a large proportion of the people attending these protests are the same morons who took out loans and mortgages they could never afford to pay back, thus complicit in causing this situation themselves.
 
People have a right to be angry, from the unemployed to students. Sure some of them seem to be just hippies as you say, but this protest had a lot of backing from your average working person because of the economic climate.


Wrong, the average working person is busy working and not caring about pointless violent anarchist protest just because daddy abused them when they were younger.


Sorry but people who just like being angry at the world don't get support for those protests.

If capitalism isn't working then they wouldn't have the freedom to be dead-end lay-abouts who achieve nothing and have the time and resources to go to London and tear it up.

For a massive crippling recession indicative of a broken system my life still seems pretty goddamn ****ing cushy and comfortable compared to most other humans, so I reckon regardless of how our economy is going up or down, the western capitalism is doing just fine. Cant be a ****ing golden age of profit all the time and tis no excuse to be a massive ****ing fag.

Which most protesters are.






Fags.
 
Wrong, the average working person is busy working and not caring about pointless violent anarchist protest just because daddy abused them when they were younger.


Sorry but people who just like being angry at the world don't get support for those protests.

If capitalism isn't working then they wouldn't have the freedom to be dead-end lay-abouts who achieve nothing and have the time and resources to go to London and tear it up.

For a massive crippling recession indicative of a broken system my life still seems pretty goddamn ****ing cushy and comfortable compared to most other humans, so I reckon regardless of how our economy is going up or down, the western capitalism is doing just fine. Cant be a ****ing golden age of profit all the time and tis no excuse to be a massive ****ing fag.

Which most protesters are.






Fags.



i agree that for being the worst recession in history we're in average still relatively well fed and have time to waste instead of working like 16 hours a day just to get you trough the day without starving or dying in the cold.
unless the worst is still to come

but the protests are really not just about the hippie agenda but they show that our system has some very bad practices.
 
What most of these protesters don't realise is that it's not capitalism that's at fault, it's our fault for living far beyond our means. People in the west have lived extravagant lifestyles that we could never afford, all the luxury's we have taken for granted now had to end some time. It's time people learned to save and earn what you buy instead of borrowing.

This morning on the news summed it up well. That there wasn't many people at the protests because everyone knows that the yobs don't like waking up early.

If you want to protest fine go ahead. Fighting with the Police and vandalising property is unacceptable. Trashing your own country isn't helping things. What difference to they think they are making trying to set a bank on fire? Are they helping the people, no they are just using any excuse to cause mayhem.
 
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