Author: RichShip

Looking around at the protests going on at the moment and the amount of violence evident being blamed on “anarchists” rather than the majority of peaceful protestors does make me wonder and draw comparisons with what was and is happening in Canada – see this video of the Montebello summit protests where police were dressed up and acting as protestors, but not peaceful protestors – the kind of protestors that carry rocks. And if you don’t think that they are police from the evidence presented in the protestors own video, then check out the news report. One really good way to check up on them is to see what footwear they have on, a still from Montebello (low Res, High res) shows that the police will dress up as protestors, but will still wear their issued boots with a little camouflage.

Why this blog post now though, well, today it has broken that undercover policeman Mark Kennedy has had a number of years in deep cover with environmental groups, planning, organising and executing protest actions, encouraging others when they wanted to call off protests, paying fines, hiring vehicles and driving vans amongst other things. This is happening in the UK too.

It has apparently backfired a little in that the story is focusing on the fact that he appears to be very sympathetic to their cause, but the real story is that the Police appear to be funding undercover protestors to the tune of £250,000 each per year and these undercover officers are allegedly inciting actions that otherwise wouldn’t happen.

Now far from it for me to speculate, but how much of this is about undercover information to stop violent protest, and how much is about the police inciting violent protest in order to use unnecessary tactics and further extend their powers.

Now, don’t get the wrong idea about me – I have a lot of respect for the regular PC who is trying to get through the day and uphold law and order, but someone, somewhere is getting worried that the populace is not happy with the job that the government are doing and the way in which they are spending our money and that a number of the government have forgotten that they are supposed to be working for us. This is leading to a growing backlash against the rich corporations getting richer whilst the little man has to put up with increases in his VAT. No wonder people are upset after they appointed Philip Green as an adviser on austerity.

Hmm, longer rant than I expected, and still no mention of tuition fees – looks like a busy year ahead.