A Follow Up - Kill The Bill - Bristol
The narrative after the Kill The Bill protests were that there was a small group of protesters who got out of hand. I wrote about how it looked on the ground, which was significantly different to the narrative presented loudly in the media by the police.
The Chief Constable of Avon & Somerset police did multiple press interviews the morning after saying how his officers had broken bones. Quietly, a few days later this was shown to be a lie he made up, presumably to gain public sympathy. It worked.
I read comments online about the police battering people with shields and quite a few people replying calling the protesters “the great unwashed” or that "police officers would never behave like that" despite there being hours of video online showing exactly that.
In summary the report says:
The police assumed the gathering was illegal under Covid regulations, this was wrong.
The police engaged in 'revenge policing' using the blade of their shield and dogs to illegally attack non-violent, peaceful protesters.
Journalists were attacked by Police (the attacks were were caught on camera Including the police being specifically told it was a journalist.)
So with a bit more hindsight, and the Parliamentary investigation, the position is:
The police used the excuse of keeping people safe from Covid as to why they should not have been protesting.
People were kettled by the police into a few streets increasing the risk of Covid.
Inexplicably police vehicles were parked in the middle of the crowd.
Police spent most of the afternoon agitating the crowd, but not letting them leave,
During the afternoon Police used their shields as hammers on innocent, non-violent legal protesters.
During the afternoon Police did not use horses and dogs to disperse the crowd, but inexplicability charge into the crowd who were unable to leave.
After hours of intimidation and violence towards them, the angry crowd attacked some of the police vehicles that happened to be within the group.
After dark, inexplicably, the police stopped holding a line in front of the glass fronted station, a line they had held easily all day. When it became exposed, protesters broke the glass.
Riot police then deployed to disperse all protesters, spending an evening pushing groups back and charging groups.
YouTubers live streaming the actions of the police were all targeted and shut down within a half hour period. Online footage shows false arrests taking place to shut them down.
Yet despite all of the above, the general public were left with the impression fed to them by the Chief Constable. These thugs, my poor police officers getting hurt. And the majority of Bristolians and people in the UK bought that narrative.
There is no media frenzy about a parliamentary committee reporting that our police force has acted illegally, and violently, like armed thugs.
The majority of police officers on the ground that day are good people. But the tactics of those in charge of them, were not. Those in charge that day were the ones responsible for the hurt caused to protesters and police, they are the ones who should be being arrested.
Yet the Bill which the protests were about continues its passage through Parliament.
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