media propaganda and lies over anti-austerity protests
@arthurchappell (44941)
Preston, England
October 5, 2015 11:26am CST
The media reaction to the demonstration against austerity that I took part in yesterday has been disgusting. Though there were only six arrests including one moron assaulting someone, the press has put the assault on the front pages, rather than the 90,000 marching demonstrators who behaved themselves impeccably.
Another media horror story shows that the protestors were watched by police marksmen throughout the two hour march. The police were on top of Manchester city Centre skyscrapers with telescopic sites trained on the marchers. I wonder how often I might have been directly in the cross-hairs of a high powered rifle.
The police defence for this indefensible action, treating ordinary citizens as potential terrorists, was that gun lenses are better than any available binoculars. That claim is utter garbage and total lies.
Arthur Chappell
1 person likes this
2 responses
@Jessicalynnt (50523)
• Centralia, Missouri
6 Oct 15
It's sad when the news makes a tiny deal into a huge deal, I wonder if they did that with the police too. Perhaps they only watched with some kind of binocular to keep an eye from a distance, not one on a rifle
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@arthurchappell (44941)
• Preston, England
7 Oct 15
they were using rifle sight on their rifles as binoculars
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@arthurchappell (44941)
• Preston, England
7 Oct 15
@Jessicalynnt and extremely dangerous if the rifles are loaded
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@Jessicalynnt (50523)
• Centralia, Missouri
7 Oct 15
@arthurchappell that's a bit messed up
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@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
5 Oct 15
This type of media attitude is not uncommon. The newspapers are not interested in all the well behaved protestors because it does not sell newspapers. Concentrating on the minority helps to create sensationalism, which is what the public want to read and therefore is what sells newspapers.
Whether this gives a totally and unfair impression about the protestors does not matter to them in the slightest, sales are al that they care about.
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@arthurchappell (44941)
• Preston, England
5 Oct 15
Oh yes, it is just sensationalism though it fuels the government's contempt for radical minded people who oppose their policies
@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
5 Oct 15
@arthurchappell I remember the National Front having a meeting at the hotel in which I worked in the late 1970s. When they arrived at the hotel many people had turned up to disrupt the meeting, so they simply waited at a safe distance. The police arrived and some of the protestors against the National Front ended up I fights and ere arrested.
After the incident they came into the hotel and had their meeting, followed by a quiet drink an left.
The newspaper gave a very biased account of the incident and the National Front were banned from having further meetings I Bolton by the council.
I have never agre3ed with the political views of the National Front, but these people caused no trouble and should not have been victimised in that way.
