Police anger at Commons march ‘ban’
Turn about is fair play - or is
it?
Police in the UK accused the government of attempting to ban 10,000 officers from marching through Westminster in a mass protest over their pay award. The demonstration would be the force’s biggest since 1919.
The high-profile demonstration, intended to highlight the force’s anger over its recent below-inflation, 1.9 per cent pay rise, is threatening to become a major political flashpoint in the new year. The police claim their preferred route for their march is set to be banned under archaic ’sessional orders’, laws drawn up in the early 19th century to combat large-scale radical protests that threatened a disturbance of the peace.
Gordon said using archaic orders to ban or reroute the march on law-and-order grounds would widen the rift between the police and government. ‘To think there is a likelihood of public disorder from 10,000 police officers marching through central London is a nonsense,’ he said. ‘I can only assume they are doing this because they do not want the embarrassment. It will just raise the police’s anger and mistrust of this government.’
Because they function on behalf of the state, folks tend to forget that coppers are working people with problems in common with all workers.
True - they needn’t worry much about being clobbered over the head while demonstrating. But, they get to experience the same lies and deceit designed to shut down dissent that the rest of us expect as standard operating procedure.
Posted: Sun - December 30, 2007 at 09:10 AM