Politics Bristol riots against new crime bill.

[Mordoror]

Oddly enough, one of the major movement protesting a government in Western Europe in recent years precisely didn’t start because of any measure of reform, @muck.

The yellow vests started because of the price of gas (The carbon tax as if little France of 65 million people had any major impact on the world pollution as opposed to China or India), because of a lack of public service and hospital, post office and so on.

I think the straw that broke the camel back then was the deep division between rural and urban France, which has easier access to said public services and doesn’t have to worry much about driving. Could this happen elsewhere? Probably so.

I think @bfc1001 hits the nail on the head; all tinfoil hat aside, it’s fairly convenient for plenty of govt to somehow monitor closely any protests while claiming that “peaceful protests are a right”.

Not advocating any violence against the Police or the cars of the random everyday Joe, ideally peaceful protests would be listened to but I highly doubt that’s the case.

True the YJ protest was also because of the division concentred urban areas versus emptied rural areas.
However if i remember well this came as a second point
The first point being the tax on oil. Much like the red caps protest. Which in both cases costed more than the taxes to be implemented would have cost
In the red caps case it was even more idiot when taxes were intended first toward foreign carriers that used french roads but didnt paid for their maintenance.
The odd thing is that both protests turned political to throw out the elected gov and/or national institutions
I'll go with muck on that. Dont like the gov actions? Vote. Engage yourself in politics. Engage yourself in an association. Dont torch prefectures, dont throw stones on cops, dont try to storm official buildings.

This trend is general and worrying because it harms the rule of laws. Admitely it is also the fault on our medias and politicians that hinder legitimacy by speech like "X was elected but he is not legit because while getting 51%of votes, that represents only 20% of the population"
Well, the rest should have voted if the rest wanted somebody else in power...
Moaning because the guy in power you didnt voted for (if you voted at all) is not the guy you may have wished is undermining democracy.
No wonder these movements left and right are attracted to authoritarian figures. They just should be carefull for what they wish for

 

[Jake84]

@Mordoror, yes we’re just left with this. The medias love some videos of cars being torched and cops being assaulted/insulted or getting bricks on their helmets. It does make for a nice headline in the evening and images to shock the population, which therefore tune in to the adrenaline fueled footages.

Most every movement like that is “peaceful”, some of the protesters are definitely violent and only looking to stir up S**t while others are caught in the moment, it only takes indeed 10% or even less out of say; 100,000 protesters to cause mayhem in the streets and devastating footages.

 

[muck]

I think you maybe over-reacting, this is a few hundred bored fed-up people. The pubs are shut, infected numbers coming down, and now being told there wont be a trip to Torremolinos this year.

I dont think they are considering a run at the supreme court.

Mine was more of a generalised response, mate, with the Yellow Vests and whatnot having been brought up. Or think of Extinction Rebellion, Black Lives Matter and those right-wing weirdos in America waltzing into state parliaments. Everything is black and white nowadays.

 

[Fluff]

Mine was more of a generalised response, mate, with the Yellow Vests and whatnot having been brought up. Or think of Extinction Rebellion, Black Lives Matter and those right-wing weirdos in America waltzing into state parliaments. Everything is black and white nowadays.

Understood. I'm more concerned in Uk, that thousands turned up in London, refusing to wear masks, and saying its all a hoax. I love a good hoax story, but I'm pretty sure by now, we would have had some evidence, documentation, something?

 

[Ivan le Fou]

Mine was more of a generalised response, mate, with the Yellow Vests and whatnot having been brought up. Or think of Extinction Rebellion, Black Lives Matter and those right-wing weirdos in America waltzing into state parliaments. Everything is black and white nowadays.

There are vast differences in term of use of violence and of results.

Extinction Rebellion is mostly going for the "performance" and "performative" approach. Gaining visibility through social media and "look at me" stunts. Annoying? Yes. Noisy? Yes. But that's mostly it. In term of destruction it is close to negligible, as for the courage of their "operations" they are still far behind Greenpeace BnE-ing a nuclear power-plant.

BLM is violent and thuggish. Though their message is, in itself, more than valid, the movement devolved into a scam for woke lefties. One of the few movements that comes with a hefty tab and a heavy death-toll (either caused by their own members or by people who thought it was a good idea to stand in the middle of the highway in the middle of the night).

And though right-wing weirdos with guns have done spectacular stuff (spectacular in the term of visibility) that's mostly what they have achieved and done. Well that and painting the gun community with a very bad brush stroke.

 

[bfc1001]

I think you maybe over-reacting, this is a few hundred bored fed-up people. The pubs are shut, infected numbers coming down, and now being told there wont be a trip to Torremolinos this year.

I dont think they are considering a run at the supreme court.

Maybe so but I still feel the state are picking and choosing what stories they wish to promote via various media platforms to suit their own agenda . It might have only been a few hundred but there's been a lot worse over the last few years that have never had a look in media wise . This gets blown up because we all know this new bill is yet another erosion of accountability and democracy so better to outrage people to give justification to put it down . You could argue what was done to the workplace post 1984 miners strike will be rolled out nationwide . Want to strike ? Get permission first . Want to protest ......

 

[colin traveller]

Priorities of protestors are off the scale .... Greet about a crime bill ..

When protesting outside the Chinese Embassy should be a matter of national importance ..