British police is warning about a Summer of Discontent:
Police are preparing for a “summer of rage” as victims of the economic downturn take to the streets to demonstrate against financial institutions, the Guardian has learned.
Britain’s most senior police officer with responsibility for public order raised the spectre of a return of the riots of the 1980s, with people who have lost their jobs, homes or savings becoming “footsoldiers” in a wave of potentially violent mass protests.
Superintendent David Hartshorn, who heads the Metropolitan police’s public order branch, told the Guardian that middle-class individuals who would never have considered joining demonstrations may now seek to vent their anger through protests this year.
He said that banks, particularly those that still pay large bonuses despite receiving billions in taxpayer money, had become “viable targets”. So too had the headquarters of multinational companies and other financial institutions in the City which are being blamed for the financial crisis.
Hartshorn, who receives regular intelligence briefings on potential causes of civil unrest, said the mood at some demonstrations had changed recently, with activists increasingly “intent on coming on to the streets to create public disorder”.
If you look back through the archives you’ll see Palau has warned time and again that New Labour and its cronies in the police forces have been preparing for the economic downturn for a long time, exactly by giving the police far ranging powers to nip any social unrest in the bud. Deliberately or not, they’ve created a body of legislation that can make any form of protest, no matter how peaceful, illegal.
Hartshorn is indeed issuing a warning, but it’s aimed at us. Best not be thinking about protesting and accept your lot like good boys and girls…