What a Protest...
- Thread starter Aaron
- Start date
Dagnut said:
You've got a point, Dagnut, but it's not always that straight forward.
It's not funny when you're facing a mob, you just don't who's mixed up in the middle of a bunch of people who are genuinely protesting. I remember when I was at a road opening last year and the IFA came along to protest and some of the protestors starting throwing eggs at us. The group then ran down the side of an embankment and onto the piece of road the rest of us were on (they had been overhead on a bridge before that). I can tell you, that wasnt funny. I wasnt part of the reason the farmers were cut back on their payments, I was only doing my own job. Yet, I was part of the group who had eggs thrown at us.
People can protest all they want if they feel that way but i think the last 30-40 seconds of the clip says it all for me. That protestor at the end is giving off to the garda about what "your minister ????? the s*** out of us" and then says something like 'yeah, walk away'. That Garda didnt make any cutbacks, he's not in the government. Having worked for the county council for the last few years (I'm actually leaving them this week), it's really annoying when people blame you personally for all that has gone wrong. They should step back and think about other people besides themselves. It's crap that all these cut backs are happening, we all know that, but it is the incompetent government we have who are doing it, not the Garda on the street or someone working for a county council.
So when you've got a bunch of people who are upset about things like the above, there is a possibility that they will lash out at the wrong people and this is why you need horses and dogs at the ready. If they came near me I'd kick the sh*t out of them too. There is a difference between a peaceful protest and riot. What did they think was going to happen, did they think the Gardai were going to open the doors to the Dept of Finance and let them run around inside it? And then terrorise the ordinary workers in there?
adrianfa said:
He didn't say "your minister" he said "your men" ..meaning Gardai where hitting people with batons which you could clearly see...no point in arguing with you your always going to defend the Gardai as you rightly should.... people should be also aware the 20 or people who got barricaded in the dept of finance also got a beating for their troubles.
Yeah the Gardai are only doing a job they are instructed to do and they are acting within the remits given by superiors, so I blame the senior officers not the ones doing the dirty work.
Apparently, the majority of the groups who are shown in these clips were made up of 80% anarchists, 20% students - even the students involved in the main protest were disgusted by the behaviour of the so-called "peaceful protestors". I don't agree with some images shown in the clip (i.e. the girl getting pulled out by her hair or the group sitting down getting battered across the head) but, as Adrian said, it's not always straightforward! You've got clips of thugs throwing objects at the guards and then screaming "peaceful protest"...as if "no backsies" applies outside of the schoolyard!
Dagnut said:
If that's what he said, I'll take your word for it. I can't honestly tell what exactly he said, I did put it some "?" when I was quoting him.
I'm not one to always to defend the Gardai. We all know they don't always get it right. We all know that when they see our subarus they think we're something more sinister than what most of us actually are and again that is partly down to a bunch of idiots giving us a bad name but it could be argued that we should be given the benefit of the doubt but in these times, I can understand why some Gardai would be slow to do that.
And agreed with ye, no one should be pulled by the hair like an animal.
As for swinging a baton at someone, who knows what went on before that, we only know what was recorded and what we therefore see. I know if I was in front of a hostile mob and they were coming at me, I'd be thinking about protecting myself with that baton in my hand. There'd be no point in lying on the ground afterwards with it in my hand, asking myself why i didnt let fly with it. But that's just me.
It reminds me of clash's between protestors and police in England in the early 90's over the building of new roads my mum got heavily involved in that and i witnessed much of it first hand but as i was only 10 at the time i wasnt at the really big ones one of which involved 30 coach loads of riot squad turning up to clear a green of protestors trying to blok a bypass being built and the biggest one that happened we had already moved over here i think it made news over here to it took police 5 days to clear a row of houses (claremont road) marked for demolition for the m11 bypass there was hundreds of cases of broken bones etc all through out the clashes most people who knew me as a kid on that are surprised i got so into my cars :lol: :lol: 
The guards reacted to the situation they where put in by people hijacking a peaceful protest
However there was some over reaction on their behalf
In all I will standup and say the guards aren't all too be tarred with the same brush!!! A small few over reacted and thought, I'll hot this 1 a few slaps and see what happens
The same way it was a small minority of protesters that kicked off the disturbances
The same way it's a small minority of Subaru drivers that race and mess on public roads getting us all bad names
Watching that clip above you could easily say there has been some 1 sided clever editing done to show the guards in a bad light! Equally with more clever editing I'm sure we could show the guards as completely innocent and the protesters all to. Be trouble makers
However there was some over reaction on their behalf
In all I will standup and say the guards aren't all too be tarred with the same brush!!! A small few over reacted and thought, I'll hot this 1 a few slaps and see what happens
The same way it was a small minority of protesters that kicked off the disturbances
The same way it's a small minority of Subaru drivers that race and mess on public roads getting us all bad names
Watching that clip above you could easily say there has been some 1 sided clever editing done to show the guards in a bad light! Equally with more clever editing I'm sure we could show the guards as completely innocent and the protesters all to. Be trouble makers
PatrickBuzzin
Well-known member
To be honest guys I'd say the government were delighted with how this turned out. All the attention of the protest has been taken off them because of the trouble there. Keep us busy fighting among ourselves and we will forget about why we are all so pissed off in the 1st place. They done the same with the private and public sectors last year with the pay cuts. We all started shouting about the benefits that comes with state jobs while our pensions were getting shafted. Create an us against them scenario between the public and private sector and we argued like he'll amongst ourselves . Job done on there side of things. Cuts still went ahead. Don't see why so much of these protests are goin ahead anyways. People will still vote for there political patties as usual if there is an election. I know alot of "proud ff supporters" who feel they are the best party in the world. Amazes me really. I would have no ties to any party but certainly won't be voting them fcukers in ever.
Sorry for shooting off topic.
Sorry for shooting off topic.
@PatrickBuzzin I agree, what happened suited the government no end.
I think Hammie has it spot on above. I admit, I am a bit biased against protests like that because of my own experience but there are always troublemakers on both sides. We can't avoid that. As for the blood on people's faces, we just don't know how that happened, maybe they were innocent protestors who got a belt from someone taking advantage of their position but maybe they were asking for it as well. The video was cleverly edited to show the damage done but it didnt show what went on before that.
Here is a link to what I experienced. (I hope you dont mind, Aaron.) If you watch through the whole video you'll see the bridge where the IFA and its members were protesting from originally. You can imagine how it felt to see all those people literally scramble down the embankment and come at us like they were going to assault us. As you will see, "hostile" doesnt adequately describe this group. I know farmers arent violent, we have a farm at home, but when you are getting eggs pegged at you from a group of people and then they run at you, it does make you brick a bit for a few seconds. In fairness to the IFA, they did stop their members from crossing the central median on the motorway so as it turned out, we were fine and nothing really to worry about. But you just couldnt trust anyone who's hot tempered with grievances when they meet the person they blame for causing them grief.
I think Hammie has it spot on above. I admit, I am a bit biased against protests like that because of my own experience but there are always troublemakers on both sides. We can't avoid that. As for the blood on people's faces, we just don't know how that happened, maybe they were innocent protestors who got a belt from someone taking advantage of their position but maybe they were asking for it as well. The video was cleverly edited to show the damage done but it didnt show what went on before that.
Here is a link to what I experienced. (I hope you dont mind, Aaron.) If you watch through the whole video you'll see the bridge where the IFA and its members were protesting from originally. You can imagine how it felt to see all those people literally scramble down the embankment and come at us like they were going to assault us. As you will see, "hostile" doesnt adequately describe this group. I know farmers arent violent, we have a farm at home, but when you are getting eggs pegged at you from a group of people and then they run at you, it does make you brick a bit for a few seconds. In fairness to the IFA, they did stop their members from crossing the central median on the motorway so as it turned out, we were fine and nothing really to worry about. But you just couldnt trust anyone who's hot tempered with grievances when they meet the person they blame for causing them grief.
Dagnut said:
I wouldnt say they did.... but as i said some guards did go overboard with their actions
but what was done before hand??? Im not going to sit here and defend the gards cause I wasnt there and nor would you ever find me there..... But i wouldnt say theprotesters were angels either
agqain ill say "THERE IS 2 SIDES TO EVERY STORY"
Rob Spec C
Octane Boostaholics
Why were people sitting on the ground getting the sh!t kicked out of them, being dragged out by the hair etc?????? It doesnt matter what went on before that, if they are sitting down then they are not doing any harm... There is no excuse to start kicking the sh!t out of people on the floor.. The guards should be above it all, trying to maintain the peace.. To me, it just looked like the guards were inciting the violence by their actions..