🚀 go-pugleaf

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MAD MAL <m.bradley@student.murdoch.edu.au> wrote in message
news:Pine.GSO.3.96.1000727225000.6435D-100000@student.murdoch.edu.au..
.
[..]
> > This protest will either fizzle laughably or turn very nasty.
>
> We shall see, it wont fizzle...

This is kinda what I'm afraid of.

> All sorts of groups will be protesting, the majority will be in a
> carnival atmosphere, though others are less predictable...

It's the less predictable ones that are the
problem. Will anyone be turning up in the
Seattle Looter's look? Gasmask, hankerchief,
baseball armour? Were I protest organiser or
police officer, I'd keep a close eye on those
people.

> Maybe a few multinational targets get smashed at worst, it depends
> on the croud control in forced...

It will depend on crowd control to some extent.
It will depend also on the crowd. If the
crowd turns into a mob, the only real option
left to the police is to deploy brute force
to break it up before it worsens. There
really is no other choice.

Police brutality probably does have a malicious
edge - certainly, it can't be ruled out. But
the fact is that the use of force really is
the only choice you have when handling an
irrational mob-mind. You break it up or it
will get worse.

> > I sincerely hope it fizzles. I believe in protest, but S11 to me
> > seems like a call to violent mob action.
>
> A bit conservative of you, globalisation is one of the few issues
> that gets such a wide spectrumn of support from both the left,
> centre and the right of politics, anarchists, nationalists,
> fundamentalists...

I'm not talking about the spectrum of support.
I'm talking about the possibility of violence,
injury and the destruction of property. I
don't believe that violent mob action is even
remotely productive.

There is, of course, a cynical body of thought
that suggests that the "organisers" know all
this, and are seeking out confrontation for
the attention it will bring to "the cause". I
prefer to believe this is not the case, but
I must concede that surely *some* of those
organisers understand the basics of crowd
dynamics. If there is a deliberate design to
incite mob-mind and violence, I think it's
a despicable act. Such people are no longer
protesters. They are as bad as the people they
wish to destroy, and I'll happily resist them
on that basis.

Technically, I suppose, I am a "conservative".
After my survey of political parties hereabouts
I found the Liberals to be the best organised,
most focused and most willing to listen to
what I had to say (I kid you not). The local
LC and YL branches are trying to position
themselves as "progressive Liberal". It'll be
interesting how far they can carry that.

But when it's all said and done, I still like
to think that I'm a liberal thinker, not a Liberal
one.


> > Please see my reply to MAD MAL's "highschool" posting for my
> > thoughts on this.
>
> Will do...

I repeat my prediction: S11 will fizzle or
bang. I repeat my sincere hope that it
fizzles (although I suspect it won't).


be well;

JC.

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