Riot Police in Belfast draw their batons on schoolchildren
national |
miscellaneous |
news report 
Friday March 21, 2003 10:20
by Media watcher
A new police service?
Anyone see the BBC news last night? It showed hundreds of school children from the schoolchildren against war group protesting outside the US Embassy in Belfast. It showed them climbing over and tearing down the barriers, boys and girls to get at the US Building. You could see the real anger in their eyes against the war. Then you seen dozens of huge riot police going at them with their batons drawn. These schoolchildren made their voices heard and I hope the trade union people who are rallying today with the schoolchildren take a lesson from them and make sure their voices are heard also.
Comments (4 of 4)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4A few kids from west Belfast decided to jump the barrier and rush for the consulate. As they went forward, the barriers started to collapse, and other people went in as well. The cops tried to snatch one or two people, but the crowd pulled them back. The cops then snatched banners etc. and pulled the barriers back. Following this a lot of the kids started throwing stuff and chanting SSRUC etc. Eventually, the older kids realised starting a riot was a bad idea with so many younger kids around.
Finally the PSNI camera operator realised something was happening and started trying to film people...
The kids energy was really inspiring yesterday. A lot of negative people were saying that they were using it as an excuse to get off school but when you spoke to the kids and saw the passion with which they were shouting it was evident that it was more than just a day off school. If it had merely been an excuse for them to skip school they would still have been outside Belfast City Hall at 4.30 - over 4 hours after they walked out of school. these kids were there because they wanted to be. They stood up to everyone. they are standing up to the police, the politicians, teachers and the older people at the march. When older SWP members tried to tried to dissolve the protest for fear of anoying the police or blocking the highway the kids shouted "we will not be moved". Fuckin right.
Particularly impressive were the ones who took the opportunity with the microphone and voiced what many older people were saying and did in simple cold terms.
By the time the rest of us were getting jaded and tired the kids just kept on going and inspired the rest of us - their enthusiasm and drive is an example for us all.
I think a lot more kids will be motivated by yesterday protest - they will be spurred on to come back again and again and they realised that they do have a voice. They will tell their friends, and they will tell their friends. It can only be a good thing.
The behaviour of certain police officers was shameful yesterday. Some of the kids were aksing legitimate questions regarding what exact laws were being broken etc and the police were speechless - veryu often their only response was along the lines of "listen just move on" or "You've been told twice, I'm not telling you again". Fuckin jobsworths.
please read in first paragraph "skip school they would not have still have been outside Belfast City Hall at 4.30 " I made a mistake first time!
Chanted by Two anarchists, who then moved on
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