Climate Camp
Aug. 4th, 2008 09:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
julietAm at Climate Camp (just helped get the internets set up).
Please read doop's post where he has put this & the background all far better than I have here. (And many thanks to him for remote help & emotional support this morning.)
Riot police tried to come onto the site at 0530 this morning. My Twitter feed is here & I'll be continuing to update that.
Currently, the main gate is free of police; the rear gate is where the riot police moved in & currently there is still a standoff between campers & around 70 police (I believe) in riot gear. The window of a van parked on the site was smashed in by the police. Protestors were also hit about by the police during the initial few minutes. I saw one bloke with 3 or 4 police officers kneeling on him (one kneeling on his head) - looked like they were also hitting him. I was briefly on the frontline but not for long - not really something I was up for, so I came back & helped out at Comms instead.
There's tea and sandwiches up at the standoff; apparently there was singing earlier. Not sure what'll happen now - can't imagine that there's much that *can* happen, really. Hopefully it will be resolved and the police will sod off. What a splendid and total waste of money, never mind the beating people up.
To the best of my knowledge camp is still OPEN (main gate certainly is) and receiving visitors. Please don't be put off by this - it is absolutely not required to get involved in any of that sort of frontline action. I've been here for 2 days & mostly what I've been doing is building things (tables, benches), helping set the media tent up, sous-cheffing for dinner for 120, hoping to help with the eco-showers later... It's a really positive vibe, even if everyone is very slightly tired now!
Climate Camp.
Please read doop's post where he has put this & the background all far better than I have here. (And many thanks to him for remote help & emotional support this morning.)
Riot police tried to come onto the site at 0530 this morning. My Twitter feed is here & I'll be continuing to update that.
Currently, the main gate is free of police; the rear gate is where the riot police moved in & currently there is still a standoff between campers & around 70 police (I believe) in riot gear. The window of a van parked on the site was smashed in by the police. Protestors were also hit about by the police during the initial few minutes. I saw one bloke with 3 or 4 police officers kneeling on him (one kneeling on his head) - looked like they were also hitting him. I was briefly on the frontline but not for long - not really something I was up for, so I came back & helped out at Comms instead.
There's tea and sandwiches up at the standoff; apparently there was singing earlier. Not sure what'll happen now - can't imagine that there's much that *can* happen, really. Hopefully it will be resolved and the police will sod off. What a splendid and total waste of money, never mind the beating people up.
To the best of my knowledge camp is still OPEN (main gate certainly is) and receiving visitors. Please don't be put off by this - it is absolutely not required to get involved in any of that sort of frontline action. I've been here for 2 days & mostly what I've been doing is building things (tables, benches), helping set the media tent up, sous-cheffing for dinner for 120, hoping to help with the eco-showers later... It's a really positive vibe, even if everyone is very slightly tired now!
Climate Camp.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-08-04 08:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-12 04:39 pm (UTC)The answer, really, is somewhere on the spectrum between "a genuine belief that they need to abuse their existing powers in order to prevent criminal acts from happening" & "a wish to disrupt &/or try to prevent legitimate protest". You takes your cynicism & you makes your choice... :-/