Photo essay from the frontlines

by belfast Sun Oct 08, 2006 12:48

yes they are borrowed from the PSNI - the reason that they have dub plates on is for legal reasons. The vehicles were temporarily registered in the south so that they can be used for operational reasons by the irish government. If they still had NI plates they would not have been able to use blue lights or deploy the canon

by jack 22 Fri Apr 14, 2006 13:41

This thing was blown all out of proportion. you guys blame the cops like they were looking for a fight but if you guys were'nt there there would have been no fight. And don't come back with the peaceful protest shit, i've been to protests all over the world and the main ethos with us is

"if you don't start nothin won't be nothin"

Protest away but if you want to get violent about it don't get all pissed off when the cops beat your ass

by Patrick O'Dee Sun Nov 13, 2005 21:39 Louth

Well folks, we've all seen the way the RUC have beaten the Garvaghy Road residents off the road by shear brute force in the past... The PSNI watercannon is a shear example of David vs Goliath.

by Joe Wed May 05, 2004 12:43

Any chance of putting up as a film the sequence where the riot cop steps through the shield world and hits the guy dancing in front of him 3 times (once on the head). It's something that I think needs to be seen to give a real flavor of policing on the night.

[He has a still from the sequence above I think showing the 3rd blow as the guy is starting to go down]

by Crumbs Wed May 05, 2004 11:10

Eat shit and die you pinko fuck! You're a Typical Dublin4 Commie wanker who has a superiority complex and thinks he's Albert Einstein reincarnated!

by ciaran Wed May 05, 2004 03:26

Fair play to you Karl Fornsenstein - very observant. I am the 'independent reporter'. There were two Dutch Gold cans around me - neither mine. the thing in my bag is a tripod and the thing closest the picture I can't even make out.
Anyone else got suggestions on cheap camera repair shops?

by hugger Tue May 04, 2004 21:32

could have been worse

there were so many cameras there thats part of what restrained the cops, think what happens everyday when the cameras aren't running thats who were doing it for....

there was no riot there was pushing and shoving, stones and plastic bottles and beers cans thrown by the mini bb and the drunken idiots, there was aggression on their side certainly not rampaging through the streets or savage attacks on cops

the mini bb showed restraint and smarts in not letting themselves get suck into the riot cops

alot of the batoning from the police occured when the water canons were on, there were more of a distraction then the main threat, also lots of batons when the cops sped up and people ran away from them, batoning people as they run away thats your restrained cops for ya and then they took a couple of random people in to get a quota of arrests well after they had the situation in hand...

did you see on the vid when a cop batoned somebody he was allowed slip to the back of the cop formation so he wouldn't be identified cowards with there numbers on the backs of the helmets their faces covered too....

the journos well know that they sprayed the guys sitting on the walls cos they didn't like so many cameras on such a good vantage point begin able to see behind police lines where the real damage is done

by nooly Tue May 04, 2004 21:15

why don't YOU fuck off home you pointless bastard. fuck sake.

by anon Tue May 04, 2004 15:42

what a joke, all looks ridiculous...where were the thousands of protesters? such a small crowd looks measly, and the amount of guards does show the state up, but you guys "stand defiant", fuck off home for God's sake that was a stupid display of "protesting".

by Joe Tue May 04, 2004 13:33

I'm sure the cops were a little embarassed to be using RUC (woops PSNI) water cannon on Dubliners. So they changed the plates as a PR exercise.

Good pictures.

by Gralton Mon May 03, 2004 20:26

Unless you've been living under a rock you would know that the water cannons were borrowed from the s..(oops) i mean the psni. As to why they had 04 plates maybe they were brand new and had not been registered until after they were lent, who knows

by anon Mon May 03, 2004 11:27

If the water cannon is borrowed from the PSNI, how come it has a 04 D ???? number plate. (you can see it clearly in two of the photos above) I thought only Dublin registered vehicles had Dublin licence plates.

by skyclad4 Mon May 03, 2004 04:33

To mr frog and all the middle class pathetic lowlifes who commented on the pictures.Please leave social struggle for people who care about it.You haven't got the brains to understand it anyway.Go back to your misserable little jobs,watch tv,go shopping and shut the fuck up,as your bosses ordered you to do.In your little world,your paid slavery is way to good for your kind and you are thankful for it.But not all people think the same you see.
Lots of love :)

by Chekov Mon May 03, 2004 01:04

I don't know how the cans got there. I do know that I interviewed the reporter in question about 20 minutes after he was knocked off the wall. He was entirely sober and quite sure that it was the cannon that knocked him off the wall. I have both the incident where he was knocked off the wall and the interview itself on video. Both myself and the Sky News Cameraman beside me were also nearly knocked off the wall.

by Ed Lee - NUJ/BA2's of Griff Sun May 02, 2004 21:47

Yes there did seem to be a lot of cans...
but one thing i noticed while i was on the opposite wall was that the people from that residency were drinking and scooching in & out from that door in the wall...so maybe that's their garbage eh?
And besides there was no need to spray the water cannon against the people on the wall

by Silvio Rocks Sun May 02, 2004 19:53

There DOES seem to be a lot of booze around that "reporter" who fell off the wall, doesn't there? I expect IMC can use the PhotoShop smudge tool to eliminate them

by Karl Fornsenstein Sun May 02, 2004 18:05

The picture of the camera man who you alleged fell of the wall. If you actually look at the pictures there's Dutch Gold cans all around him. He was bananas. And he was your leader. Go on Banana Joe and the Hippie shakers

by kermit the frog - muppets Sun May 02, 2004 18:00

state spongers, the only reason the water canon was called out was because of the south sider smell of you hippie wasters. you needed a bath and yet again the state provided had to give it to you for free. Huge crowd by the way i didn't expect so many of you to turn up. what was it 50 or 60

by Mr No Name Sun May 02, 2004 17:35

1. they are riot police not troops as stated under one picture.

2. There is no such thing as the RC anymore its the PSNI.

facts facts facts get them straight

by Karl Sun May 02, 2004 17:23

Nice work and great pictures.

by Chekov - personal Sun May 02, 2004 16:46

,

Water Cannon blasts journalists on wall

One Independent Reporter blown off wall - he's okay, but camera smashed

Some police start striking out

Riot police surge forward

Crowd Driven back but still composed

by Chekov - personal Sun May 02, 2004 16:38

.

RUC-owned Water Cannons move in

First water cannoning of crowd

Riot police Advance, crowd remains defiant

Ranks of riot police keep growing

2nd water cannon moves in - crowd still defiant