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Comments (8 of 8)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8Enda Kenny, Honorary Spokesperson for Fianna Fáil, yes indeed.
Complicit in the brutalisation of his own constituents. What a traitor.
All the pictures in all the threads have one thing in common. They show nothing. But all have comments attached claiming that the pictures show brutality by the gardai. In the second last picture (of the 'gardening enthusiast') the attached comment alleges that the 'gardening enthusiast received a thumping from the gardai'. But, in the picture the gardai are merely seen to be holding the man by the arm, and not very tightly. So, why didn't the photograper take pictures of the alleged thumping? I'll tell you why. Its because there was none.
well John -i've a reason why I dont have a picture of three of our nations finest on top of a middle aged man from galway beating him with their fists and batons on the shell highway at about eight last friday, and on top of another local man outside the bangor quarry doing -you've guessed it fists and batons for shell again.
Just as I heard the satisfiying click of the camera on my phone there was the sound of a big boggers boot hitting my Phone and my fingers- yep a garda kicked it out of my hand and it fell into the waterlogged ditch and its not the same since-thankfully my fingers are on the mend.
I've had cameras at a few events where the gardai started wading in. Here is why it is difficult to get those magic pictures
1. Fear - turns out when men with sticks are swinging at you its quite hard to get it together to restrict your view by sticking a camera in front of your eyes and peering through the viewfinder.
2. Adrenalin - At such moments your body floods you system with all sorts of fancy chemicals evolved to aid in either fight or flight but quite counterproductive for calmly standing there and lining up the shot
3. Speed - its not like your getting your granny to smile for a photo. By definition violence tends to be fast, its very easy to miss the moment.
4. Placing - often your in the wrong spot - not helped as Gardai not being completely stupid will be aware of where the cameras are and smart enough to go for the low kicks and the blow hidden behind a turned body.
5. Obstruction - likewise their colleagues will place themselves between you and the action
6. Smashy, smashy - at least two people on this thread have said Gardai delibretly smashed the cameras out of their hands. This has happened to me as well.
7. Arrest - it is not unheard of for photographers to be arrested, their film confiscated to appear only long after the events are newsworthy.
So basically unless you are very lucky you end up with the shots like what we see here. Shots taken from a bit of a distance that show something happened without being able to prove what that something is. With experience you get better shots, in part because you get better at controlling your reactons but mostly because you learn to position yourself at a point where with the aid of a zoom you may get the shot but will be out of range of the baton.
Of course John I realise as an ideological fan of neo liberalism your question was not genuine. But I'm sure others are wondering.
Now son, why am I not surprised? That nice man Joe gave a detailed reply to your question, but you haven't bothered to answer any of his points. Not one! I mean, were you asking an honest question at all! Instead, you come out with another childish remark. You're shaming me, and you used to be such a nice boy
I have yet to see any photos of protestors being violent towards cops. Anyway, the point now is that unnecessary violence has occurred and neither the Shelltosea organisation nor the Irish people want to see any more of it. Only the government and the gards seem happy with the use of force to try and stop peaceful protest.
After the Piper Alpha disaster, how can anyone contemplate putting a similar high-pressure gas pipeline through a residential and environmentally sensitive area ? It is simply unacceptable. Shell can easily afford to build their refinery at sea, minimising risks to population and environment - it is up to the government to tell them. No doubt they are reluctant to do so because it goes against the under-the-table deals already done - that is the only conclusion that we can come to - Shell owns Fiana Fail.
Manhandled - nobody is allowed to get in the way of Shell
I know that police brutality does happen, but honestly, lets not get carried away. We've all seen the pictures from Bellanaboy and if anyone of the ordinary citizens from around the area did the same thing on Main St., on a Saturday night, we would be carted away. Which is just what the hardliners want, to make martrys of them, but the powers that be are wise to this. What gives anyone the right to blockade men and women trying to earn a living. More power to them for going to work each morning and putting up with the abuse hurled at them.
The original protestors were perfectly within their rights to protest, and to keep doing so, but I think the fact that they have been hijacked by the tree huggers and left wingers has let them and the whole area down. While I'm sure there are genuine supporters joining from outside the area, I'm also sure that there are just as many professional protestors, who dont care what the cause is, they just have to be in the thick of it.
At the end of the day, whether or not we as a country were sold down the river with regard to the gas rights, the guards have a duty to uphold public order, and that is what they are doing. How they do this is dictated by the way the protestors decide to act. A peaceful protest at the side of the road is one thing, blockading a site and preventing people from going to work is another.
What would Ghandi say?
Gandhi himself was beaten off the road, and at Amritsar the protesters were shot, and you know what? People at that time tried to to excuse these actions by making arguments very similiar to yours.
If they were building a nuclear power station at Bellanaboy would it be okay to blockade the truck? Or would you be on here saying the workers had a right to work?
Perhaps you would be here defending a Carnsore, maybe you'd even defend the woorkers if they were building a concentration camp, but presumably you have a point where even you would stand up and protest.
The defenders of Bellanaboy just have a more developed sense of justice than you, and they will, I hope, protest in the most effective way they can, and not be put off by ppeoople who are prespared to live on their knees.