Thanks to an anonymous reader of this blog for submitting the following report on last weekend’s EDL demonstration in Bradford, as well as for his attendance on all of our behalf’s.
Here is my personal account of Bradford EDL demo. On arriving in Forster Square EDL supporters had no option but to enter their Urban Garden protest area through metal detector arches. The uncultivated site was surrounded by 8ft fences, hundreds of police and numerous police vehicles. Forward Intelligence police Teams (FIT) were photographing activists to add to their ‘Domestic Extremists’ database. It resembled a temporary prison camp. So here we are in a so called free country with so called freedom of speech witnessing something straight out of authoritarian dictatorship. But it gets worse, directly opposite on the streets and pavements were several hundred baying opponents shouting abuse and threats without any attempt by the police to stop or arrest them.
When a minority of EDL protesters reacted to this provocation they were met with violence and aggression by riot police. The question to ask is why anti-Islamic extremists are kettled in a cordon denied the right to march when jihadi and left wing thugs are allowed to rampage around the streets. Its clear now that the political establishment want to see the end to EDL activities. The Home Secretary has already implemented a march ban. With the ‘violent thugs’ label now attached to the organisation and with police complaining about the operational costs related to the demonstrations the next step could well be further curbs and restrictions. The British state is closing in, EDL have to be prepared and have a radical response to any further attempts to neutralise its campaigns and legitimate right to protest.
Saturday, 4 September 2010
8 comments:
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no durotrigan, i am not cygnus.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the clarification.
ReplyDeleteApologies. Was going to post my thoughts earlier but unfortuately I haven't had the time. This account is pretty much spot on though. Cygnus.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your words of appreciation Durotrigan. I travelled up from Birmingham. I am a keen EDL supporter. I have become frustrated at the lack of political action against Islamic practices such as mega mosques, sharia law, madrasses and ritual slaughter.
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome. I am glad that there are people such as you who are willing to protest against these unwelcome practices and expressions of Islamisation. Unfortunately, I don't think that anyone vaguely within the mainstream of British politics is going to come out as our equivalent of Geert Wilders or even Thilo Sarrazin. As you will have seen with your own eyes, we have massive hurdles to overcome before we can get the mainstream to take these matters seriously (if they ever will, which I very much doubt).
ReplyDeleteOne thing I noticed that I found pretty shocking was that while the EDL were tightly contained, members of UAF and some muslim protesters were mingling freely with the police and also with the press. Cygnus.
ReplyDeleteAn interesting observation Cygnus. I wonder how many ordinary coppers feel at ease with this state of affairs?
ReplyDeleteEDL are planning a static demo in Leicester on saturday October 9. Hopefully this time supporters will be treated with respect by police and not kettled in which is a provocation and one of the main causes of unrest.
ReplyDelete