Stokes Croft Tesco riots.Bristol UK

reply to post by mr-lizard


Unike you, I do not condone violence, whatever the reason. Least of all indiscrimiate violence.

Your way is but a step from Enniskillen, Lockerbie and Omagh. A very, very, small step.

They too felt that they were right and since everyone else disagreed, more extreme measures were justified.

I do not agree with terrorists. I will do everything in my power to destroy them.

Originally posted by Essan
reply to post by mr-lizard

 

Unike you, I do not condone violence, whatever the reason. Least of all indiscrimiate violence.

I'm not condoning it. I just think for once the Police should stop defending corporate interests and assaulting those that people like yourself snobbishly frown upon.

I don't hear you complaining about the use of violence on the protesters. If you're going to accuse me of condoning violence, I want you to apologise to me for being a complete hypocrite. Because nowhere in your last few posts have you commented on the over-zealous use of violence used by the police on the protesters who were doing nothing more than damaging a corporate target. Until that very point. No violence was used. Do you honestly think anything other than TESCO was going to be damaged?

Your way is but a step from Enniskillen, Lockerbie and Omagh. A very, very, small step.

And you're a hypocrite of the worst kind. But hey, as long as you're comfortable eh?

They too felt that they were right and since everyone else disagreed, more extreme measures were justified.

I do not agree with terrorists. I will do everything in my power to destroy them.

Like YOU believe you are right? Tell me, what makes you correct?

I guess, the best way to understand the two side of the coin , is to read the comments of the local people:
www.thisisbristol.co.uk...

The protests against opening another Tesco were on-going for at least 1.5 years, and the protests were ignored for a long time. I see it just a way of defending the culture of a neighborhood, and if you visit the area you understand why : this is the hippy hub for Bristol.

As a Tesco employee that works in a Tesco Express just 5 minutes away from Stokes Croft, I would like to point out that the store I work in is a very short walk away from this new one so it was completely unnecessary for Tesco to even put a store there in the first place (the vast majority of our customer base live in the same area).
As has already been touched on, Stokes Croft is a close community and is one of the last bastions of independent trade in Bristol. I have lived in the city for 20 years and have seen the Stokes Croft area develop into the cultural center of the city with epic murals painted on almost every building, believe me when I say a Tesco Express is a complete eyesore in this part of the city. I am not surprised in the least that this ended up happening to the store, and if Tesco hasn't learnt from this and keeps the store open I am willing to bet something similar will happen again.
One or two things strike me as odd about the whole affair though. *tin foil hats on everybody*. The police could have evicted the squatters in the building a long time ago, but did not act until supposed intelligence emerged of a petrol bomb in the building. Contrary to some reports, no petrol bombs were used in the riot, and I wonder with the price of petrol these days how is someone who can't afford a place to live able to afford to buy petrol anyway. The fact that riot police were on the scene so quickly is quite suspicious and I wonder if it was all or partly an orchestrated event in order to derail the valiant effort of peaceful protesters of stokes croft and possibly to train police in the area for more serious riots that I expect will begin to take place all over the country soon.

Edit to add: Police also have been accused of using excessive force against innocent pedestrians caught up in the situation, one of my friends was walking away from the scene (he had nothing to do with the riot) yet 4 police men assaulted him and he was left with a painful bruise on his spine. This kind of thing is unnecessary, while a few police men were injured and sent to hospital because of a couple of violent people they did not need to use such excessive force on innocent members of the public that just wanted to get home.

I am from Bristol and missed all of this as I was away over the Easter weekend.

What nobody has picked up on is the fact that Police Officers were drafted in from South Wales to act as back up for the local force, so the Police obviously expected this reaction. I believe the reason for the heavy handed tactics were simply due to these officers not being appreciative of local politics and also the opportunity to smash some English bones.

This is an unbelivable state of affairs that adds weight to the fact that we are living in a Police state.

Also, if the council had listened to local residents, then this store should never have been given permission to open. Once again though, the council ignore the views of local residents, in favour of the £££'s that might come their way via Tesco.

That's what happens when you have amateurs having to make a professional decisions.

Originally posted by TetsuoIronMan

Edit to add: Police also have been accused of using excessive force against innocent pedestrians caught up in the situation, one of my friends was walking away from the scene (he had nothing to do with the riot) yet 4 police men assaulted him and he was left with a painful bruise on his spine. This kind of thing is unnecessary, while a few police men were injured and sent to hospital because of a couple of violent people they did not need to use such excessive force on innocent members of the public that just wanted to get home.

edit on 23-4-2011 by TetsuoIronMan because: (no reason given)

Get your friend and anyone else you know who was injured to contact a solicitor imediately (get free advice), take photo's of the bruise as evidence and possibly consider contacting the media. This will actively put pressure on the police to refrain from their brutality.

Use the law against them.