George Floyd Protests in Hyde Park

Hetty 58 I am not irresponsible, selfish or inconsiderate and from what I see going on the lockdown is already finished.

The lockdown and the "rules" were put in place by government
to protect us and also for the protection of other people and I have abided by them throughout.

The infection rate is "apparently down" however scientists tell us different and for the last three days the death rate has gone up, however M. Hancock glosses over that and wants us to follow like sheep and believe his lies. Many people are protesting because they know we are being lied to and all the government wants now is to get people moving for the economy. More deaths will follow they are turning a blind eye on us all.

It looks to me that what started out as a peaceful protest has descended into mass thuggery in some parts . It seems that the rent a mob thugs will jump on anything and use any excuse to riot.

“All lives do matter” and that includes the innocent people caught up in all this and good men and women police officers doing their job (right) too.

Silent no more

Growstuff I appreciate your comment. You are right no-body in government gives two hoots what I do. The government do not give two hoots for anybody in this country when they are refusing to listen to health doctors telling them that the R rate is rising and they should have everything under control before lifting even more restrictions.
I have two relatives that are in the police why should people in the police like my relatives have to be put at risk just because hundreds of protesters want to gather and cause trouble. I most certainly did not like the way the police horses were inhumanely treated by having bricks , missiles and even a bike thrown at them it was a disgrace. These people want to be listened to do they well if they try and have respect for others and go about it in the correct way I may have some sympathy for them. The answer to going into see my grand-children still stands as after all I love them but nobody gives a hoot about me so they can all do what they like.

3nanny6, you are being very irresponsible, selfish and inconsiderate by intending to finish your lockdown. Why spoil all your efforts to keep yourself safe at this stage?

We have been following the 'rules' to protect ourselves and others, regardless of our low opinions of the government, what other people do, or even general opinion about what is 'safe' (such as shopping).

However futile our efforts may seem, it's us, the public, who have brought the infection and death rates down.

For those of you who are interested the mounted female police officer has a shattered shoulder, broken ribs and a punctured lung, her mount was indeed hit on the head by a brick!!

How does that help Black Lives Matter cause?

The fact that it was the 76th Anniversary of the landings on Normandy Beaches makes the senseless acts of defacing Churchill's Statue and other memorials doubly offensive, again I ask how does this help. In my opinion it will alienate more of the general public from their cause.

General Ps and Qs gransnet Rules
We'd appreciate it if you'd use the same courtesy when posting messages on forums as you would use when speaking to someone face-to-face.

3nanny6 It won't be the government you're disregarding. I don't expect anybody in government gives two hoots what you do. It's your own health you could be endangering.

For those who claim that antifa have infiltrated the "Black Lives Matter" protests, I just thought I'd remind people that yesterday was the 76th anniversary of the biggest "antifa" demonstration ever.

The government and these are the ones to blame started to lose the hold on leadership several weeks ago in fact over that Bank holiday when they lifted some restrictions and let people meet up in parks and told people to sunbathe. The large majority of us mainly kept to all rules as we did not want to put our families and others at risk.
Since then even more restrictions have been lifted which mainly is to get the economy moving again and with this we are seeing even more people behaving as if Covid 19 is all over.
Most of us have seen what happened in U.S.A. to George Floyd and are horrified to the way in which he had to meet his death. Immediately that happened those four officers should have been forcibly put in prison until the case was taken to court or however they do things in the States. I think this has now happened however the mass of anger, violence, finger pointing and outpouring that this crime only affected the black community and they are the only ones oppressed is now getting banal boring and indeed quite offensive to me as a non black person. There are so many other avenues that all this offensive talk can be handled and the black community are maybe not as violent as those police officers but they are making a stand they are the only ones that matter, so what effect do they think they are having on the much younger generation of young black youth in the U.K. The cycle of hate and violence will just keep repeating itself.
To me this weekend has seen the breakdown of any of the rules of the lockdown and it is all over, the government took no stand to stop that huge gathering in Central London yesterday when they could have put much stronger enforcement in order there was no social distancing no concern for all law abiding people and little tolerance shown to U.K police force. I watched M . Hancock on the news this morning and all he had to say was he will be opening some restaurants, cafes and public houses in a couple of weeks as we need to see money circulating. When asked about the rising R rate which scientists have declared is happening he just said a few areas have increased but mainly everything is under control.
From today I give up on listening to anything the government say to me my lockdown is finished (I will be like the mob in Hyde Park) I will go into my daughters house I will cuddle my grand-children and I do not give a damn. It seems if you keep to lockdown rules your just a mug and get taken for one so I am out of this joke of a listen to us rule it is done for and not worth the bother.

But people in the UK aren't treated equally. How about "All lives matter, including black lives"?

janipat there are various reports of the bolting horse one is that bricks were thrown at its head and hit it and the other is a flare connected with its face shield.

As for the idiot that threw a bike at the other horses legs I am afraid I have no words that would not get me banned from GN.

For those of you who don't see the relevance of "All lives matter", the words themselves are, of course, true. All lives do matter. Of course they do!

However, it's a slogan which has been cleverly used by far-right groups as an anti-"All blacks matter" slogan. People begin to use it without understanding the hidden meaning, just as some people on GN seem to be doing.

Denial of the systemic discrimination which many black people in the UK still experience is what makes people angry. I hope there aren't too many of them reading GN because it might just confirm their beliefs.

You're muddling up training with experience, trisher

Only fully trained police horses would be used in protests such as this one.

Newly trained police horses are used in situations where crowd control is likely to be peaceful to give them experience

Experienced horses will have been used yesterday, not to maintain their training but to do the job they are already trained to do.

The morons who directed missiles, including bicycles at them were doing so because an animal will eventually reach breaking point when challenged with unexpected danger.

Even highly trained ones.

GrannyGravy13 is correct. When my son was training at Hendon, he and other trainees were used as crowds to shout, wave football style rattles etc at the horses. Any that can't get used to this and remain calm are weeded out. I do wonder what was done for that horse that bolted to lose control.

trisher I know several mounted officers the horses are trained using crowds at their training centres not when they are working . How would it be possible to know if a mount was bomb proof or be panicked by a situation, their training is long, in depth and they are constantly assessed

GG13 Do you not think then that part of maintaining a police horse training is exposing them to crowds? And that this is usually done at football matches. As there haven't been any matches or other crowd events since March it will have been really hard to ensure that is kept up. There is no other way of doing that part of the training. You need people.
As I said I have been on bigger marches and never seen a police horse. It isn't always done.

trisher police horses are not deployed to have their training maintained they are deployed to assist our unarmed police officers with crowd control.

Police Horses go through a vigorous training process and those not up to the job are retired or if they fail the training sold on to good homes.

I defend the right of UK citizens to peacefully protest , but I do question the judgement of the organisers to hold mass protests in a time when the world is in the grips of a pandemic.

It is obvious to all that the social distancing guidelines were not followed in London and some other cities so therefore there will be a rise in Covid-19 infections which may result in more deaths. It is this that has angered the general public along with the defacing of memorials.

Black lives matter is an organisation that has been arround for a while it is campaigning against the brutal murder everyone saw on video. This is the measures they have to go to with their police in America videoing them. George was not the first.

The police commissner knew from the protest before that 13 police officers had been hurt including spat at. It seems even the mayor of London had no intentions of helping to get it stopped but requested peaceful demonstration. Before these protests there was one about the lockdown.
They are protesting for a good cause just going about it the wrong way which doesn't make sense when they are putting more lives at risk including their own. Campaigning against murder whilst they could potentially kill be killed. Senseless

As far as criminal convictions go there is no evidence that George Floyd committed any crimes after 2007, although he was not convicted of that crime until 2009. Many of his crimes were drug related so perhaps it was a problem he had dealt with. One of the police officers on the other hand has some recent convictions.
I think the police horses were out because they need to have their training maintained and there are no football matches where they can experience crowds now. I have been on marches where they were never used.

My anger about the way this is going sharpened this morning by the Andrew Marr show. Generally, I admire him for is focus on issues that matter. But I do think it would help if the BBC shut up about these protesters. The government should enforce a ban on any protest during the present health emergency. My take on all protesters is it is all too often the young naive idealist influenced by social media, combined with anarchists ready to jump on any bandwagon to create mayhem. When I consider the lives lost of all shades, shapes and colours how can any such protest be justified at this time. Furthermore, who cares what colour the helping hand offered - I appreciate them all. Thank you!

Agree lemsip and I have been on Gransnet for some years, it
took the place of my real life extended family , no longer.

ladymuck I agree.

What happened in the USA triggered an inevitable back lash.

Unless you are a person who day after day is subjected to ignorance and abuse on top of institutional racism, which has continued since at least the eighteenth century you are in no position to comment when the blue touch paper is lit.

The anger is always below the surface and to deny such anger an outlet is putting a lid on a pressure cooker. One day it will explode. Imo it is getting close to that in the USA. The U.K. is not innocent in all this - who forced the ancestors of the protestors to these countries in the first place? No one can deny either that there is institutional racism in the U.K.

It is unfortunate to put it mildly that we have a killer virus throughout the world and large gatherings will inevitably ease its spread.

But you are being naive Indeed to think that there should/would be no reaction to the horrendous events in USA

I think gransnet has been infiltrated by a lot of people 'itching for a fight' a verbal one of cours. Lockdown means missing the daily natter with people so it' coming out with a holier than thou attitude through gransnet. I have not been a member for many weeks and am shocked at the extreme nastiness, childishness of the fewwho need to take thereselves off of here. There is really no need to respond to another posters comment by name!