“Learn some manners”, PCSO tells OAP on Bristol Peace Vigil.
bristol |
peace |
opinion/analysis
Tuesday June 09, 2009 08:37
by oap vigiler
Should the final curtain come down on the Bristol Vigil?
So few people now attend the Bristol Vigil that the question must be asked, is it time to call it a day?
There are often only two or three people in attendance, if that, and this makes them particularly vulnerable to the predatory, or just the moody, “out for a bit of sport”.
The two founder members of the Vigil, Lois who’s ninety and Neville, ninety-six, need not be so concerned in this regard, but just a couple of people on the vigil may well fall prey to the opportunist bullying fraternity.
Bristol Peace Vigil with the Red Notes opposite the Hippodrome.
It was 3.00 pm last Saturday on Bristol Centre opposite the Hippodrome and this is the time that the vigil usually begins, but so far only two of us had arrived.
I was performing the usual task of tying the large vigil peace banner between tree and lamp-post, the banner reads, “Bristol Peace Vigil 8th Year, Say No to War”. Then I realised that my activities were being observed by one of those Police Community Support Officers. “What this all about then?” he asked. Rather taken aback, feeling somewhat patronised, and busy in the execution of a reef knot on tiptoe, I said, “Why don’t you read the banner?” The PCSO retorted that he couldn’t read it from the back, (he was facing the reverse side). So I said it was the peace vigil, and expressed my great surprise that he didn’t already know that, ”it’s only been in the centre of Bristol for nine years for heaven’s sake!”
My spontaneous retort didn’t go down too well and he followed me about as I set up the other banners, trying to provoke me some more. But not knowing the extent of these PCSO powers, it often wisest to say nothing. He soon tired of my silence and left me to get on with the vigil, but not before telling me that I, “should learn some manners”. An OAP, born into a world at war, decades before he was even dirtying nappies should “learn some manners”.
But you can forget respect for the elderly, respect is another victim of pop star Blair and his entourage, along with the million dead in Iraq. Blair’s policy of wealth and self first, and the slaughter of the weak and the under-privileged in other lands has killed off respect. Public indignation at this lack of morals or justice is ignored by our leaders and by our media and this is reflected in the violent way the police treat the public, with impunity, as highlighted in recent police violence on demonstrations.
How can we expect our young custodians of the law to behave any differently when they see their superiors upholding a government, the majority of whom allowed war criminal B’liar to illegally invade a sovereign country? When they see their superiors upholding a pack of hypocrites, MPs who, according to the press, are getting ready to resign in droves in an attempt to avoid arrest for fraud, paying for porn, moats and wisteria with taxpayer’s money, fleecing the electorate who voted them into office.
I believe that this young PCSO tried to provoke a confrontation, but was this simply a spontaneous incident or had it been suggested to him that he ‘have a go’ at the Bristol Peace Vigil? A gradual war of attrition until the peace banner is hoisted no more opposite the Bristol Hippodrome.
There must be plenty of people who would much prefer that the war in Afghanistan quietly festers on unnoticed by the British public. As war garners wealth for arms trade shareholders, as unmanned drones destroy human life dropping their payload on taliban and innocent civilian alike.
It was the war in Afghanistan that prompted the beginning of the Bristol Peace Vigil almost nine years ago.
And wouldn’t it be nice to have great big military parades with all the pomp and ceremony marching around Bristol City Centre where the Bristol Peace Vigil once stood.
Pavements full of an adoring flag-waving public, pavements unfettered by those spoil-sport peace vigilers - after all, they would be a reminder of how we got into Iraq in the first place.
A big "Thankyou" to the Red Notes who sing on the vigil once a month. Great singing! Really appreciated!
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Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10Next time one of the blue-hatted civilians is disrespectful toward you, get his epaulette number. Or remind him that his "police" powers are extremely limited.
Thanks for the great link, James, I really need to do some swatting up and your link is ideal :-)
I don't wish the young PCSO any trouble, everyone need a job, but i'd need to be pretty desperate to take on a career in the police in our current society where the anti-terror laws have turned our justice system into a dogs breakfast, and are often used as an excuse to drastically curtail the freedoms of the ordinary citizen.
I just think that it is so unfortunate that the vigil is so poorly attended when i know that there are many people who are very ashamed of the way we are using high tech weaponry with little or no regard for civilian casualties. But how else can we show our disapproval other than by protesting in a public place? If we all sit in our comfy chair at home the war criminals will have won, and the afore-mentioned politicians will spin our complacency to be approval of their conquests.
Back to the police, there will always be those who are happiest pushing others around, but i must say that this is the first incident on the Bristol Peace Vigil where i have felt "got at".
Up to now the police in Bristol have left us to get on with our peace vigil with no interference, and we're grateful for that.
In fact a few months ago the police intervened on our behalf to discourage a drunk who was becoming a bit of an annoyance, i just hope that this isn't about to change.
If there were a couple of hundred attending the vigil, as there should be in a city the size of Bristol, there would be less of a feeling that the hyenas are waiting to take the last to leave!
OAP, you're being too easy on them, another example of the institutional corruption is coming to the surface, and you can find the reason for the deterioration amongst the comments that follow the article:
"Ever since Tony Blair made it official policy to abandon all and any respect for our history, long standing institutions and traditions and to encourage everyone else to do the same, we have been on a downward slide. To all those of you commenting from beyond these shores, I can't wait to join you.
David , London, UK"
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article6...0.ece
Hey!
My suggestion is that you request copies of CCTV in that area, at the time the police harrassed you. It is important to stand up for the right to demonstrate and protest. The officer in question should be made to account for his attitude, let alone ignorance. Power in such hands becomes dangerous.
Apply to Bristol City Council for copies - it may cost a tenner, half of which I'll donate next time I'm at the vigil. The control room is based in Brunel House which is located behind the Council House.
Then after obtaining a copy make a complaint about this form of 'community' policing.
Remember too - the Peace Vigil is important for so many worthwhile reasons and thus has to be defended and 'stood up' for.
All the best.
Have carefully read your suggestion and agreed, it is important to stand up for the right to demonstrate and protest, and the Bristol Peace Vigil could be a powerful vehicle for protesting.
But it is only a powerful tool if enough people are willing to make it so.
I'm sure that if there were a couple of hundred people on the vigil, and that this was happening in every town and city then politicians would have to take notice. But our problem is the average attendance on the Bristol Vigil is only a handful.
So after the hassle of the procedure you outline, and when the council reluctantly, because they probably agree with the PCSO and would prefer the vigil was not there, when the council reluctantly admit to a breach in community policing, how much have we advanced? There will still only be a handful of vulnerable people stood in the centre of Bristol.
If you can convince the many good people out there that the only way to stop our taxpayers money being used in the criminal destruction of other countries, is by demonstrations large enough that our politicians cannot ignore, then I'm with you.
But I don't think that nailing a young PCSO to the wall because he had a bad moment will advance the underlying principles of the Bristol Peace Vigil.
What we need is a strong enough presence on the vigil to prevent us from being 'got at' by opportunist bullies.
This isn't going to be popular but what the hell....
If this had been a member of the public asking the question, would you have responded in the same way? Would you have felt patronised or taken aback or would you have explained to try and raise their awareness of what is going on?
I think maybe you were a bit sharp with him. Why didn't you just tell him what it was about the first time he asked? Maybe he genuinely didn't know and genuinely wanted to find out....or does a uniform automatically mean enemy?
Fair play to you for your continued efforts for the last 8 or 9 years and I know it must be disheartening that not many people attend, but I think maybe your frustrations at that aspect of your efforts coloured your response. A different one may have had a different outcome and would certainly have let you keep the moral high ground. As it is, you probably came across as a bit rude.
(ducks to avoid objects being thrown at her)
Sorry Faye but i'm not a saint, and you just know, don't you, when you're being wound up.
And if i was a saint, under those circumstances, maybe i would have responded differently, (but even Jesus got angry when he could see through the fraudsters in the temple).
Trust me, i know when someone has a genuine interest in what the Bristol Peace Vigil stands for, and it's always a great pleasure to talk to them.
Like the very well dressed chap from San Francisco who was so ashamed of his government's role in the Middle East that he asked if he could stand with us for five minutes before he had to catch his train. Nobody needs to ask permission, please just stand with us, it's not a sign of weakness to show your disgust at war crimes.
And there are numerous passers by who give us the thumbs up and say, "Well done, I agree with you, and appreciate what you are doing", and we know that they really mean it.
And that cacaphony of car horns supporting the cause, in response to the "Hoot for Peace" banner that the amazing ninety year old Lois holds up, remarkably, Lois stands there most nights, (puts the rest of us to shame). Thanks to the motorists for their encouragement :-)
There are always people from other lands who are taking home photos of us, and i can promise you, these people are so much more welcome than those police photographers who were recently skulking across the road in the entrance to the Hippodrome, doing a great act of being just visible enough. Why do you think they were taking, (or pretending to take) photos of us with their supersize telephoto lens, Faye? Was it, like the people from other lands, because they were proud of what we are trying to do on the Bristol Vigil?
And going on from what Freedomfighter said in his comment about cctv video coverage, if you are in the position to be able to view the coverage (who knows, your profession may take you into council environs) you will be able to see the PCSO pursuing me as i set up the banners last Saturday, and with luck there will be audio coverage as well, if you are interested.
But i am beginning to wish that i hadn't mentioned the PCSO, because the important point is being missed.
The important thing is not the PCSO, it is the lack of attendance on the vigil. The PCSO incident is just one illustration of how the few who attend are vulnerable. And the PCSO incident wouldn't have happened if there was a stronger presence on the vigil.
Thanks, Faye, for your praise for the last eight or nine years. For myself, it has only been since the run up to the Iraq war, a sad turning point in our history.
It must be that many people come to Bristol Indymedia for their news - this afternoon's response from motorists passing the vigil was phenomenal :-)
Many thanks to our imcvols for their dedication which makes Bristol Indy possible.
Bristol Indy allows us freedoms that are rarely permitted by the corporate media, like any coverage of anti-war protests for instance.
The response from motorists, and the good will of the people walking past the vigil this afternoon, gives a reliable indication that the level of feeling against our foreign policy is still very strong.
This response says that we object to our society being tarnished by the continual devastation that the UK has been a party to, in the Middle East in recent years.
I reckon they were as happy to blast on their horns in protest, as we were happy to hear them!
Wow, there's hatred for Police and PCSO's on this site isn't there?
I'm sure nobody will mind me posting this, after all Indymedia is about freedom of speech...
I'll get it straight out of the way, I'm a PCSO. I'm a 26 year old married male, with a child. I'm sure some of you are already seeing the word 'enemy' going through your minds eye and scrutinising what I write for grammatical errors or spelling mistakes to pick up on. But why? Why is everybody urged to remind the 'blue hatted citizens' how limited their powers are, or make complaints about them? You'll find that 90% of us don't want "powers". If I wanted to arrest people and tackle criminals, I'd have become a Police Officer. But I don't, so I didn't. I met a PCSO once, then off my own back looked into the job and what it entailed.
Going to schools and delivering safety talks and engaging with young children. Visting elderly care homes and offering security advice, helping vulnerable people that feel scared to feel safe again. Arranging activities with school children during holidays, trying to improve relationships with them and the police force in the hope that they won't one day see first hand a Police Officers powers.
When I realised all this I thought "yes, this is the job for me". And I know for a fact that the vast majority of PCSO's I have come into contact with feel exactly the same way.
So why, as the top post will demonstrate, must we be the targets of such patronising hatred? We are not "pretend" or "plastic" coppers, we have a completely different role profile, and that is the way we like it.
And just to get back on topic, to the OP, I apologise if you felt you were being patronised by one of my colleagues. I have a huge amount of respect for the things you have achieved and witnessed in your life, and I respect your right to take part in the Bristol Vigil.
Please note, these are my opinions only. I can not and do not speak for ALL of my colleagues, nor my Constabulary.
Thank you for your thoughts, Pschorre, it is to be hoped that you don't feel that you are being unfairly persecuted.
But you may be seen as upholding the policies that so many in this country despise. You have volunteered to uphold the principles of a war criminal government, that many, many people in this country have, are, and will continue to protest against, for as long as it takes. Because the same lies and falsehoods which involved us in an illegal immoral war which claimed the lives of thousands upon thousands of innocent civilians are anathema to the well-being of any society.
Their latest squirmings away from truth and transparency is their decision to hold yet another Iraq enquiry in secret and to be conducted by yet another of their toadies. They seem hell bent on building a society based on falsehoods and injustice when we the people of Britain can see through it all and are tired of the spin and lies and long for the healing power of truth and justice. We long to be proud of a morally upstanding country and we despise those responsible for our country's current standing in the world.
It must be obvious to anyone that those in the business of policing are bound to get some adverse spin-off. Because they protect this thin veneer of respectability that conceals the devious conduct of our government, in so many areas, war crimes, expenses, spin and lies.
We've seen many individual MPs back up the war crimes of Blair that allowed him to take us on this downward course.
In the Jean Charles de Meneses murder, lies were blatant from the start, they attempted to conceal their failings by sullying the name of an innocent man.
A similar despicable tactic was attempted after the recent dropping of the harmless Ian Tomlinson with a brutal attack.
We've seen bankers cream off millions for themselves, effectively stealing from the poor. And fraudulent MPs have been up to the same tricks. And then they squirm to avoid admitting their crimes until they are proven criminals - and then they apologise -so everythings ok, and they're let off !
Ordinary criminals don't get off the hook after an apology, why should bankers and MPs be immune to the justice that the rest of us have to abide by?
In our disgust, we have hurled shoes into Downing Street, we have demonstrated against the pro-war political stance of our media. We have written to our MPs, we have protested countless numbers of times, always concealed by media bias.
So if the red carpet doesn't appear to be rolled out for you as you approach, maybe you joined up with good intentions but many see you as upholding the status quo.
And there are others who are also really trying to make a difference. They are the unpaid protestors, and the unpaid activists locked up in prison, giving up many hours of their lives in the quest for a society of peace, truth and justice.