Alfie Meadows: Kettling, Police With No ID And Stupidity At Work

ALFIE Meadows has been injured at the anti-student fees demo on the day the MPs voted. He is 20. He was struck on the head? By what? Some voices claim it was a police truncheon. But we do not know for certain. Who did it? We do not know? If it was a protestor, we may get to know their name. We may see a photo of their face distributed by the police. If it was a copper, we may not get a photo.

This video shows us that police were not all wearing identification. Their faces are obscured by helmets and masks. They wear a uniform.

The police do not converse with the students. The police use Twitter, the internet and all media as a way to getting their message out. They do not listen. But they should. Kettling does not work. Forcing innocent people into a pen does not work. The sane and calm are placed with the hotheads. The crowd are treated as if they are all the lowest common denominator.

Kettling serves only to make the police job easier. And protest is not about that. The protestors are corralled and held. The police are no longer there to uphold the law. They have become the law. And it is an unrepresentative law that fails a democracy.

It is not a rebellion, as such – simply a lot of people doing their own thing, in their own way. It only becomes an issue if the police move in and try to stamp their authority on the event.

The youth is not apathetic, compliant and meek. It will fight for the issues that matter to it.

Update: Alfie Meadows, a student at Middlesex University, suffered bleeding on the brain. He underwent an emergency operation. He is said to be on the mend.

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