magiczebras.

Ah, Question Time, you do know how to make a feminist rage. This time though, the boundaries have really been pushed. This evening's episode posed the question 'Was race an issue in the recent Rochdale grooming case?', in which nine men were jailed for sexually abusing young women. Although the discussion began (with a panel of four white people) talking about race, the screaming issue for me was Telegraph columnist Peter Oborne and his victim blaming. 

The episode itself was, in my opinion, very triggering and infuriating to watch, so here's just a few comments from Twitter which give you an idea of what we're dealing with here:

Essentially, Peter Oborne was suggesting that by allowing their abusers to buy them a few things the victims and dressing a certain way the young women were in some way "asking for it". 

It's staggering that we still need to put forward an argument to explain why this is both wrong and dangerous, but until people stop victim blaming we must continue to do so. Possibly complimented by giving victim blamers a swift punch to the mouth from which they blurt such inane bullshit.

Why Victim Blaming Is Wrong.

It goes without saying that no person wants to be raped, sexually abused or assaulted. It is one of the most damaging things a mind can go through, and can have lifelong repercussions on a person's mental health and relationships. Obviously the reason for this is that IT'S NOT CONSENSUAL. When a person is raped or abused their ability to choose is taken away from them, either because somebody goes against their wishes or because they're in a vulnerable position and unable to make an informed decision. 

Victim blaming brings up the issue of "implied consent", as if by wearing a short skirt, accepting gifts or even going back to their attacker's house the victim is subliminally agreeing to have sex with someone without even knowing it themselves. It also pedals the belief that by modifying dress or behaviour a person can avoid being raped. Which, as any intelligent person should be well aware of, is completely ludicrous. 

Why Victim Blaming Is Dangerous.

Victim blaming teaches that victims could stop rape or assault if they really wanted to. Imagine if someone suggested this to you shortly after you'd just experienced one of the most horrific and scarring incidents of your life. It wouldn't exactly inspire you to tell others about your experience so you could seek the support you vitally needed. Putting blame on the victim makes it more difficult for already vulnerable people to find support that would help them to slowly overcome and move on from what has happened, meaning the far-reaching consequences will inevitably be much greater. 

It also makes rape, especially "date rape" - a term used by people that think that any rape that isn't "knife-to-your-throat-in-a-back-alley-rape" doesn't count - more acceptable because it blurs the lines on what is consent and what isn't. It allows attackers to justify their actions, both to themselves and to others, with excuses such as "she was flirting with me" or "she was dressing provocatively and I couldn't help myself". This is not only damaging to victims, but also to people who haven't been raped but feel the need to constantly check themselves because they fear an attack that can only be prevented by a potential perpatrator - undeniably damaging.

What Oborne did tonight was contribute to rape culture. He used the mainstream media to air his misogynist views, in doing so potentially fostering the view that rape is some sort of two-way street. It's not, it never will be.

/late night blogs lead to spelling and grammar errors, which will be checked when I get a minute and some sleep!

I'm a militant feminist. I believe that women should come together to destroy patriarchy and create a society were our gender shouldn't determine our safety - perceived or actual. I'm also a feminist who uses the word 'cunt'. Alot.

This is partly because it's a satisfying word to use, partly because it was a word I heard alot when I was growing up - mostly in the school yard by young people who didn't have a clue what it meant. I don't think it's gendered because some women don't have cunts and some men do. But mainly, I use it because I'm too busy thinking about all the other, more important feminist issues to give a damn about my language.

Honestly, I'm sure if women who are beaten on a regular basis but have no access to help, women who are having their cunts surgically mutilated in the name of culture, women who are fighting tooth and nail to be allowed to have an abortion after being raped knew how much of our time was devoted to debating about a word and whether or not it is sexist, they'd want to call us cunts. That's understandable really, isn't it? 

The fact that one of Western feminism's most hotly debated subject is a word is disgusting. It just shows our privilege, that few issues are more important to us and impact our daily lives. The fact that good feminists spend so much time telling other women that they're bad feminists for using that word suggests that there's something very wrong with our priorities.

In my eyes, cunt is a non-gendered term that can be used to describe men, women and objects and makes no judgement about their genitalia. However, some people may choose not to use it, for fear of insulting someone or being labelled a bad feminist. I don't judge people who just don't want to use it, but can we keep that decision personal? Instead of stressing about how we throw around a centuries-old word can we get back to devoting time to fighting against the cuts to rape and violence protection services for women, stopping Dorries, 40 days of life and their American equivilants' attempts to dismantle our reproductive health services and find new ways to support women worldwide who are facing great oppression on a daily basis?

This is a short post, sort of because I have revision, but mainly because I don't have a great deal to say about the matter. Cunt is a word, and that's all there is to it.

READ MORE!
http://stavvers.wordpress.com/2011/06/13/cunts-bitches-and-weeping-syphilitic-chodes/  < Zoe, an amazing woman/feminist/friend, gives her view on the word 'cunt'. 

(title to be chanted loudly to the tune of 'you can stick your rubber bullets/fucking fees/health reforms up your arse.')

You'd think that self-identifying women wouldn't face misogyny in left-wing activist circles. You'd think that we'd be able to call men out on sexist behaviour and be listened to. You'd think that within groups that promote equality, progression and societal change we wouldn't face the same bullshit that we face almost everywhere else on a daily basis. If only.

Instead, men still seem to think that's it's ok to take the floor on debates about our ovaries, as if we aren't capable of forming our own opinion or speaking for ourselves. We're frequently interrupted as if our opinions are worthless, and when men disagree with our opinions or we call them out on blatant fuckwittery, an acceptable comeback is to call us a hysteric lesbian. When we decide we're sick of the misogyny we're called misandrists. But it's ok, it's only a joke. Even more shockingly, I have more than a few female friends who've been sexually harrassed, or even assaulted, by men they considered like-minded comrades.

A notable example of this was the spate of rapes and assaults on women at Occupy camps in both Britain and America. It wasn't just the attacks that was shocking and saddening, it was the response of fellow occupiers. Rather than immeadiately setting up safe spaces for women and working to combat the problem of rape culture, these attacks were swept under the carpet. Occupiers took to the comments sections of news articles reporting the attacks to accuse the women, their fellows, of lying. Occupy Baltimore discouraged the victim from reporting the assault to the police (like it was any of their fucking business) and the treatment of the disabled woman raped at Occupy Cleveland was beyond shocking - it made me want to rip someone's throat out whilst screaming "you think this is fucking ok?!" And I like to think of myself as a fairly calm person.

As a result, women are being put off voicing their opinions at meetings and discussions. We're leaving groups simply because of the behaviour of a few men and the refusal of others to stand up for us - and we're not joining new groups for the same reason. Next week I'm going to a meeting and a friend and I are taking another feminist friend along with us so we have back up in case manarchism rears it's ugly head. I find myself asking how things have come to this. I know so many strong, confident feminists how are being beaten down by sexist bullshit in places that you simply wouldn't expect it to occur. If I'm such a strong woman, why can't I tackle this alone?

Of course women can help tackle misogyny by having sisterly solidarity and supporting each other in calling out sexist bullshit, but men, this is your problem. If you need help in stopping it then maybe read these few helpful hints I've complied for you out of the goodness of my heart:

• Stop thinking it's ok to make unwelcome sexist comments. It's not.
• When you're called out for misogyny/generally fuckwittery put your tail between your legs, apologise and think before you speak in future.
• If you think this sexism has been so ingrained in you by society that you can't help yourself ever, LEARN SOME FUCKING SELF CONTROL. 
• If you think 'hell yeah, this chick is an anarchist too, maybe we could have sweet times' and she disagrees, go out, drown your sorrows/hit the gym/whatever you do, then get over it and don't even think about harrassing her because she's not interested.
• Whilst it's appreciated that you're so passionate about us having full rights too, please don't treat us like our opinion is worthless if it disagrees with yours. We're living this attack on our rights, we're capable of taking the floor too. Enable us to do this, don't take it away from us.
• Remember that we're 50% of the population. If quotas are necessary, please keep this in mind. (Hi NCAFC!!!)
• If your friend is being a misogynist, please call him out. Actually, this can go for women too.

Nobody's perfect, I know. I have engaged in some very unfeminist-like speech and behaviour at times: interrupted my fellows, made horrible, unacceptable comments and let others get away with sexism because I didn't want to cause a scene. It wasn't ok for me to do that, and it's not ok for you to do it either.

And fellow SI women, hi! Can we all support each other and make a big circle of misogyny squashing love? After all, there are enough of us to trample sexism out of activism if we work together. Here's my email (anna.magiczebras@gmail.com) if you want to link up and talk about smashing states and sexism at the same time.

(for those that aren't familiar with the term: misandry is this thing were women hate and actively discriminate against men. All feminists do it because we're big mean scary monsters and men are getting really down about it because we suddenly have more rights than they do. Like Santa, the Loch Ness Monster and the Yeti, it doesn't exist.

Manarchism is when male anarchists think it's ok to be sexist fuckwits. Can be applied to men carrying out misogyny in most very left-wing groups and will be understood.)

It's rare that militant anti-fascists can call two consecutive victories over fascists on the streets, particularly at a time when more aggressive fascist groups, such as the North West Infidels, are emerging in the UK. However, today Liverpool Antifascists (LiverAF) and antifa from Manchester, Bolton, Portsmouth, Brighton and the West Midlands can safely say we outnumbered the fash and provided a strong presence ready to resist.

50 Liverpool anti-fascists from a few different groups got a coach up to Bolton in response to a demo called by EDL fringe group 'Demonstration against the increase in racist attacks on whites and grooming gangs.' Once in Bolton we split into small groups to avoid being picked off by police or fash and made our way towards the city centre. 

My group spent much of the first hour loitering down a small backstreet and after getting increasingly restless myself and a couple of others, soon joined by all of LiverAF, went to meet other antifa from Liverpool and around the country who were on a main shopping street where most of the fascists seemed to be having a pint. There were two pens set up, one for the fascists and one for UAF - both of whom it seemed had yet to arrive. The militant anti-fascists out, numbering about 100, had no plans to join the UAF in the pen.

About 40 UAF did come marching down the street - to the creative chants of 'Eng-er-land, Eng-er-land, Eng-er-land' from NWI who had dragged themself away from their pints. At this point the fash started moving towards their pen en masse. All 20 of them. Still, the mood amongst antifa was tense as we were prepared for other NWI members to travel to Bolton from flash demos in Hyde and Heywood. However, we need not have worried. No busload of fash turned up and they remained safely outnumbered, even when the UAF marched away. 

As the fascists already in Bolton seemed to seperate we made our way to Bolton train station, despite police attempts to stop us with roadblocks. When we got there we saw no fash and thus got the chance to have a quick sitdown. We then chose to move on down the side of a busy road and were joined by many police in vans. At one point two fascists we heard two stray fascists chant 'BNP, BNP' from across the road, and we retaliated by informing them that they were scum. There was a scuffle with police during which one antifa was taken by the police for swearing and another was assaulted. A cop threw the boy, only 17 and quite slight, against the wall, head first, before hitting his face again. The first boy was also released into the kettle. The boy was clearly injured and required medical attention from paramedics. After checking that he was ok I turned around to find that we had been kettled. Fortunately we were not held for long. The police however committed a bit of a faux-pas at this point. We'd been told that there were no fash left in town, which we, naturally, all took to be bullshit. We walked the 100 or so metres back to the train station and were proven right. Two fascists were standing around. We briefly confronted them and they were taken across the road by police. They were cuffed after making Nazi salutes.

Here we were collected by the coach and had a nice coach trip home in good spirits. We'd had a great antifa presence compared to that of the fash which meant that the NWI weren't walking around freely and had survived the day with no arrests and just one injury. 

A few things that I'll be bearing in mind next time I oppose the fash:

• Turn up and bring some friends. Numbers are key.
• Wear sunglasses. Today we had a Section 60 enforced on us so we had to removed scarves covering our faces, but the police wont ask you to remove sunglasses.
• Small groups are key to not being kettled or picked off immeadiately.
• Wearing black is fine, but blending in is helpful too.
• Take numbers of a few people there so you can always contact lost people or another antifash if you lose people.

I arrived at the meeting point for Liverpool's International Women's Day march yesterday (Sat, 10th March) and was met with the news that the BNP had a stall on Church Street, Liverpool's main shopping street. As there have been multiple confrontations with fascists - not all resulting in a good outcome for antifa - in Liverpool recently it goes without saying that a large anti-fascist presence was necessary. 

Myself and more than 10 other anti-fascists stayed with the IWD march as far as the middle of Bold Street, where the majority of people on the march went down a side road and we chose to continue down Bold Street, leading us to Church Street. 

There was already a couple of anti-fascists there, thanks to a text call-out that was sent round and numbers quickly swelled. It was clear that the BNP had been joined by members of the EDL/North West Infidels/Scouse Nationalists or whatever they're calling themselves these days, but even then they were outnumbered. Members of the public stood with the counter-protest as we handed out antifa leaflets, engaged and were shown support from local band We, The Undersigned, who were out performing. We were able to borrow a megaphone from the Socialist Party, who also had a stall but chose not to stand with us - after all, those petitions need signing! 

The policing that occured yesterday was particularly horrible. Antifa were threatened with arrest if we refused to move to the other side of Church Street. Fortunately we were joined by so many members of the public that these threats were not carried through, but the Police there yesterday clearly felt that their uniform was a mandate for using excessive and unreasonable force; physically pushing back anti-fascists and telling certain people that they were seeking reasons to arrest them despite them doing nothing wrong. No anti-fash and 2 fascists were arrested, one for calling us paedophiles. As an anarchist, I did feel uncomfortable feeling quite happy about that, but one less fascist on the streets is no bad thing.

The fascists spent the afternoon surrounded and we chanted ('say it loud, say it clear, BNP not welcome here') and several anti-fascists, including an amazing Irish family who were accused of being IRA but called them out on their bullshit. We outlasted the fascists and they dispersed, the BNP packed up and some of those that remained were escorted away by the Police. Yesterday, we did not go away feeling like we had lost or beaten by the fascists, and if we can achieve such opposition with just an hour or so notice then we can and must have a larger mobilisation for the counter demonstration against the North West Infidels on 24th March. Because ultimately, whether the BNP is around or not there will still be a fascist threat on the streets, and that is where we must fight it.

TRL: FASCISTS MET WITH SPONTANEOUS OPPOSITION IN LIVERPOOL.

I've blogged multiple times on police brutality, wrongful arrests and their tactics used at demonstration being incredibly disproportionate to the "threat" posed by protestors. Today I witnessed the cops being bastards again.

A protest, or "lobby", was called outside Liverpool Town Hall against the voting through of the budget which will mean widescale cuts across our city. We've continuously held demos outside meetings concerning the setting of the budget and last time the police got particularly violent; 6 arrests were made and punches were thrown by officers.

For this reason we knew that we needed far more people there this time but when we got there it was clear that wasn't going to happen. There was a large police presence, with 4 police horses. As per usual the Socialist Party jumped ship before anything could happen and a great portion of the crowd left early on. The group left was largely made up of occupiers and anarchists. However it was pretty quiet and, out of boredom, we once or twice circled the Town Hall as a group just to keep the police on their toes. It was fairly quiet. 

However at some point an ambulance was called for a councillor inside the Town Hall who'd been suffering from chest pains. Several protestors crossed over the road and were facing the Town Hall. One young woman shouted something along the lines of "Who cares if she dies?!" - maybe not the most appropriate shout, but who hasn't said worse? The police descended. On a different person. Another young woman, who can only be about 16 but looked very like the other protestor was surrounded by police roughly grabbing her. We attempted to de-arrest her and as we did she was shouting "please don't let go, they're really hurting me". She is very petite and the force used against her was shocking. There is a video of a doctor, who was amongst the protestors, expressing concern for her health and being denied the opportunity to examine her. 

Whilst the arrestee was being taken to the van a police horse backed into me, standing on my foot and knocking me back. Due to a combination of pain and shock I ended up on the floor with very little clue of what was going on around me. Fortunately there were paramedics on hand to give me a look over and, aside from some pain, I am perfectly ok. However, it is a blatant example of how intimidation tactics used by the police - and be under no illusion, using horses to rear into the crowd and drive into protestors is an intimidation tactic - can become dangerous. Not that the police care, I'm sure.

Whilst I was on the floor I witnessed another protestor, the original woman who had said the so called offensive comment directed at the councillor, being arrested. She put up a good fight against her rough arrest, but was still dragged to the van by four officers.

No police were hurt tonight, but at least two protestors were. It is vital that, in a time were police brutality is as relevant as ever, people turn up to protests to ensure there are too many people to kettle, de-arrests can be made successfully and we can try and avoid situations bound to end in a demonstrator being hurt. 

Another video from tonight.

NEITHER OF THE WOMEN ARRESTED HARRASSED, ALARMED OR OFFENDED ANYONE. I DO NOT BELIEVE THEY DID ANYTHING ILLEGAL AND BELIEVE THEIR ARRESTS SHOULD NEVER HAVE HAPPENED.

I've just spent hours of what I thought would be a calm, quiet afternoon eating cake in Next to Nowhere Social Centre in the waiting area of St Anne's Police station as I waited for two friends to be released without charge after being arrested for alleged breach of the peace.

At about 3:15pm I got a text from my best friend telling me that her 16-year-old boyfriend had been arrested outside the Tesco by L1 shopping centre. Originally we figured that, as an occupier, he'd been protesting against Tesco for one of its many sins, but no, him and his friends had just been buying coffee from there. He'd been asked to remove his hood and a confrontation with security had followed when he questioned why he need to. Soon enough he was wrestled to the ground by police and security. When a fellow activist, who is 17, protested he too was arrested. Not that they told him what he was being arrested for.

Myself and five other friends/fellow activists walked up to St. Anne's Police Station to find out what was happening and so they would have people there when they were released. We tried to find out but it took ages for them even to get booked - Merseyside Police are not known for dealing with arrestees speedily! It's not uncommon to be waiting in the car or the holding place for a few hours. Eventually we found out they had been booked and sat around chatting and filling in forms asking us how Merseyside Police could improve our community. We asked them to stop arresting, beating and killing innocent people. I'm not too sure they'll listen to us. 

At some point the older boy's cousin and aunty came - both protesters. Finally we managed to get some information out of the cops and, seeing that they would soon be released bought chips and orangade so they'd have something nice to come out to. Before long the older lad was freed without charge and his aunty acted as the younger boy's "appropriate adult" for the interview. He too was soon let go. The forms cited "lack of evidence" as a reason for not charging them. I suppose it is pretty hard to find evidence when no crime has been committed.

We'll be seeing this more and more often, no doubt. Money wasted trying to pull up activists for pointless crimes to deter them from direct action or, even better, put unrealistic bail conditions on them. And as the movement of resistance becomes open to more working class people and minorities the police will have fewer and fewer qualms snatching innocent people off the streets.  That's why we need to mask up, need to share advice and experience, need to know our rights. It mightn't stop them but it will sure as hell show the pigs that far from deterring us they are only making us angrier by the day. 

 I'll be following this with a post detailing advice of what to do if you witness an arrest or are arrested - as provided by the lovely GBC Manchester.

Today is National Holocaust Memorial Day and each year the trust who organises the event decides on a theme. This year it is 'Speak Up, Speak Out'.

It is also coinciding with a week when I have become particularly enraged by comments made on a Facebook thread on Occupy Liverpool (OL), were people suggested we should not go to a counter demonstration against the EDL, who will be using the fact that Asian men are in court accused of the severe molestation and sexual abuse of young girls to further their racist agenda. 

There were arguments that it could turn violent and would thus be dangerous. In itself this is a fair enough comment, as I understand that people have not been to an anti-fascist counter-demonstration before may have reservations. What is not fair enough is condemning the admin of the OL page for putting a call out for occupiers and supporters for going.

These people claim to represent the 99%. Now I don't pretend to be clued up on the breakdown of the world's population, or even the UK's, based on faith and ethnicity, but those who understand what it's like to be at the 'bottom of the heap', so to speak, are those who society has continuously let down, discriminated against and sidelined - in Britain that is largely ethnic minorities and the working class. Now what is one of the biggest enemies to those groups? Ah yes, fascism. 

So why are those who are willing to stand up against a racist, fascist organisation like the EDL being jumped upon for wanting to make a change? It's not a crime to want to change the world instead of sipping tea and meditating.

Furthermore, why is it wrong to be angry at someone who is criticising he or she who posted the call-out for supposedly deciding that the movement is 'anti-fascist'? As if it's a bad thing. You can not take a neutral stance against fascism, you are either against it or you allow it to happen.

If you want to claim to represent 99% of the world's population you have to speak up and speak out for them. All of them. Because I don't need Pastor Neimoller to tell you that if you don't one day there'll be noone to stand up for you. 

/rantover

As an angry feminist I had the opportunity to rage twice in the space of about 20 minutes today as people still seem to think jokes about violent sex and rape are just SOOO funny.

In the first instance I was debating the role and necessity of police in our society and whether we have enough morals to restrain ourselves or whether we need the police to enforce order for us. I asked the men I was talking to "for example, would you rape someone even if it was illegal?". One gave the reasoned answer of "no, because I have morals" whilst the other decided he would because he couldn't control himself. He was joking. I didn't laugh. I don't actually think there is anything funny about re-enforcing the myth that some men rape because they need sex and can't help themselves. When it comes down to it there is just nothing funny about the weapon that can be used to violently strip the dignity of women (or men) out through their genitalia. 

Disheartened by the turn in conversation and the fact that I appeared to be good friends with someone who could not recognise the sickness in their own jokes I moved away. Bad idea, was treated to another (also male) friend telling me how he would like to "have so much sex with a woman he induced her period 3 weeks early". Apart from being a really disgusting mental image that was only placed in my mind in an effort to "take the piss", it's also demonstrative of how joking about violent practises even within consensual sex (though I know very few women, if any, who would consent to that) is becoming less taboo and thus allows for more men who harm women both physically and mentally with such behaviour to excuse their behaviour and be excused for it. To me, that is rape culture. Furthermore, when I remarked how that image would put me off sex for a while I was told I was frigid. Should I be more open about sex? Or should others just not judge me for my sexual decisions? 

I know, this has all been said before. I am not the best versed or most experienced person to talk to about feminism and rape culture, but I do believe it exists within our society. The fact is, these boys are my friends who I feel I could rely upon for help and support if I was confronted by sexual harrassment or even violence whilst with them. However they still don't see that, for one, humour concerning sexual violence is not funny and secondly that I am a victim/survivor (I still haven't made my mind up) of sexual violence and chances are so are about a quarter of women they will encounter within their lives. This "rape humour" can trigger unwelcome and distressing flashbacks for survivors if it causes them to recall their own rape or assault and makes evident to them that if they choose to share the fact that they were assaulted they may be faced with doubt and ridicule from people they thought of as trustworthy and supportive friends.

I'll let you finish that one off yourself.

My friend Sean did an excellent blog here about why the police are not and will never be anything but bastards. It was in response to comments he'd heard from certain people at Occupy Liverpool defending the police - ultimately, defending the indefenceable.

I saw more evidence of police brutality tonight, from our very own Merseyside Police. I attended a protest outside Liverpool Town Hall in response to a "public" meeting held there to decide which section of Liverpool's community we should cut most brutally. Labour in Liverpool, just like in every other town and city, claim to be opposing the cuts and the champion of the working people. This is not a post to explain why that is complete bullshit, I'm sure you can find resources elsewhere to explain it to you more concisely than myself.

It was a quiet protest. We refused to go in the pen they set up for us, but that caused no confrontation. It was a remarkably quiet protest. Of course there was chanting and shouting, but that was about it. However, after a small amount of argument with a few officers we avoided police horses that were moving to round the side of the town hall by moving on to the main road in front of the building. This served the duel purpose of not trapping us in the freezing cold and blocking the road as a form of direct action.

The police did not like this. The horses were ridden into the small crowd; a scare tactic if ever there was one. This was met with chants of "GET THOSE ANIMALS OFF THOSE HORSES". They then tried to arrest a protestor - what for I don't know, the police were not in danger, nobody was - there was no violence from any protestors tonight. Then the arrests came thick and fast, I saw a young boy on the ground with officers all around him, one on top of him. The arrested, about half a dozen in all, were young and there to demonstrate about something they are angry about that is affecting them and their families. However the media portrays them they weren't out looking for a fight. Unfortunately that's not the extent of the brutality of the police. The moment that shook me tonight was turning round to see my best friend with blood coming out of nose, courtesy of a punch from a lovely police officer. Bastard. 

As we escorted the free Occupiers back to their squat so the police would not brutalise any of them any more we chanted "NO JUSTICE, NO PEACE, FUCK THE POLICE" and "WE WONT TAKE POLICE BRUTALITY." - and we wont. Attempts to arrest innocent people will be met with successful de-arrests and attempts to photograph us for their files will be met with masks being put on. 

There really was no real positive outcome tonight, except maybe that more liberal members of the group there tonight will see that the police are not just doing there job, because what fucking respectable job involves silencing us, punching us and throwing us to the ground?

I'll let you answer that one yourself.

EDIT:

Liam did a quick account of tonight: http://www.twitlonger.com/show/fdibb6 

Sean has also written a blogpost on it: http://1solutionrevolution.blogspot.com/2012/01/merseyside-police-violently-attack.html