[Xmca-l] Re: speed of political action

[Huw Lloyd]

http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2015/aug/28/protest-against-border-force-visa-crackdown-shuts-melbourne-streets-live

In my limited experience and thinking, special ops police forces seem to
have two distinct characteristics.  The first is the focus on catching
criminals in criminal activities rather than educating people against
them.  The second is a preference for militarised operations, rather than
standardised policing. I would guess that (an argument for) the appropriate
time to take such measures is when there are no other resources available
to protect something of obvious felt importance that is also felt to be
clearly at risk, that doesn't seem to be the case in this protest.  I
wonder whether such morality could be institutionalised into police
practice, i.e. to legitimately boycott operations that do not meet those
criteria.

Huw




On 28 August 2015 at 16:19, Peg Griffin <Peg.Griffin@att.net> wrote:

> Thanks for good news!
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: xmca-l-bounces+peg.griffin=att.net@mailman.ucsd.edu [mailto:
> xmca-l-bounces+peg.griffin=att.net@mailman.ucsd.edu] On Behalf Of Andy
> Blunden
> Sent: Friday, August 28, 2015 1:44 AM
> To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
> Subject: [Xmca-l] speed of political action
>
> I must share this with my xmca friends.
> This morning the government launched an operation which is to my mind the
> kind of thing which could only happen in Korea of the Southern states of
> the US: The newly created Border Force was to conduct a campaign of spot
> checks on people in the streets of central Melbourne, checking people's
> "papers". By morning rush hour time a demonstration had been mounted at the
> main railway station, and now in late afternoon is blocking off public
> transport in and our of the city, the move was soon all over social media
> and I am told the would-be police-state move had to be called off.
> It would have taken a month to get a counter demo. up over this in my
> days, but the opposition moved faster than the police!
>
> Andy
> --
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> *Andy Blunden*
> http://home.pacific.net.au/~andy/
>
>
>