One of the things about being an early riser is that you get to hear stories on the BBC that get sat on by the time the rest of the population is up and about.
Number 3 this morning was a warning from the Met about Middle class people who have never been on a protest in their lives taking to the streets and the Met was preparing for a ‘Summer of Rage’.
The BBC had squashed this story by the time their flagship ‘Today’ programme came on air.
Supt Hartshorn, who heads the Metropolitan Police’s public order branch, said he feared there could be “mass protest” at rising unemployment, failing financial institutions and the downturn in the economy.
The officer that “known activists” were planning returns to the streets, and intelligence revealed that they may be able to call on more protesters than normal due to the unprecedented conditions.
He told The Guardian: “Those people would be good at motivating people, but they haven’t had the ‘foot soldiers’ to actually carry out (protests).
“Obviously the downturn in the economy, unemployment, repossessions, changes that. Suddenly there is the opportunity for people to mass protest.”
Mr Hartshorn, who is regularly briefed on potential causes of civil unrest, singled out April’s G20 summit of the leading developed nations in London as one of the events that could kick start a series of protests.
“We’ve got G20 coming and I think that is being advertised on some of the sites as the highlight of what they see as a ‘summer of rage’,” he said.
The officer added that banks, particularly those that still pay large bonuses despite receiving billions of aid from the taxpayer, had also become “viable targets” for protesters.
Other parts of Europe have already seen large-scale protests against the handling of the economy.
Up to 120,000 people marched through Dublin on Saturday in an emotional and angry national demonstration over the Irish Government’s handling of the economic crisis.
The Telegraph
Hartshorn who is an unelected servant of the State, has coined the phrase ‘ Summer of Rage’ we should start to use it every day until this Government has gone.
His crass statement is a warning, which equates to ‘ c’mon if you think you are hard enough, we are ready for you’ just shows that even though there have been no major distrurbances here, unlike the rest of Europe where Governments are starting to fall, the Police are prepared to make threatening public statements that should have been made by the Home Secretary.
When this Government finally falls he is now near the top of my personal list to be sacked.
For the last three years I have had the following two statements on my blog.
Each of should choose which course of action we must take; education,conventional political action or even peaceful civil disobedience to bring about necessary changes,
But let it not be said we did nothing
Ron Paul
….governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whatever form of government becomes destructive of these ends; it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it.
Jefferson
This is a destructive Government lead by an unelected Prime Minister.
OH Update: A week of Protest beckons and more
Guthrum Update : LBC phone in until 1pm on the Summer of Rage zero confidence in Cameron, even less for Brown.
Mr Hartshorn, considering that he is making public statements on policing matters, is a bit of a secret policeman, very little information can be gleaned other than he is a member of CO11, and met some of the photographers on the recent New Scotland Yard protest