From Socialist Unity
Respect Member of Parliament and vice-president of the Stop the War Coalition George Galloway has written to the Metropolitan Police Commissioner and London Mayor Boris Johnson calling for a swift inquiry into the policing of yesterdays Stop the War protest in Westminster .
“The policing of the event was way over the top,” says Galloway. “The primary cause is the profoundly undemocratic decision to ban a peaceful protest from going down Whitehall – so that George W Bush would not be embarrassed: our rights are shredded to save the face of a foreign potentate.
The policeman’s steel baton cracking against the heads of peaceful protesters and coming after Parliament voted to lock people up for 42 days without charge should be a further wake-up call. The attack on our civil liberties is not a subject for highbrow, lawyerly debate. It is a serious assault on our freedoms, something that will lead large numbers of people in the very near future to wonder how it happened. By then it will be too late. The time to raise the alarm is now.”
The current assault on civil rights in Britain is at least as onerous as what the neocons have done here in the States. Yes, Parliament really did just vote to lock up British subjects for 42 days without charges. London police under their new right wing mayor no doubt feel more emboldened to crack skulls of protesters.
Galloway’s courageous stand should be supported by all.
Isn’t Galloway under investigation for assault at the moment?