Post No. 1,308 - Cross Posting: Today's "Pagan Rising" protests: a quick comment

This post was originally made at https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2019/04/todays-pagan-rising-protests-quick.html.

*****

Today a new vegan activist group organised a series of protests around Australia (I'll add a link later this week).

In my opinion, these protests:

• were the same as many other protests, in that they annoyed some people, some of those to the point of a counter reaction; 
• didn't move many others; 
• planted a seed in some others - as the organisers intended; 
• were led by mostly articulate people (one organiser I heard interviewed had a bit of a tendency to resort to slogans, but that is possibly inexperience);
• caused disruption, as many other such protests do - which is part of gaining the media attention, as one interviewed person clearly stated; and 
• they were peaceful.

Given that, I am gravely concerned that a police spokesperson in my home state tried to argue that the protests were violent because ambulances had to be diverted around at least one of the protest sites. That diversion is undesirable, and was possibly an outcome of the organisers' inexperience and/or their decision to not coordinate with police (which may have cut down the impact).

But for a serving police officer to make that grossly inaccurate mis-characterisation / misrepresentation is police state territory - the sort of thing Commissar-in-Chief Putin's mob resorts to. It is unacceptable in a democracy, and must be withdrawn and apologised for.

I trust the statement that ambulances were diverted was real - I would hope the police officer's professional would preclude that sort of - well, lie.

The protests are unlikely to change my position - I've seen people who needed meat for health reasons (e.g., women with low iron as a result of heavy periods), and am actually looking forward to lab-grown meat.

The politicians who made idiotic remarks about "green collar criminals" (how long before they appropriate that term?) and terrorism are making remarks that are facile and, frankly, extremist - except for the concerns about trespass onto animal husbandry properties. That is, in my opinion, a step beyond what is acceptable - particularly the risks for biosecurity and to the sense of security of children of the farmers.

But overall, at this stage I would have to say: well done.