Can you say ‘double standards’? Establishment excuse of social distancing for action against protesters collapses
Footage of huge crowds at the gates of Buckingham Palace have been marked by the glaring absence of aggressive police action to disperse them. This is, of course, unsurprising – but it does make a mockery of the claims of Establishment apologists that the use of riot police against protesters and police aggression toward women holding a vigil on Clapham Common was justified because of the pandemic:
While those holding the Clapham Common vigil and most of the protesters beaten by police in London and Bristol were wearing masks, few of the mourners gathering because of the death of the queen’s husband were masked.
Nobody expects riot police dispersing mourners outside Buckingham Palace, though it might reasonably be asked why there appear to have been no attempts at all even to make people at least spread out – but the excuse for the use of violence against Clapham Common mourners and peaceful free-speech and anti-racism protesters was just exposed as the cynical spin it always was.
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