Protests today / police horses

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I found it upsetting seeing the police horses used to try and disperse the protests in Whitehall. There was a loose police horse, a bike was pushed hard into a horse and missiles were being thrown at them. You could see the horse who was hit by the bike jump up and back. It must have hurt it, it looked like the handlebar jabbed into the horse. Why won’t they use water cannon’s instead of these poor horses. It was awful seeing the horses so terrified. I hope they were all OK.
 

Moobli

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It was terribly upsetting to watch, especially when the officer fell from her horse (think she ran into a lamppost from what I saw) and the crowd cheered and laughed ?. The loose horse thankfully made its way back to the stables nearby and was unharmed and the officer is getting hospital treatment but her injuries aren’t life threatening. To see “protesters” throwing bottles, bricks and ramming bicycles into the police horses made my blood boil. I definitely think powerful water cannons should be utilised in riots like this.
 

Cortez

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I doubt that the training for these horses was sufficient to cover what they were facing today. I work with stunt horses who are trained slowly to the noise and action of a film set battle scene (think Game of Thrones, etc.), but that is nothing like what they were facing today for real. Don't expect riled up crowds to be "nice" to horses; if they are prepared to attack their own kind, they are going to think nothing of doing the same to a horse. FWIW there were only a couple of horses that I saw today on the news footage that I would have selected for stunt training, the others didn't look happy at all.
 

{97702}

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Police horses are standard technique against riots/large gatherings by police services, but i agree it doesn’t sit well with the general public to see them being put into the line of attack like that ?

I’m undecided - no horse was hurt today, and they are impeccably trained but it makes me very very uncomfortable to put it mildly to see them potentially being put at risk.

But then the use of horses in the World Wars appalled me too.... I suppose the answer is that society is supposed to have evolved since then and we are meant to have access to better techniques.

I’ve just waffled into a decision ? I love seeing them, but I think they should be phased out ???
 

smolmaus

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I've only seen reactions to the vid where the police officer gets cleaned off the traffic lights and there is a lot of confusion about what's actually happening. The people jeering and taking the p don't seem to realise that horse has bolted. I've seen tweets where its suggested the horse was being charged at protesters??? Which is obviously madness. Also some people saying that the horse did injure someone when it was running loose. Just an absolute mess all around.

Most reactions do seem to be judging the people who are throwing stuff at the horses. Or yeah, the people who chose to put them in that situation. Its not your standard crowd control job!
 

Moobli

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Horses can make such a difference in situations like this. When the regular officers came under heavy missile attack the horses were sent to push the violence away from those officers and that specific location. It is what they are trained to do and they were incredibly effective and achieved that goal with only two people injured (no horses were injured). They did, and always do, a great job, so I believe they should be used in these type of situations.
 

Abi90

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I do wonder how the decision was made to have them there.

The quote that’s been released is that they were using them to move the small group of those causing a scene away from the rest of the protest and the regular uniformed police. Water cannons were probably deemed excessive in this situation where they are trying really hard not to escalate and cause further tension. They are in an impossible situation
 

{97702}

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Horses can make such a difference in situations like this. When the regular officers came under heavy missile attack the horses were sent to push the violence away from those officers and that specific location. It is what they are trained to do and they were incredibly effective and achieved that goal with only two people injured (no horses were injured). They did, and always do, a great job, so I believe they should be used in these type of situations.

Thank goodness for someone who at least knows properly how they are used ? I follow most of the mounted sections on Twitter now, lovely lot of people....
 

smolmaus

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The quote that’s been released is that they were using them to move the small group of those causing a scene away from the rest of the protest and the regular uniformed police. Water cannons were probably deemed excessive in this situation where they are trying really hard not to escalate and cause further tension. They are in an impossible situation
So weird that water cannons would be considered an escalation from mounted police? Like we get the water cannons out all the time when it kicks off around the 12th July and they're not even that effective.
 

Roasted Chestnuts

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Honestly the world has gone to hell.

Are people forgetting there is a deadly diseases still doing the rounds or have we all deemed protesting in mass groups which are illegal anyways more important? I understand the reasons fully. However you cannot change people’s perceptions if everyone is deadonce they started rioting and smashing stuff up I’d have hosed them.

Poor horses ?
 

ester

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Having seen the longer video/from the opposite angle the horse is buggering off well before the collision. Glad they are both ok
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teapot

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The one that ended up loose pretty much pissed off (unsurprisngly) and unfortunatey the officer came a cropper with a traffic light. Considering how nasty the fall was, she's lucky not to have life threatening injuries.
 

Fools Motto

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I do believe that a USA police horse had a brick thrown at him, which smashed/broke his nose. I just think they are so brave and trusting. The modern version of the war horses I suppose. Glad the lose chestnut knew were home was, suspect he will go through a bit more training?
Regarding this virus, if the number of infections don't go up now, after Durdle Door last week, and the riots/protests now, then surely we can assume the level of danger has lessened and can go back to more normal? I'm already panicing about the idea of wearing a face mask as I'm so claustrophobic.
 

Wishfilly

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If you follow the twitter link, it shows a video of the horse on the way back to the stables running into a pedestrian who doesn't seem to be affiliated with the protest (or certainly not with any violence). From other videos on twitter, the police had a clear chance to catch the loose horse and didn't- which seems pretty poor to me. I understand they were under a lot of pressure, though.

Does anyone know if this person is ok?

I do think there must be another way of policing these situations that doesn't involve putting horses in harms way.
 

Cinnamontoast

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My OH is a police officer. He reckons a horse is worth 10 officers. He’s attended a lot of American football matches at Wembley and having the Mounted there was apparently very useful to disperse crowds.

According to the commentator, the police were trying to herd the protesters slowly away from Whitehall and were managing this.
 
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Bob notacob

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A couple of days ago as I drove through Chessington surrey ,there was a lone girl on the central Island of a crossing ,with a sign ,Black lives matter. Respect. Simply giving her voice to an opinion that I believe is well held in this country . So who are these tossers who are protesting . Its good old renta mob. They do no good for the causes they suddenly profess to support , They are just rebels without any cause.
 

Tiddlypom

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Horses can make such a difference in situations like this. When the regular officers came under heavy missile attack the horses were sent to push the violence away from those officers and that specific location. It is what they are trained to do and they were incredibly effective and achieved that goal with only two people injured (no horses were injured). They did, and always do, a great job, so I believe they should be used in these type of situations.
I wonder what desensitisation type training they will do with those poor horses to make them fit to patrol again. I imagine that at least some of them will not cope with crowd control again.
 

MiniMilton

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I would imagine this horse would be retired from duty. The horse was bloody right to want to get the hell out of there, but I would imagine its a feature not desirable in a police horse.
I hate to see horses in those sort of situations, always upsetting to watch.
 
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I have no issue with peaceful protests, I have no issue with people standing in solidarity with the world against the bad eggs of the American police force. What I don't get is why people are fighting out own police force? Ours is a force for good. They don't go out of their way to maim and kill because they think it is their right to and they will get away with it. What do these people fighting in London hope to achieve? Except for making themselves look like absolute morons!
 

Skib

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I live in London. Horses have always been used to control crowds here - for example every week at football matches. I was pregnant with my first child at an international in 1965 and this Police rider used his horse sideways to push us back onto the pavement. I told him I was pregnant and he was crushing me and he took no notice. I didnt ride in those days or I might have been proactive.

Police horses are used because the rider can see over the heads of the crowd. They are not normally used to charge. I once went to a Michael Peace/Police Horse demo where the audience (us) were asked to habituate the horses to the noise of a seated foorball crowd. Horses that cannit learn to tolerate the pressures are not selected for Police work.

In my youth I went on CND Peace demos. We were a quiet crowd and the Police behaved calmly but my view is that cotrol got much more aggressive about 20 years ago and were used to contain peaceful gatherings like the New Year. On New Years Eve we were there. Crowds were "bottled" meaning sections are kept within a small areas but the underground stations are closed so there is no exit and no way to go to a loo. This started with politial sit ins in Trafalgar Square. One was allowed to leave e.g. to find a loo, but once out, one was not allowed to return.

Our own MP helped organised a demo yesterday on Tooting Common. It looked peaceful and social distancing was observed. But the trouble in London is anger. Everyone we know is angry with Borris and the government and it is hard to separate Covoid from the Race issue. Because the BAME death rate is higher than in the general population. And the lack of social distancing yesterday exposes NHS hospital staff like our daughter to more new cases and more risk.

But the use of horses yesterday to disperse a crowd in Whitehall reminded me of films of the Russian cavalry shooting on crowds in 1905. Because the London population is out of control. On the whole young Londoners did not vote for Boris. But they did vote for Khan and we (mostly) do as he says. But the government is releasing lock down when Khan and our medics think lock down should stay because the figures are stil so bad.
When Cummings broke curfew, his government forfeited any control of lockdown. Borris and Cummings never wanted lock down. The Lockdown was always to benefit mostly the elderly and the government doesnt care whether it is maintained because the plan was always to let the elderly die. What they didnt realise was that it would be so many BAME front line care workers.

If you look at the figures for additional deaths per million of the population you can see that the UK Government have achieved that. But they havent killed their own middle class parents. We, the white middle class elderly, are tucked up safely in isolation.
 

Abi90

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I have no issue with peaceful protests, I have no issue with people standing in solidarity with the world against the bad eggs of the American police force. What I don't get is why people are fighting out own police force? Ours is a force for good. They don't go out of their way to maim and kill because they think it is their right to and they will get away with it. What do these people fighting in London hope to achieve? Except for making themselves look like absolute morons!

People do die in police custody in the UK. The overwhelming majority of them are White British males. Minority groups have also died but are “under represented” given their percentage of the population.

The anger aimed at the British police is somewhat misguided in that it is taking the actions of very few individuals and apportioning it to the whole. The difference is, that our police are not armed and there is an entirely different culture in our police force to the US police. I really feel for the UK police at the moment as they are all unfairly being branded as violent racists. The irony being, that statement in itself is filled with prejudice.
 
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