Running scared from the huge numbers mobilising to resist the water charge the establishment are now pulling out all the stops. Over the weekend we saw an image of a single brick being thrown at a Garda car used to try and divide the movement through saturation coverage of the brick and the demand that resistors condemn ‘violence’
Running scared from the huge numbers mobilising to resist the water charge the establishment are now pulling out all the stops. Over the weekend we saw an image of a single brick being thrown at a Garda car used to try and divide the movement through saturation coverage of the brick and the demand that resistors condemn ‘violence’
Then on Sunday as Enda Kenny drove out of the Mansion house three Garda grabbed Fiona who was protesting there and threw her head first into a metal bollard at the side of the road. In the video of the incident you can hear a sickening thud as she hits the bollard but you can also see the considerable force put into throwing her. But don’t expect a media outcry about the violence of 3 large men smashing a women’s head* off a metal pole, instead expect to hear once more about that brick that bounced off the back of a car.
Expect that whenever a water charges resistor manages to get on the media in the next days that they will face hostile demands to condemn the brick and sympathise with the car. Don’t expect politicians on the same shows to be asked to condemn the Garda violence on Sunday or all the other incidents of recent weeks.
It’s become very clear that the media in general sees its role to help demoralise and divide the resistance to the water charge in the service of those with wealth and power.
If you wish you can view the video but be warned many people will find it disturbing
Update: The massive reach this and other posts on social media got forced one media outlet after another to finally cover this story from lunchtime Monday, even RTE was forced to show the footage on the 6.01 news least it look too Pravda
* Good news but also somewhat of a correction
From the direction of travel and sound on the video we had presumed Fiona had gone head first into the metal pillar, the picture below which has been circulated shows she was lucky enough that her head missed and it was her hip that was smashed into the pillar. If you watch the video its obvious was sheer luck and thous could have been a tragedy as well as a human rights abuse.
WORDS: Andrew Flood (Follow Andrew on Twitter )