- Joined
- Oct 29, 2002
- Messages
- 36,447
- Location
- East of Suez
Does anyone here apart from Int and myself have a problem with the attacks on police?
Self-defence?
No.
Rounding on an isolated policeman and kicking the hell put of him?
My conscience wouldn't stretch that far. Even if he is the arm of an oppressive state.
You've got to be clever to win the propaganda war, but it's hard to be clever with a vast crowd made of disparate groups. Cops with bloody faces may boost morale, but it won't win the moral argument. If you can mobilise the entire population--or close as dammit--and refuse to co-operate with the law, the Chinese government will be forced to go in hugger mugger or concede and negotiate.
In the latter case, you've set an incredible precedent and pushed the government onto the slope; in the former, you reap a public relations bounty as support rallies and the decent governments of the world are unable to stay on the fence owing to the force of their own peoples' public opinion.