The image of resistance?

Hi Everyone- just a few points i have to raise about some of the other posts. First of all the photo is excellent as it shows the expression of fear and shock in real peoples face when in a confrontational situation and I have to agree with other posts about it showing the average Joe standing against the oppressor.
The police officer in this is a member of the RUC/PSNI and the other people in this photo are Irish Nationals. This was on a day on which members of a Orange Order Loyalist band walked through a nationalist area. infact many of the police are members of this secterian organisation called the Orange Order. There songs include lyrics that celebrate murdering innocent catholics so its quite understandable why the nationalist community wish to oppose this especially as it is happening in their neighbourhood and as they are being blocked by the loyalist police force who are quite well know for their part in murdering first hand innocent men,women and children of the nationalist community and also colluding with loyalist paramilitaries in murdering. As for Enaic saying the People having no job well that is pretty ignorant as your labelling everyone with the same brush. I myself have been to many of these protests and can say im an engineer in an international company and witnessed first hand the brutality of the police and have also had family members murdered by them including a 16 year old cousin of mine who was shot in the head with a plastic bullit. So Enaic maybe you should pay more interest to events happening on this little island of ours. Remember the motto of this site- DENY IGNORANCE.

reply to post by madeioo


In an ideal world yes.

Unfortunately wherever Religion is involved you have the worst kind of violence. I've watched the marching season with horror over the years and cannot fathom the mentality of those involved because I'm not religious. I remember the year when school kids were being attacked and stoned during their walk to school purely because of their particular branch of christianity.

However, returning to the photo it does not show nor even imply that these are protestants fighting catholics. They are people being pushed around by servants of the people. The focus quite clearly is against the police, not against those of opposing views/beliefs. Segregating the two sides during the march is entirely possible. Attacking either side is unacceptable. The poster after yours (tnymccan) has more experience than I and makes some valid points.

We should all fight to retain the right to protest, once that's gone it's game over.

Originally posted by tnymccann
Hi Everyone- just a few points i have to raise about some of the other posts. First of all the photo is excellent as it shows the expression of fear and shock in real peoples face when in a confrontational situation and I have to agree with other posts about it showing the average Joe standing against the oppressor.
The police officer in this is a member of the RUC/PSNI and the other people in this photo are Irish Nationals. This was on a day on which members of a Orange Order Loyalist band walked through a nationalist area. infact many of the police are members of this secterian organisation called the Orange Order. There songs include lyrics that celebrate murdering innocent catholics so its quite understandable why the nationalist community wish to oppose this especially as it is happening in their neighbourhood and as they are being blocked by the loyalist police force who are quite well know for their part in murdering first hand innocent men,women and children of the nationalist community and also colluding with loyalist paramilitaries in murdering. As for Enaic saying the People having no job well that is pretty ignorant as your labelling everyone with the same brush. I myself have been to many of these protests and can say im an engineer in an international company and witnessed first hand the brutality of the police and have also had family members murdered by them including a 16 year old cousin of mine who was shot in the head with a plastic bullit. So Enaic maybe you should pay more interest to events happening on this little island of ours. Remember the motto of this site- DENY IGNORANCE.

Posts like this should not be left unread - rare piece of insight written on a website full of right wing hatred and racist vitriol egged on by the owners for personal gain - you are to be applauded.

[edit on 18-8-2009 by audas]

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/af6ea6cff7e5.png[/atsimg]

The Irish situation is a personal one, a community ravaged by conflict inflicted upon them by centuries of meddling from England - the Irish are, to me, a very personal people, private - but personal and take matters seriously and personally - this photo says to me - "I know who you are - I see your face" - its almost as if if is about to say - "You're Sean O'Donnell" - and that would be terrifying in Ireland -

For those Americans posting on this thread who as usual have no idea of the struggle for life which goes on around the world, usually at the hands of white Anglo / American oppressors, perhaps you should so some research into why Ireland is split, why there are protestants in the North and how it came to be - when China takes over your country and treats you like Stalins peasants you might understand why centuries later you would still be resisting the oppression -

"Nutjob" protesters indeed - Ignorance knows no bounds.

Originally posted by tnymccann
Hi Everyone- just a few points i have to raise about some of the other posts. First of all the photo is excellent as it shows the expression of fear and shock in real peoples face when in a confrontational situation and I have to agree with other posts about it showing the average Joe standing against the oppressor.
The police officer in this is a member of the RUC/PSNI and the other people in this photo are Irish Nationals. This was on a day on which members of a Orange Order Loyalist band walked through a nationalist area. infact many of the police are members of this secterian organisation called the Orange Order. There songs include lyrics that celebrate murdering innocent catholics so its quite understandable why the nationalist community wish to oppose this especially as it is happening in their neighbourhood and as they are being blocked by the loyalist police force who are quite well know for their part in murdering first hand innocent men,women and children of the nationalist community and also colluding with loyalist paramilitaries in murdering. As for Enaic saying the People having no job well that is pretty ignorant as your labelling everyone with the same brush. I myself have been to many of these protests and can say im an engineer in an international company and witnessed first hand the brutality of the police and have also had family members murdered by them including a 16 year old cousin of mine who was shot in the head with a plastic bullit. So Enaic maybe you should pay more interest to events happening on this little island of ours. Remember the motto of this site- DENY IGNORANCE.

ok, first off.. get your facts right before you start spewing more secterian hatred.. there are no members of the orange order within the PSNI, you simply cannot become a police officer if you are member of that organisation.

To me the picture shows a calm person in a tense situation.. look back to the G8 summit, a person would not have been able to get that close to a PC without getting hit with a baton. This to me shows why the PSNI is one of the best trained police services in the world.

Im not trying to distract from the suffering you or your family may have suffered during the troubles.. but that was the RUC.. Policing in NI has moved on leaps and bounds since then.

I agree that people have the right to protest, thats one of the fundamental human rights that the people in NI are entitled to.. but you have to weigh up the options.. let the march through annoy the nationalists, dont let it through annoy the unionists.. someone has to make that decision and no matter what choice they make someone will have a greivance towards it. Police officers are just like you and me, they have a home, a family, a mortgage to pay and they want to ensure that they get home each day from their job, for after all that is what it is.

Dont get me wrong Im not doubting that there may be some 'bad eggs' in the service.. but Im sure if you were to look at your engineering job, you too would find people that are not up ot the job, a bit of a jack the lad.. you get them in all walks of life... But to just label someone from looking at a picture or a pre conceived notion of how you should think they act.. well, you must be a better person than I.

I for one, am a firm believer that if you want something to change you have to make changes yourself.. so I ask you, what are you doing to make a change to this 'loyalist police' as you describe them? Have you applied to join their ranks so you can maybe make a change to the organisation from the inside? Or would you rather sit back and complain, name call and point the finger at something that you dont fully understand...

You quote 'Deny Ignorance'.. surely you are ignorant of another until you have walked in his shoes?

Originally posted by tnymccann
Hi Everyone- just a few points i have to raise about some of the other posts. First of all the photo is excellent as it shows the expression of fear and shock in real peoples face when in a confrontational situation and I have to agree with other posts about it showing the average Joe standing against the oppressor.
The police officer in this is a member of the RUC/PSNI and the other people in this photo are Irish Nationals. This was on a day on which members of a Orange Order Loyalist band walked through a nationalist area. infact many of the police are members of this secterian organisation called the Orange Order. There songs include lyrics that celebrate murdering innocent catholics so its quite understandable why the nationalist community wish to oppose this especially as it is happening in their neighbourhood and as they are being blocked by the loyalist police force who are quite well know for their part in murdering first hand innocent men,women and children of the nationalist community and also colluding with loyalist paramilitaries in murdering. As for Enaic saying the People having no job well that is pretty ignorant as your labelling everyone with the same brush. I myself have been to many of these protests and can say im an engineer in an international company and witnessed first hand the brutality of the police and have also had family members murdered by them including a 16 year old cousin of mine who was shot in the head with a plastic bullit. So Enaic maybe you should pay more interest to events happening on this little island of ours. Remember the motto of this site- DENY IGNORANCE.

Thankyou for the insight and thankyou for answering half of the answers in this thread, i would applaud you if i could.

As for me, i did not post this image to reflect my own personal beliefs about good cops/bad cops, as i said, to me the context DOES NOT MATTER here. It is the composition of the image itself which is important and the same image in any other situation would still be symbolic of the same thing.

reply to post by serbsta

i think that we need more images such as these. i am actually very proud of mtv which i have hated for years for their american holocaust videos. i was blown away by those. there is a revolution coming and if you dont see it your blind. they callled the men who formed this country terrorist and rebels. what will they call the next revolutionaries?

reply to post by serbsta


The officer is really only a man. And that's the man I was reffering to.





reply to post by wraith001


She looks upset, the cop looks scared, that finger is a warning.

Did anyone bother to read on about what the actual picture was about?

Irish Nationalist protesting with Police after a Nationalist parade. The Republicans actually threw petrol bombs at the police before the police even got out of their cars.

While I personally support a unified Ireland, and thus the Republican cause, I have found that the big majority of ATS does not support the Republican cause, but rather that of the UK/Protestant Loyalist.

So.. I find it odd that ATS is shown supporting these protesters? (Who marched without a permit, and assaulted several officers, which I don't even agree with.. and is a big reason why many don't support the Republican movement)



Or did we see a pic of a finger in a cops face and disregard everything else?

picasaweb.google.com...

look closely at teh reflection in the cop's visor. you'll see the other village people are at the party.

Originally posted by noonebutme
reply to post by serbsta

 

Out of curiousity, what should I be feeling while looking at this photo.

its about how hot that chick in the bottom right corner looks. duh...

that and the cops facial expression is priceless. if you saw the whole picture, the guy doing the pointing/poking is probably pulling a fa-laming lip biting maneuver with some come hither eye acting. XP

Originally posted by noonebutme
reply to post by serbsta

 

Out of curiousity, what should I be feeling while looking at this photo. I read the caption that it's during protests in Ireland, but on initial viewing, the law enforcement officer isn't doing anything apart from having a finger jabbed in his visor.

Is this photo meant to be a catalyst to rise up and fight the law? Are we meant to ignore the law and say, "No, I am not following your rules of society?"

If i'm to infer my own assumptions based on the implied context, then someone is suggesting "No" to being controlled by the officer. That suggests the protest is out of control or getting close. So the officer is keeping people back and someone is exerting themselves. Essentially doing what he's meant to do and what I, a citizen would hope he would do - keep nutjob protesters at bay.

Just my view...

keep nutjob protesters at bay huh?

well even though some protesters may go to far, its protesters who we truly owe for keeping our country a country we still believe we can change

without protesters, even the "hope" real or not in america would be long gone




as to the image, its very strong, a young woman is crying at the hands of the police, and a man is standing up for that woman by putting his finger in the cops face just like you would a dog, hes saying no, you are doing the wrong thing and we will not stand by as pacifists and allow you to do this

reply to post by Dramey


......Americans... why are we considered so arrogant? Because so many of us believe the World revolves around Americans and ONLY Americans!

READ THE ARTICLE

This is in North Ireland. Not America.

Nationalist petrol bombed a police cruiser as well as threw stones at the vehicles. Their protest normally would have been legal, as it's the beginning of the protest season (they really do have a Protest Season there!) but this (small) group did not have a permit. 70 people total.

Their actions were destructive to civil rallying..

Originally posted by sharps
That's the first time in ages I have been moved to scream at my screen. What are you supposed to feel? You're not 'supposed' to feel anything.

A mind sir/madam is a terrible thing to waste! And you are most definitely wasting yours. Have you forgotten the ATS motto? Deny Ignorance or go back to the main stream media if you want to be told what to feel. Shame on you and shame on everyone who has starred your post.

I am denying ignorance. I'm denying the immediate knee-jerk reaction many of you people here are doing by assuming the police officer is oppressing someone simply because of an image that shows very little of what's actually going on apart from a very symbolic gesture. Nothing more.

I'm looking at a picture and thinking, "Hmm, what's *actually* going on here", not jumping to the conclusion that any image of a police & protesters equals oppression of freedoms.

Shame on me? Bah, no thanks. I don't feel shame - too restrictive. I'll leave that to you to feel if you want.

reply to post by Rockpuck


Exactly my point

And that's what I was implying by my original post of "What should I be feeling here?"

I knew the post of that pic was an "emotionally charged" one so I stayed away from the immediate reaction it was meant to generate - the one of, "damn the police, damn the law, damn the NWO, blah blah". Which is the reaction many people on the tread took up immediately without knowing what was happening.

Thanks for posting a proper description of what is happening, though I doubt many of the "police & law" haters will change their views anyway - most people outside of Ireland and the UK don't understand how charged the protests can be there.

[edit on 19-8-2009 by noonebutme]

"......Still photographs are the most powerful weapon in the world. People believe them; but photographs do lie, even without manipulation. They are only half-truths......"
-Eddie Adams (Pulitzer Prize-winning American photographer)

I say suport your local Sinn Féin who are the sinn fein you ask well here is a little blirb.

the current party, led by Gerry Adams, was formed following a split in January 1970 and traces its origins back to the original Sinn Féin party formed in 1905. It is a major party of Irish republicanism and its political ideology is left wing. The party has historically been associated with the Provisional IRA

just so we all know not all americans are blind as to what is and has gone on in the world.

reply to post by noonebutme


Indeed anytime an authoritarian figure is highlighted as doing something against a seemingly "innocent" person the reaction on this site is instantaneous support for the supposed "innocent" person without trying to find out both sides of the story. In this case the "Innocent" people literally threw a fire bomb at the police.. who was in the right, who was in the wrong? The atmosphere in North Ireland seems to be fueling with more and more anger and activism.. has not even been a year since the shooting of the UK soldiers by a supposed Nationalist.

Anarchy is never a solution to anything..

And when it's pointed out by the few who read the article, you get flamed for "siding with the fascist cops" .. Talk about embracing ignorance..

Read the article, it's not that hard. I promise. It won't kill you guys.

reply to post by serbsta


The brilliance of this photo cannot be overstated. Ever.

I hope this gets around. It's inspiring.

S&F