:yakk:

thats just takin the piss

OTOH i dont think most people my age have a clue what reclaim the streets was n still is…

It’s just a street carnival minus the pickpockets or someat? With a green aim to it too (to empoyer the pedestrian!)

i’ve heard n researched bout reclaim the streets, i mainly meant the majority of our generation not me in particular

i always saw it as simply a protest party. protestin many different things

The only one I ever got to was Brixton 98 but I left before the OB decided they wanted a fight:wink: it was a good day I particuly remember the guy dancing naked on the top of a pole very entertaining he was:laugh_at:

I went to the ones in Bristol. They helped rebuild my relationship with my little sister. I her took to one of them (under duress) to show her what’s what. we’d been estranged for about 8 years due to my ‘lifestyle’ (drugs, squats, protests etc).

She came, she saw, we closed the M32 down and danced our arses off all afternoon:bounce_fl

Then at the end it got hairy, a tiny minority of people caused trouble, the pigs got heavy handed and we legged it.

Newspapers the next day just had the bad stuff, none of the good. My sister saw this and was so shocked at the disparity of what actually happened and what was reported and splashed all over the front pages that she took stock, thought about it and looked at me through new eyes . . . importance of education and having an open mind ! ! !

From there we built a new relationship, priceless :love:

(Last one i went to the police were having none of it, broke the crowd up into sections herded us into enclosed areas and held us there for hours. Havent been to another since I got back from spain, should make the effort)

I’ve heard transport spokespersons from DfT talk about a “critical mass of cyclists” on more than one occasion when just discussing road “improvements”

and then society wonders why people are getting angry and disillusioned and end up turning to drugs, crime and extremism…

I take your point and have been on the rough end of the OB stick for no good reason on a coupla occaisions but . . .

IMO the crack down was a direct result of the violence the year before. It was a peaceful protest until some idiots, who came for trouble, started trashing shop windows etc. The town centre was a running battle field and a hell of a lot of damage was caused.

Front page picture the next day was a bloke (who I knew, good fun to party with but a total f**kin liability when it came to the OB) stabbing a needle and syringe into a horses saddle just missing the coppers thigh. I’m not basing my opinions on the news coverage, I knew him, a hardcore raver)

WTF! There is no excuse for that kind of behaviour!

The OB were heavy handed that day but it had two sides, an i believe (now in my old age with hindsight born of experience) that if we want the right to peaceful protest people shouldn’t pull stunts like that.

I know its a catch 22 but some self-responsibility is needed, if only to lead by example surely

this is also what I was getting at when talking about “infiltration.”

Within subcultures there are too many people, often “angry young men” who are well up for conflict and fighting at any point and its often because of their personal beef with the authorities and its more because they have been busted for their own individual crimes like drugs or theft rather than genuine devotion to the cause…

its like that rave that happened in my county recently, there was no need for anyone to trash the police car when they had already outwitted the cops (who couldn’t actually stop the rave as they had used up their resources roadblocking the wrong entrance!! :laugh_at:)

but one lad who had been busted for drugs and had a financial loss took matters into his own hands, now its entrenched anti-rave views in an area which is on my doorstep, and has a knock on effect when people are trying to get tolerance from others…