when cops change out of their traditional bobby uniform into PSU uniform (the new politically correct term for what is traditionally called “riot gear”) this means that they have been Authorised to Hurt People What Get in Their Way in order to clear an area and anyone who tries being “clever” or “acting hard” is unfortunately going to get pwned.
it doesn’t matter how many photos/videos ravers, journalists or even the evidence gathering team/air support have which show cops going in heavy, by that point they have been told to do so if required and their force will defend them.
Thats why the uniforms change as well, even removing numbers and force crests and replacing them with a single two letter code which most people do not know unless they were into radio scanning or have links with the emergency services.
The senior officers will already have prepared their statement to the media justifying the use of this level of force (and sometimes invite them along to film from behind Police lines, seen ITV Anglia doing this before) its actually a lot more open these days, they aren’t daft and know how many cameras are present but they still do it (in fact the evidence gathering team is as much there to monitor the other coppers as the people they are trying to disperse)
The harsh fact is that many “non-participants” such as locals now support this and some even think “its not enough” :hopeless:
In 2005 I watched this crime documentary on OP trident and saw metpol officers busting these black guys in a car. It was a proper “hard stop” by CO19 (guns etc) and one of the CO19 was giving the suspect a good few boots in the ribs. This was all shown on prime time evening telly on BBC1..
