The picture sums the current situation up. To be blunt anyone who is not rooting for the St Paul's campers is an idiot or a scumbag. I went along to the inital demo to check it out. The following thoughts occur:
(1) A few thousand people put together in a few days by people working over the internet is not to be sniffed at. Of course larger, formal organisations can deliver greater numbers and have them better organised, which leads on to...
(2) There is not enough time to faff around with demonstrative democracy when there's a job to be done - if you're going to occupy the stock exchange work out how you're going to occupy it (preferably don't advertise it to the police first) occupy it and, once that's done, then you vote on stuff...
(3) If you were asked to rebuild the pyramids you wouldn't round up 10,000 slaves, you'd buy a load of JCBs. If there is no prohibition on amplifying your voice in the City of London there's no need for a human megaphone - it's just frivilous. If this was anything else but the beginning of something you'd be tempted to think the camp is just mass playacting.
(4) Da sound of da police: According to the Graun:
The Metropolitan police said some "containment" had been in place to prevent a breach of the peace... An utterly baffling reversal of logic. The only purpose of kettling is to give the police total physical superiority in order to provoke and frustrate, thereby allowing them to pick off 'troublemakers'.
The cops made a serious bodge when they didn't close down the nearby shops and restaurants before putting their kettle in place. It meant they had to 'assess' (their exact word) who was legitimate and who wasn't.
PC Brains: Why're you here, sonny jim?
Person: Well it's just such a beautiful day...
Brains: Not good enough.
Regards whether this was collective imprisonment I also heard from two separate plods that it's not imprisonment because you're not being held under a roof; which is a novel definition, one that may have been comfort to Ivan Denisovich.
I felt lucky to get out when I did... Once they weeded out the tourists, I expected a police riot on Saturday. Give them time... or don't, actually, give the campers your support.