This Day in History

[tw]

Originally Posted by DanaC

It became very violent and the police used the kettling technique - At one point there was a charge of mounted police and the crowd surged away, I lost my footing, and end up on the ground, Judah grabbed my hand and dragged me up and out of the way of the oncoming horses.

In earlier days, soldiers would fire live ammunition at demonstrators only because they were aggressively demonstrating. Such lack of restraint created Kent State, the legacy of Martin McGuinness, Brighton hotel bombing, and massive violence in Northern Ireland.

What you witnessed; was that a legacy of attitudes back then? Did authority attitudes (in UK) towards violent and unrestrained enforcement change significantly since then? Was that an example of less violence by authorities? Have better techniques been deployed to avert the resulting violence and aggression? Your impression?