200 Years On

[Pete Grey]

Next Friday is the 200th anniversary of the Peterloo Massacre.

How desperately would a modern western government have to be to use armed troops on a peaceful demonstration ?.

[bigpaul]

I'm more interested in what happens to the human race in the next 200 years.

[CharlesHarris]

Pete,

You only need to go back to China in 1989 for your answer.

During the 1989 student demonstrations in Beijing, the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) played a decisive role in enforcing martial law, suppressing the demonstrations by force and upholding the authority of the Chinese Communist Party. The subject of the Tiananmen protests in general and the military's role in the crackdown remains forbidden from public discussion in China.[14] The killings in Beijing continue to taint the legacies of the party elders, led by Deng Xiaoping, and weigh on the generation of leaders whose careers advanced as their more moderate colleagues were purged or sidelined at the time.[14] Within China, the role of the military in 1989 remains a subject of private discussion within the ranks of the party leadership and PLA.[14] Estimates of the death toll vary from several hundreds to several thousands, with thousands more wounded.

If the Hong Kong protests continue, things could very well get ugly if the PRC government views continued defiance as a threat to its control.

[Skean Dhude]

The Chinese will clamp doen on Hong Kong soon. It cannot afford for these protests to continue as it needs Hong Kong under its control. However that control will break Hong Kong and it will lose its status.

However you should be looking to France, although our LSM is making sure we understand what the Chinese are doing they keep quiet about France where the protesters are being killed by police.

[Mortblanc]

Much depends on what you consider "armed troops".

Where do you draw the line between police, or security guards from this-that-or the other government department armed with military equipment and "troops".

Here in the States the dividing line between "police","government law enforcement services" and "troops" is growing more thin daily.

One year, during the Obama Administration, our National Weather Service was reported to have purchased more than a million rounds of ammunition for their "security force".

Since when did the world need armed weather reporters?

[Skean Dhude]

and the Department of Education has its own SWAT teams. LOL