A positively docile looking Alfie, all dressed up for court.

13 years of an authoritarian Labour government has left us with scant few advantages in our daily life. One of the few hove into view over the December 9th ‘student’ protest.

We have a society under surveillance as never before. CCTV cameras, web cams, mobile phone cameras, a society trained to spy and record. And to be spied upon and recorded.

Unfortunately, there are still activists on the left who feel free to lie and dissemble in their efforts to discredit the police amongst other rival authorities…

Dear little Alfie Meadow’s Mother put up a spirited version of her ‘gentle philosophy’ student’s activities at that ‘gentle protest’ –

His mother Susan, 55, an English literature lecturer at Roehampton University, said: “He was hit on the head by a police truncheon”.

The Independent newspaper, that bastion of fearless investigative reporting, was in no doubt whatsoever of the truth behind his injuries:

The police watchdog launched an independent investigation today after a 20-year-old student was left unconscious with bleeding on the brain after being hit on the head with a police truncheon.

Laura Penny was equally in no doubt whatsoever of the pattern of events.

The message from the Alfie Meadows case is clear: if you protest, the police can do what they like to you.[…] As police continue to crack heads with impunity, peaceful protesters are handed down harsh deterrent charges.

The events unfolding in Kingston Crown Court are showing a different picture from the excitable left wing newspapers – although it was a strangely subdued piece from the Independent, a scant 60 words quietly marking the news that actually, Alfie wasn’t ‘kettled’ and had been free to continue his peaceful protest if he wished. It is accompanied by a horrific photograph of his injuries especially for those who wish to make a knee jerk reaction without bothering to register the words.

Oh dear, Alfie wasn’t kettled, the clash with the police happened a full hour before the kettling, all recorded on a myriad of CCTV cameras, police web cams, and a police helicopter…and not a single sighting of dear Alfie being hit on the head by a police truncheon! How mightily inconvenient. How reminiscent of the downfall of Jodie McIntyre.

Jodie also made claims of ‘police brutality’; Jodie was the disabled, wheelchair bound ‘innocent lad’ who was caught up in ‘police brutality’ at the student riots. It wasn’t just Jodie’s excitable blurb on his blog, detailing his miraculous recovery from being ‘dragged from his wheelchair by burly riot cops’ before reaching the top of the building from which fire extinguishers were thrown at the police below  which ended his ‘journalistic career’ with the New Statesman, Guardian and Electronic Intifada:

It was an epic mission to the top. Nine floors; eighteen flights of stairs. Two friends carried my wheelchair, and I walked. We couldn’t give up now.

When we finally made it to the roof, a feeling of calm descended. I looked over the edge; thousands of students, three massive bonfires and masses of passion still occupied the courtyard. The Tory’s HQ was on it’s last legs. And we were on the roof.

The BBC were in full support of Jodie’s version of events:

He was outside Parliament where he said he was hit by a baton, taken out of his wheelchair and dragged across the road.

It was Graham Mitchell’s* photographs, showing a standing Jodie raising his fist in aggressive fashion to the police and a smiling policeman returning his wheelchair to his brother Finlay – despite claims that he had to ‘push through crowds to retrieve it’.

What happened next shows the level of planning that had gone into this ‘riot’.  Those in the front ranks of the protesters were violently pushing and shoving, hitting the police with sticks.  From my vantage point I saw green workmen’s hard hats being passed through the crowd to those in the front line.  Once those in the front line were wearing their helmets, a hail of missiles was launched from within the middle of the crowd, bottles, paint bombs, scaffold clips rocks amongst other things were thrown at the cops.  Perhaps there just happened to be purveyor of green workmen’s helmets in the crowd, but…..? I saw at least two injured cops being carried away by colleagues.  It is probably around this time that Alfie Meadows was injured in the ‘not so friendly fire incident’!

Graham later gave evidence to the IPCC, which ruled that ‘officers had moved Mr McIntyre based on the “perceived risk” to him’. Yes, they might not have used the approved ‘carer’s lift’ to get him to safety, but they were trying to help him, not brutalise him – this for a man who later walked up 18 flights of stairs to be part of the jubilant crowd launching fire extinguishers on their heads.

Meadows also made a complaint to the IPCC – but their investigation was halted by Meadows own defence team, no doubt concerned at what might emerge. Meadows is being defended by that staunch uber-liberal, Michael Mansfield QC. Should be costing a pretty penny or two. The battle is still being fought out in the media columns, but it will be difficult to overcome the photographic evidence being put before the crown court, showing that, like Jodie, Alfie was at the front line out of choice, not accident, frequently wearing a balaclava to hide his identity, choosing to engage in the violence rather than exercise his right to peaceful protest.

‘He is, with others, aggressively confronting police,’ said Mr Lofthouse.

‘Over this time, as is evident from the repeated clips from various angles, he is prominent in the repeated thrusting of barriers towards the police line.

‘He is rarely far from the front of the large and violent group which launches numerous such assaults on the police over this period.’

The left are still pushing their version that Alfie was the innocent victim of police brutality at every opportunity:

Tomorrow the trial begins in earnest: solidarity from supporters today meant a great deal to all the defendants, not only Alfie, but the manifest and grotesque absurdity of the crown trying someone they almost killed will not be forgotten as the trial rolls on over the next three weeks.

It will be ironic if all their attempts fail thanks to the web of surveillance we are subjected to these days, courtesy of the Labour authoritarians they so thoroughly approve of…