Cardiff cops show their ableist selves at pro-Palestine protest

  • Post last modified:June 4, 2024
  • Reading time:13 mins read


At a Palestine demonstration in Cardiff cops were out doing what cops do best: being racist, ableist tools of the racist, ableist state.

Cardiff comes out for Palestine

On Monday 3 June, pro-Palestine protesters turned out to demonstrate against Israel’s abhorrent genocide in Gaza:

As Wales Online reported, protesters blockaded a Cardiff city centre A road, bringing rush-hour traffic “to a standstill”. Students from the Cardiff University encampment joined members of the community to rally against Israel’s ongoing assault on Gaza.

In particular, they instigated the blockade in response to Israel’s massacre of displaced Palestinians in Rafah.

As the Canary previously reported, on 26 May, Israel rained down fire and death on displaced Gazans in a refugee camp. Naturally, the repentless murderous state did so just days after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Israeli war criminals, including prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Co-chair of Stop the War Cymru Lujane Abdalla told Wales Online that was precisely why protesters were there. She reminded the outlet that Israel has CONTINUED bombing Rafah with impunity:

The reason there was an emergency protest today and there was an emergency protest last week is because Israel has now started bombing Rafah, the only designated safe-zone in Gaza, and it’s the only safe-zone that Israel has asked the Palestinians to move to – they told them they will be safe and there will be no bombing there and no killing there.

What they did after the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu (Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Prime minister) was attack the refugee camps in Rafah and they were bombing makeshift tents, with innocent women and children in these tents.

What we have to say is that nine months on, this isn’t OK. It doesn’t matter if you’re Palestinian or Arab, wherever you come from, we should all be appalled at what is going on. This is why we’re coming out, to tell people that they should also be coming out, demanding the UK stops arming Israel and demanding that the UK calls for a ceasefire, just like so many other countries have.

Violent policing of peaceful protest

Of course, where pro-Palestine protesters appear, racist cops are never far behind. People on X reported how the police arrested between 15 to 17 peaceful protesters blockading the road:

In classic cop fashion, the police targeted a disabled protester. Reports vary, but between eight to ten police violently arrested the protester as he was moving off the road:

Unsurprisingly, as per usual, the police’s raging institutional ableism was on show. Despicably, they forced the pro-Palestine protester to walk without his mobility aid:

Predictably, the police were ready to make up any old drivel to arrest him too:

Did I forget to mention rampant misogyny and Islamophobia? Because Cardiff cops had that covered too, naturally:

On top of this, according to Black Lives Matter Cardiff & Vale, police ramped up their racist abuse in holding cells. Of course, this was out of sight of the cameras:

Systemic bigotry

Yet while the state’s fascist pigs had numerous officers to protect the daily motorist rat-race, it somehow had none spare to stop motorcyclists literally attempting to ram through the crowd:

Predictably, the state’s Zionist propaganda machine-come-local media conveniently omitted this detail:

However, as one poster rightly pointed out, the cops behaviour is neither unusual, nor anything new:

Because ultimately, it’s not just a case of a few “rotten apples”, as the toxic establishment and its corporate media sycophants would have you believe. Rather, the bigotry is systemic:

Specifically, Netpol referred to its report from May which found that:

there is ample evidence supporting the accusation of racist and Islamophobic policing. This was significantly more intense during protests in late 2023. Overall, there has been a pattern of racial profiling at demonstrations that has included not only the targeting of Palestinians or Arabic-speaking protesters but also Black and brown children and young people in a way that has reinforced established patterns of racist policing

There’s a four letter acronym for this phenomenon, which one X poster dared not spell out in letters, lest old Musk-y boy threw a hissy on his pet Zionist-amplifying hell-site. Though we did catch that numerical cipher:

Don’t worry though, the Canary isn’t a media site to hedge on injustice, and isn’t about to equivocate now: ACAB.

Rattled the cops

Following the arrests, the good pro-Palestine people of Cardiff stepped up the solidarity. Folks flooded the police station in support of Neezo, the disabled protester who the police had violently arrested:

Clearly, protesters showing up rattled the cops, because they quickly closed ranks around the station:

Time and again, the cops keep showing their supremely racist ass on Gaza.  However, they can’t, and won’t stop people turning out for Palestine. Until it is finally free, protesters of principle everywhere will continue risking their liberty regardless.

Featured image via Black Lives Matter Cardiff and Vale – screengrab





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