"To what purpose are powers limited, and to what purpose is that limitation committed to writing,
if these limits may, at any time, be passed by those intended to be restrained?"
-- Chief Justice John Marshall, Marbury v. Madison, 1803

Thursday, February 17, 2005

A bunch of dumbass protesters in the UK went up against a bunch of petroleum traders.  Guess which group got their asses beat.

WHEN 35 Greenpeace protesters stormed the International Petroleum Exchange (IPE) yesterday they had planned the operation in great detail.

What they were not prepared for was the post-prandial aggression of oil traders who kicked and punched them back on to the pavement.

“We bit off more than we could chew. They were just Cockney barrow boy spivs. Total thugs,” one protester said, rubbing his bruised skull. “I’ve never seen anyone less amenable to listening to our point of view.”

Another said: “I took on a Texan Swat team at Esso last year and they were angels compared with this lot.” Behind him, on the balcony of the pub opposite the IPE, a bleary-eyed trader, pint in hand, yelled: “Sod off, Swampy.”

Greenpeace had hoped to paralyse oil trading at the exchange in the City near Tower Bridge on the day that the Kyoto Protocol came into force. “The Kyoto Protocol has modest aims to improve the climate and we need huge aims,” a spokesman said.

Protesters conceded that mounting the operation after lunch may not have been the best plan. “The violence was instant,” Jon Beresford, 39, an electrical engineer from Nottingham, said.

“They grabbed us and started kicking and punching. Then when we were on the floor they tried to push huge filing cabinets on top of us to crush us.” ...

Dickhead protesters like these always rely on the fundamental decency of their opponents.  (Human shields in Iraq is a great example.  They had no problem, standing up to the US, who they knew wouldn’t kill them, but they sure weren’t in Iraq protecting Iraqi voters from terrorists, were they?) So when they came up against a group who were sick and tired of their shit, we get brilliant quotes like, “I’ve never seen anyone less amenable to listening to our point of view.” Because if there’s one thing the lunatic environmentalist movement is known for, it’s being amenable towards opposing viewpoints.”