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Robert in S. Kensington 717
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Why no coverage of police kettling protesters at the event?
Did the Police kettle at Pride then?
No is the simple answer.
The group in question turned up disorganised and late; hence they were at the back of the parade.
It is normal practice for police horses to ride at the rear of any parade, and to have a cordon of police officers behind them – remember there would have been a large crowd following the parade.
I saw it and it was perfectly normal.
There were plenty of other groups with polictical placards who managed to get to the meeting place organised and on time.
Lighten up.
I’ve seen the pics and the dressing up of the statue was obviously done with a sense of mischievous fun in the spirit of gay pride.
I’m sure many of those to whom the statue is dedicated would have found it amusing.
Yes, I’ve lost friends to HIV, and yes, I’ve had it myself for 20 years.
Well said.
Very well said vversatile.
Traffic cones are popped on the heads of statues of statesmen and war heroes all the time. This is a prank not malicious or thoughtless vandalism or showing disrespect to our much loved friends or family who died of AIDS 20 years ago. It was as likely as not done by gay revellers, so lets not be too quick to play the (yawn) homophobia card.
Oh fcking hilarious.
Had straights done this there would have been screams of outrage and accusations of homophobia.
Statues are there to pay homage and respect to, not be abused and made to look like some obscene clothes-hanger.
I’m all for a laugh, but there are limits.
There are obviously many on Pride that never saw the AIDS deaths many of us have personally experienced.
Surely something can only be said to be ‘vandalised’ if it’s been destroyed or permanently damaged?
It doesn’t appear from the article that there is any permanent damage.
Does that matter?
It just demonstrates the total disrespect some people have.
Sussex police wasn’t so quick to report this was they? They would like to continue their lies and misdirection that it was just gays misbehaving
I expected to read about graffiti and head’s chopped off etc..
But it turns out the statues were only dressed up a bit in clothes during a festival.. haha~
‘Vandalism’~? Are you sure~~?
Vandalism requires damage of some kind.. Check a dictionary.
Misplaced apostrophe on ‘heads’??.. What was I thinking~ :s
I’d find it hard to say that dressing a statue in a banana and some old clothes is ‘desecration’ or ‘vandalism’…
Or that people should somehow be circumspect about it without probably knowing what it’s there for.
If anything, in the West we now live in a world where the ‘word’ AIDS has thankfully little really meaning any more, having been replaced by the ‘word’ HIV and life sustaining medical treatment.
It sounds more likely to have been hijinks.
Personally I’d like instead to read an article about how Pride has been hiJACKED…
Sounds like a juvenile prank tbh.
Whatever the motive, this act should be considered in poor taste as the sculpture is dedicated to victims of HIV/AIDS. Don’t forget that the arrival of HIV/AIDS in the 1980′s not only brought misery and suffering, mainly to gay men it was also a public relations disaster for the emerging gay rights movement with Christian evangelists capitalising on the situation and saying ‘we told you so’. It is only thanks to extensive research into the disease together with a robust public awareness campaign that a major epidemic was avoided. As far as I am concerned HIV/AIDS is not a gay problem, it is everybody’s problem and anyone can get it. In many African countries infection rates approach 25% and yet many of those countries still criminalize gays.
But lets at least admit its a pretty tacky looking sculpture. No subtlety or imagination, why does gay art and art relating to the gay community end up being about male torsos? The addition of a banana and clothes juvenile as it sounds probably made the thing look better.
I’m glad there is at least one person here that recognises that this is not just some silly jape.
This is one of the best comments I have seem written on PN for a long time, particularly this: “As far as I am concerned HIV/AIDS is not a gay problem, it is everybody’s problem and anyone can get it.” Very well said!
I totally agree.
However, this was perpetrated by gay people, on a gay Pride march in a town with a very high gay population, and I find it pretty despicable that these people can sink to such depths.
Had this been anywhere else, or perpetrated by straights, I am certain the shoe would be on the foot and everyone on here would be spitting feathers in fits of apoplexy at the desecration of a ‘symbol of LGBT unity’.
This place stinks of hypocrisy.