I thought we had posted this account but a search of the blog says no.
I failed you.
And though it reads like an Onion parody, this is exactly how it was published. Kudos to the writers.
From The Times, February17, 2005:
By Laura Peek and Liz Chong
Kyoto protest beaten back by inflamed petrol traders
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.” When a trader left the building shortly before 2pm, using a
security swipe card, a protester dropped some coins on the floor and, as
he bent down to pick them up, put his boot in the door to keep it open.
Two minutes later, three Greenpeace vans pulled up and another 30 protesters leapt out and were let in by the others.
They made their way to the trading floor, blowing whistles and sounding
fog horns, encountering little resistance from security guards. Rape
alarms were tied to helium balloons to float to the ceiling and create
noise out of reach. The IPE conducts “open outcry” trading where deals
are shouted across the pit. By making so much noise, the protesters
hoped to paralyse trading.
But they were set upon by traders, most of whom were under the age of
25. “They were kicking and punching men and women indiscriminately,” a
photographer said. “It was really ugly, but Greenpeace did not fight
back.”
Mr Beresford said: “They followed the guys into the lobby and kept
kicking and punching them there. They literally kicked them on to the
pavement.”
Last night Greenpeace said two protesters were in hospital, one with a suspected broken jaw, the other with concussion.
A spokeswoman from IPE said the trading floor reopened at 3.10pm. “The
floor was invaded by a small group of protesters,” she said. “Open
outcry trading was suspended but electronic trading carried on.”....
....MORE
As we've said regarding the tactics used by Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion:
"Is that a man-bun? I haven't seen a man-bun in years?" , wait, sorry, that was a comment on the vandals in Vienna. From the same post:
As with any behavior, if the consequences become painful enough the behavior will stop.
