stubble

full cavalry charge into a tightly packed crowd.

This is something I've never understood. Being an old campaigner I was usually to be found on Anti-National Front Demos back in the late 70s. One in particular comes to mind. The weekend before Blair Peach was killed by a blow from a Police Officer, we were all in Leicester for a peaceful demo. The number of racist comments from the Police was just the usual 'banter' that was common back then but the demo went off without any trouble.

After the event everyone was gathered peacefully in a nearby park and the leaders of the local Asian and Caribbean communities were giving thank you speeches to us for having come to support them against the threats from the Front.

The whole atmosphere was pretty calm, people just standing, listening and applauding etc. We noticed that a line of mounted Police was forming around the edge of the park and thought nothing of it until they started charging into the peaceful crowd.

Running from a police horse going at a fairly brisk pace was pretty fucking scary - but there was this whole question of why the fuck did whoever was in charge think it was necessary to charge into a peaceful crowd after any possible flashpoint of violence had already passed...

Maybe it was what the Police just did back then, or an angry senior copper hell bent on proving a point but it was the only part of the day that was in any way violent...

Quite frankly, the level of police collusion and corruption is startling.

It sounds from the rest of the paragraph that the collusions seems mostly intended to cover up incompetence....

They know that the tabloids will always take the view that angry hippy student anarchist lesbians were to blame so it seems a no-brainer for them to just fabricate a narrative that supports their own competence and infallibility in these situations.

I have no idea whether your success will actually lead to any changes in policing of demos but it would certainly be a good outcome if it helped in some way.

officers stated six months before the riots that there would be disorder on the streets of London that summer because the Met wanted there to be.

Hmm, that seems fairly conclusive then. I guess if they are in charge of law and order then it's easy for them to change it to disorder by a few clumsy moments here and there....

Alan Bleasdale's 1991 TV drama G.B.H proposes a more plausible character to create this tension. An undercover MI5 operative who as part of a militant union pretty much creates the whole momentum for the strike and the ensuing violence to justify more policing and simultaneously discredit a local political opponent of the then PM.

bleh there's an extra ) that I can't work out how to include in the url..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G.B.H._(TV_series)

Well worth a watch if you can hold of a copy.

Otherwise my money is on the Occam's razor in these situations; incompetence and panic, usually an inexperienced Police Chief left in charge at the wrong moment.

I think Hillsborough gives a good insight into this. The silence that followed and the deflection of the blame on the supporters was the conspiratorial part, but it was just incompetence that really caused the whole disaster.

Do you think there would be any possibility that this exhibition could tour Europe at all?