Dispatch from Tehran: Riot police on motorbikes swarm the streets like flies

[Joanne98]

By Anna Fifield in Tehran

Published: June 14 2009 10:54 | Last updated: June 14 2009 10:54

Like huge swarms of flies, the black-clad riot police, two to a motorcycle, roared in from nowhere. Wearing body armour and wielding large batons, they arrived by the dozen on the scene of spontaneous street gatherings that had formed across Tehran on Saturday night.

Jumping from their motorbikes into the crowds, they started beating people on the streets and on the pavements indiscriminately, including women and people who appeared to be bystanders. People scattered, many nursing their heads and backs.


Thousands of angry young Iranians took to the streets to vent their anger over what they consider to be a stolen victory by Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad, the firebrand Iranian president, over their preferred winner, the moderate Mir-Hossein Moussavi.

“I want my vote back,” they chanted on the streets, their fury palpable. “Down with the dictator. Long live Moussavi,” they yelled through the smoke of burning rubbish.

The authorities showed they would brook no dissent. As this reporter walked with three Iranian friends towards a protest off Shariati, a main thoroughfare, on Saturday night, a large, menacing group of plainclothes basij – the reservist force of the Revolutionary Guards – suddenly careered around a corner towards us.

“Allahu akbar, allahu akbar,” (God is the greatest) they yelled, banging their truncheons against their standard issue plastic shields.

A dozen men sat on the desk of a flat-bed truck while another 20 followed on motorcycles, all being directed by a man in a suit jacket carrying a walkie talkie.

“Mashallah, Mashallah,” they intoned, repeating the phrase for “Whatever God wills”, usually used when someone has done a good job, as a battle cry.

The group of basij – and other similar groups seen running in military-style single file through the streets – appeared to be trying to intimidate the crowds rather than confront them. But when the situation became violent, they joined the uniformed police in trying to control the crowds, before zooming off to the next hotspot

Continued>>>>
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/7fd41f6e-58b8-11de-80b3-00144feabdc0.html?nclick_check=1

Conservatives are the same all over the world. The pro-God forces came from the rural areas. Iranian rednecks who are pro-authority. Now the conservative Iranian civilians are running through the streets helping the police beat the pro-democracy Iranian liberals.

It doesn't matter what country you're in it's the same everywhere. I despise conservatives.

[madaboutharry]

1. The universality of the small mind.

People are the same everywhere.