Hold your coffee, you might spit it up while reading this. Apparently, those folks at Greenpeace never thought to consider that storming a trading floor populated primarily by young, testosterone laden traders might not be a good idea. The Greenpeace gang did it anyways, they took on the petroleum exchange in London yesterday and literally got their asses kicked by traders. On the best of days a trading floor looks like a WWE event, I think Greenpeace gets a Darwin award for this stunt.
Link via instapundit: Times Online - Britain.
“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.”
keep in mind that the protestors gained unauthorized access to the trading floor and stormed it with bullhorns and a variety of props... they were not exactly on a mission to "have their point of view heard", they attempted to shut down the traders paycheck for the day....
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.”
...
Last night Greenpeace said two protesters were in hospital, one with a suspected broken jaw, the other with concussion.
Thanks for the warning!
Bring on the video! :)
Posted by: Jim Logan | Feb 17, 2005 at 05:02 PM
I'd pay good money to see a clip of that brawl.
Posted by: Jeff | Feb 17, 2005 at 06:58 PM
I believe something similar happened when the anti-globalisation crowd stormed LIFFE a few years back. You do *not* mess with city bonuses dude!
Posted by: Richard Rodger | Feb 19, 2005 at 07:50 AM