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| Hipster who attempted citizen's arrest on Tony Blair awarded over £2000 | Hipster who attempted citizen's arrest on Tony Blair awarded over £2000 |
| (about 3 hours later) | |
| He might have quit his job immediately afterwards, but the London barman who attempted a citizen’s arrest on Tony Blair has been rewarded with a sizeable bounty for his efforts. | |
| Twiggy Garcia was working at Tramshed in East London when the opportunity arose to confront the former Prime Minister. | |
| As Mr Blair was dining with friends and family, the DJ turned barman laid a hand on the former Prime Minister’s shoulder and tried to arrest him for “crimes against peace..namely the decision to launch an unprovoked war against Iraq.” | |
| The website that inspired his actions, George Monbiot's Arrest Blair website, has now awarded him a quarter of their funds, a total of £2222. Mr Monbiot explained he satisfied their conditions as not only attempted the citizen's arrest but attracted the attention of the media. | |
| In Mr Monbiot’s words the bounty is deserved for “keeping the issue – and the memories of those who have been killed – alive, and sustaining the pressure to ensure that international law binds the powerful as well as the puny. “ However Mr Blair’s considered response to Mr Garcia, who also goes by the name "Ghoulian Assange" on Twitter, saw the barman come under a torrent of criticism on social media. | |
| It seemed that Mr Blair’s unpopularity with a certain portion of the population was rivalled only by an instrinsic dislike of those considered “hipsters”. | |
| “Can we alter the title of this article to 'annoying hipster harasses Tony Blair. Realises he looks stupid. Runs'? “ tweeted one social media user. As others weighed in with their opinions, it seemed many couldn’t decide who to dislike the most. | |
| What an absolute twonk - some idiot hipster tries to "citizen's arrest" Blair > http://t.co/mjTSvdP7GF | |
| He liked citizen's arrests BEFORE they were cool. MT @TIME: Hipster tries citizen’s s arrest of Tony Blair http://t.co/cHMZEgwa0E | |
| Whatever you think of Blair, he seems to have dealt with the attempted citizen's arrest rather civilly http://t.co/P10IxuOY3C | |
| My Boyfriend Just Made A Complete Arse of Himself In Front Of Tony Blair http://t.co/JSswDH6y9H | |
| Speaking to CNN on Tuesday night, Mr Blair gave yet another “ Teflon Tony” performance, telling the broadcaster such episodes didn’t bother him. “If you intervene - as we did and removed on any basis a brutal dictator in Saddam who was responsible for hundreds of thousands of people dying - you end up with a very difficult set of consequences you have got to face up to “But if you don't intervene, as we see in Syria today, we are also facing very difficult consequences.” | |
| A spokesman for the former Prime Minister told The Independent: “ There is nothing to report here apart from the fact that Mr Blair did offer to discuss the issue – that offer was declined and the individual walked off. Nothing else happened. Everyone is fine and they had a great time.” | |
| Mr Garcia is the fifth person to have tried to arrest Mr Blair. He told Vice at the time: “ It will keep people from forgetting he is a war criminal. I hope one day he faces his charges in The Hague. People seem to think those laws only apply to Nazis and African warlords.” | |