Some videos from today’s protest in central London. Bit rough, but mainly uploaded to give you an idea of the police presence, which was pretty excessive and over the top at points. Definitely got the feeling that they were going for a show of strength in the leadup to the Olympics.
First video: police push a woman to the ground. This seemed excessive – she’d just been standing there. You can see the lineup of special police (riot police?) here. Haven’t seen these uniforms before I don’t think.
Not the natty little blue caps, anyway.
Quick look at the police from inside the kettle. Kettling lasted about half an hour. They took names and addresses at the end of it. I was able to leave with my press pass.
This video shows the sort of numbers the police had and their flanking of the protest…people were singing the Stormtroopers theme from Star Wars:
And a video of the protest as it reached Trafalgar square:
This is another video of the protest as people blocked the streets – gives lie to claims that the demonstration was too small for the mainstream to cover. There was a lot of anger here and a lot of people expressing it.
This protest was well-attended and feisty. And certainly overpoliced. Can’t wait for the Olympics.
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I saw those blue-capped shouting characters (who carry helmets hanging on their belts, perhaps in case it rains) at the first day of occupy London too.
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Anyone remember how a bunch of nutters kicked off riots last year?
I don’t blame the Police for attending en masse. Fight the tories peacefully on their ridiculous cuts, but don’t turn Britain into a fucking warzone.
PS I am an ex conservative supporter, I don’t support that party any more and am disgusted by their ‘im alright jack’ cuts which won’t affect their own bupa membership. But equally I will join in any fight by the authorities to shut you people down when you try to incite riots.
“bunch of nutters” being the EDL.
So its Okay for the police to incite violence and tread on people whose lifes are getting fucked up because of the greed and arrogance of the rich and tories.
I don’t condone violence, But that goes for everyone and the UKs history is scattered with far more violence toward the working class and people who can’t defend them selfs compared to the reverse.
This is really, really, worrying Kate. I saw other pictures of police with machine guns. This is not what Britain is about. I will spread the word about it.
Cheers for that, Julie. The more people who know about this, the better.
Bob – come on. This wasn’t inciting riots, whatever that means or is. This was a bunch of NHS users, parents (lots of kids), etc, trying to make the point that they are deeply unhappy with government policy. People should be able to walk in a street and make that point without these sorts of heavies making an appearance. It’s precisely those “I’m All Right Jack cuts” that people were protesting against. How else are they supposed to do that?
Netpol, the network for police monitoring, campaigns against the use of kettles or excessive resriction on protest. People who have been kettled are invited to tell us about it here: http://networkforpolicemonitoring.org.uk/?page_id=424
and help us collect evidence of how these tactics are used.
Many thanks for the videos.
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