G20 Protests - Come and see the violence inherent in the system
G20 Protest PhotosMany words have been written about yesterday's G20 protest at the Bank of England, but I will beg your indulgence for some more as I'm dissatisfied with how events were portrayed in the serious media.
But first off, thanks to all those who sent messages and I'm sorry to those who were concerned for my safety. I'm very grateful to Wingnut who reported my texts and sent back news reports.
Four themed marches set off at 11am with the Bank of England as their destination. I gathered with those following the green climate horse at Liverpool Street Station. It was one of those slightly silly situations where the police, press and private security looked set to outnumber the green protesters. The entrances to the headquarters of the Royal Bank of Scotland were fenced off and a dozen police were there looking lonely. People were freely taking photos of them. I should probably mention that there's a police station across the road from the Tube. (And also that I'm not a hardcore protester. Seriously, not my thing.)
Partway through the march, the green horse met up with the anti-war red horse, and I met up with Hannah from Saturday. Office workers watched from their windows and waved. Towards the end, police started to block off Prince's Street access to the Bank, explaining it was for crowd safety, which seemed to make sense -- having different streams enter the same area at the same time is plainly a bad idea. A few dickheads wearing masks pushed the police line a couple of times, but that was the worst of it. At this point, and others, the march could really have used some stewards for communication so that the back of the march didn't keep walking.
The police line was very loose and let people on one side through, while the main mass bounced plastic balls around. In the central area, there was music and dancing, as well as lots of people just walking about. The idea was to hold a party, reclaim the streets, yadda, yadda.
And then twenty minutes in, we realised we couldn't get out. We walked up to a couple of cordons and asked nicely. The police told us they weren't allowed to let anyone out, wouldn't say why and that we'd be released when the organisers declared the demo over, but they didn't know when that was. We were directed to another cordon which would let us through. Which sent us straight into the middle of two cordons where we both had the personal privilege of being shoved by the police. I was starting to regret having Hannah with me. A, perhaps more honest, policeman told us that it was policy to send people seeking to leave to the next cordon, and the next, etc.
We wandered around fruitlessly looking for an exit. There were a lot of people like us and the police were having to explain over and over again that they weren't allowed to let anyone out. Some people who were trying to get back to work, to doctor's appointments, etc., got upset with the police, who responded in a very calm manner. Plods don't get paid enough to do this shit.
We gave up and found a high perch in the southwest corner which had an excellent view. Later, two girls named Lauren and Jo joined us. Lauren had baked raspberry and white chocolate cupcakes, improving the day no end. (Someone asked me today why more people weren't up there. Not sure, they lacked nerve or maybe vegans need to do more chin ups.)
I saw little violence because Threadneedle St curved away from me, though I did see a bit of smoke, presumably from the RBS. And I smelled funny smells, but that could've been the protesters. Basically, the media spent most of their time on a small pocket of trouble that didn't represent most of the protest.
There were some crowd surges as protesters sought to leave. Really, the most popular chant of the day was, "let us out!" After a couple of hours, a section of the crowd broke a cordon and steamed out towards the Thames to meet with their fellows, during which Hannah made her escape. It was reported as police relaxing the cordon. Hence the instant radio panic, of course.
The atmosphere immediately improved. When the crush cleared, I exited towards Cannon Street Station. Lucky because the police penned the protesters back up again later.
Later on I went to the peaceful sounding Climate Camp up the road on Bishopsgate to detox. It was very relaxed, there was a communal kitchen and it was all good. Until the riot police penned everyone in. I lied my way through the cordon and managed to pull an office worker out with me.
I am still upset. I feel my right to peaceful protest has been abrogated. The whole thing was so bizarre and unnecessary. I go round and round in my head and I can't make sense of the police tactics in detaining peaceful protesters for hours without food or water or toilet facilities.
From my perch I overheard a man saying to a police officer, "I wasn't angry when I came here, but I am now."
