I don't have the words
I thought the protest would be fun. And it was, at first. We chanted and waved banners and there was music and it was generally quite awesome.
Then of course things started to turn nasty. The police hemmed us in outside the Bank of England. And there were some sort of gas canisters - I don't know what they were, but they gave off weird red smoke and I was having trouble breathing. The group I was with got separated: some of us were outside the cordon, others were trapped inside. I was inside the cordon with a friend, Iain - we barely managed to get out.
So all was well. We found (most of) the rest of our group and headed off to a second protest, starting at the US embassy, then marching to a rally at Trafalgar Square. It was good. Afterward we went for a celebratory drink.
But then we started getting text messages and calls from people who were still trapped. Things were getting violent. There were fires. Someone was down and bleeding. The riot police had been called in. And then we got a call that shattered what was left of the mood completely.
Someone was dead.
I don't know exactly who it was or what happened to them, but it's not so very hard to imagine. Some of the people were trapped there for more than nine hours with no food or water, in a crushing press of bodies with the cordon tightening all the time. I've seen photos of fires, of people bleeding on the ground, people being beaten with police batons.
In fact, here. Have some pictures.
5
4
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1
I don't know exactly what happened. Maybe they tripped and got trampled - maybe a baton came down a little bit too hard. But the thing that scares me is that could have been any one of us. I was nearly trapped in there. Some of my friends WERE, and some of them I haven't heard from yet, haven't heard if they're safe.
I never expected anything like this. No-one's died in a protest in Britain for decades. There's a horrible, sick, empty feeling I can't shake. It wasn't meant to happen like this. God, I'm still trembling.
So I'm sure you'll hear about this on the news. And it's fairly inevitable that the protesters will be painted as the villains. But I was THERE, and let me state the facts for the record:
-The demo only became violent after the police penned four thousand agitated people into a tight space and refused to let them move.
-The heavy-handed police response was completely disproportionate and unnecessary.
And if you're still unconvinced consider this. An innocent person, someone who was simply exercising their right to freedom of expression, is dead tonight due to police mishandling of the matter.
This shouldn't have happened.
[ETA: Just found out that three of my friends were in squats that were raided. One was arrested but released without charge. The other two we haven't heard from yet.]
[ETA2: Tear gas and rubber bullets being used at NATO demo. Kind of glad I couldn't go now...]
Then of course things started to turn nasty. The police hemmed us in outside the Bank of England. And there were some sort of gas canisters - I don't know what they were, but they gave off weird red smoke and I was having trouble breathing. The group I was with got separated: some of us were outside the cordon, others were trapped inside. I was inside the cordon with a friend, Iain - we barely managed to get out.
So all was well. We found (most of) the rest of our group and headed off to a second protest, starting at the US embassy, then marching to a rally at Trafalgar Square. It was good. Afterward we went for a celebratory drink.
But then we started getting text messages and calls from people who were still trapped. Things were getting violent. There were fires. Someone was down and bleeding. The riot police had been called in. And then we got a call that shattered what was left of the mood completely.
Someone was dead.
I don't know exactly who it was or what happened to them, but it's not so very hard to imagine. Some of the people were trapped there for more than nine hours with no food or water, in a crushing press of bodies with the cordon tightening all the time. I've seen photos of fires, of people bleeding on the ground, people being beaten with police batons.
In fact, here. Have some pictures.
5
4
3
2
1
I don't know exactly what happened. Maybe they tripped and got trampled - maybe a baton came down a little bit too hard. But the thing that scares me is that could have been any one of us. I was nearly trapped in there. Some of my friends WERE, and some of them I haven't heard from yet, haven't heard if they're safe.
I never expected anything like this. No-one's died in a protest in Britain for decades. There's a horrible, sick, empty feeling I can't shake. It wasn't meant to happen like this. God, I'm still trembling.
So I'm sure you'll hear about this on the news. And it's fairly inevitable that the protesters will be painted as the villains. But I was THERE, and let me state the facts for the record:
-The demo only became violent after the police penned four thousand agitated people into a tight space and refused to let them move.
-The heavy-handed police response was completely disproportionate and unnecessary.
And if you're still unconvinced consider this. An innocent person, someone who was simply exercising their right to freedom of expression, is dead tonight due to police mishandling of the matter.
This shouldn't have happened.
[ETA: Just found out that three of my friends were in squats that were raided. One was arrested but released without charge. The other two we haven't heard from yet.]
[ETA2: Tear gas and rubber bullets being used at NATO demo. Kind of glad I couldn't go now...]