MOONY ACTION
x | 26.07.2000 09:34
An anti-royalist mass-mooning event outside the Queen's official residence at Buckingham Palace, central London, attracted a couple of hundred people on Saturday afternoon. Despite a huge police presence, which included a few dozen specialist anti-riot patrol vehicles, and an over-reactive corporate media attendance at the event several UK republicans were willing to expose their backsides to the royal family's expansive mansion.
Several people were arrested during the event which began at 3 o'clock on charges of "indecent exposure". Furthermore, several uniformed police photographers (flanked by protective colleagues) backed up by wide scale CCTV cameras, took pictures and collected surveillance throughout the event. IMC reporters learned that between 5 and 6 people were detained by police for exposing themselves. Although they were later released without charge it is understood that police took fingerprints and I-D pictures. Ian Bone, one of the organising forces behind the latest anti-royalist action to unfold on the streets of London, was disappointed by the low turnout with bemused tourists outnumbering protestors by possibly two to one. "It was a complete disaster" explained Bone, a veteran of Britain's anarcho-stunt movement, as he lamented on the failures of the mass-mooning action. A flyer for the event - which had been widely distributed at the recent Mayday 2000 protest - declared: "Drop 'em! It's going to be kecks at half-mast for Britain's doomed royals ... We want 2000 bare butts to make the year 2000 an anus horribilis for the Windsors. Get your arse along there!".
While Bone conceded that the event had "failed to mobilise people" he also explained that police tactics at intimidation were working: "A lot of people were afraid to get their photos taken and there were a lot of police snappers at the action - remember it was all supposed to be a symbolic act to say they're (the royal family) basically a waste of money". Bone and several other participants in the action had been 'escorted' by Metropolitan Police officers from St James' Park (where the mooning had taken place) until they reached a pub in Covent Graden (the heart of London's theatre-land) half a mile away. With a police van sat outside the pub for the duration of the afternoon it was clear that the police were intent on making their presence felt. When an IMC reporter asked why they were maintaining their vigil outside the pub a high-ranking police officer told them to "go away". IMC reporters witnessed several drunken passers-by smash glasses on the ground in front of the doz! en officers who did nothing to prevent them.
Bone was also disinheartened by the media reaction to the event. Sitting in the pub with a pint of room-temperature English beer the man once described by the Mail on Sunday as "The most evil man in Britain" explained why he thought so few people had been willing to give the Queen a '21-bum salute': "It was a humorous tactic but most Brits don't want to do it - there were about 500 press to shoot some pimply arse." While Bone's sense of disappointment was understandable there had been a strong sense of comedy at the action with heated debates taking place between sight-seers and activists. An American woman had demanded to know why such a "proud aspect of British culture" should be attacked and ridiculed. A young woman who had been passing to practice fire-juggling in nearby Green Park had been tempted to join in. "I wanted to know if I could bare my ass" she explained in her New Zealander accent. "The police said I'd be done for indecent exposure, I said that I had a nice ass but they said it would make no difference". In a bizarre twist two Chinese art-protestors, Jian Jun Xi and Yung Cai, began their own action son after the mooning had drawn to a close. The pair (who recently jumped on Tracey Emin's Turner prize-winning 'Bed' installation in an effort to highlight the growing commercialism of art) began squirting tomato ketchup and soy sauce over each other - by the end of their 'performance' they were smeared in a blood-like coating along with half of the photographers unfortunate enough to get within 20 feet of their splash-zone.
At the pub - with the police still outside - Jian and Yung joined in a debate with Bone and some mates: "We're attacking the class system in Britain, the monarchy and the whole tradition of status", explained Yung. Bone - a self-confessed skilled PR man - asked how they had found out about the event. "In Art Monthly", they replied. There was laughter as Bone congratulated himself: "Cor blimey, Art Monthly - I don't believe it".
While Bone conceded that the event had "failed to mobilise people" he also explained that police tactics at intimidation were working: "A lot of people were afraid to get their photos taken and there were a lot of police snappers at the action - remember it was all supposed to be a symbolic act to say they're (the royal family) basically a waste of money". Bone and several other participants in the action had been 'escorted' by Metropolitan Police officers from St James' Park (where the mooning had taken place) until they reached a pub in Covent Graden (the heart of London's theatre-land) half a mile away. With a police van sat outside the pub for the duration of the afternoon it was clear that the police were intent on making their presence felt. When an IMC reporter asked why they were maintaining their vigil outside the pub a high-ranking police officer told them to "go away". IMC reporters witnessed several drunken passers-by smash glasses on the ground in front of the doz! en officers who did nothing to prevent them.
Bone was also disinheartened by the media reaction to the event. Sitting in the pub with a pint of room-temperature English beer the man once described by the Mail on Sunday as "The most evil man in Britain" explained why he thought so few people had been willing to give the Queen a '21-bum salute': "It was a humorous tactic but most Brits don't want to do it - there were about 500 press to shoot some pimply arse." While Bone's sense of disappointment was understandable there had been a strong sense of comedy at the action with heated debates taking place between sight-seers and activists. An American woman had demanded to know why such a "proud aspect of British culture" should be attacked and ridiculed. A young woman who had been passing to practice fire-juggling in nearby Green Park had been tempted to join in. "I wanted to know if I could bare my ass" she explained in her New Zealander accent. "The police said I'd be done for indecent exposure, I said that I had a nice ass but they said it would make no difference". In a bizarre twist two Chinese art-protestors, Jian Jun Xi and Yung Cai, began their own action son after the mooning had drawn to a close. The pair (who recently jumped on Tracey Emin's Turner prize-winning 'Bed' installation in an effort to highlight the growing commercialism of art) began squirting tomato ketchup and soy sauce over each other - by the end of their 'performance' they were smeared in a blood-like coating along with half of the photographers unfortunate enough to get within 20 feet of their splash-zone.
At the pub - with the police still outside - Jian and Yung joined in a debate with Bone and some mates: "We're attacking the class system in Britain, the monarchy and the whole tradition of status", explained Yung. Bone - a self-confessed skilled PR man - asked how they had found out about the event. "In Art Monthly", they replied. There was laughter as Bone congratulated himself: "Cor blimey, Art Monthly - I don't believe it".
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