Parliament Square demo kicks off...
TC | 20.03.2003 16:14
The roar of the crowd drowns out everything else as a packed Parliament Square demonstration vents it's anger at the illegal war.
The schoolkids and students led the way and now at 16:14 the crowd has swelled to thousands of people displaying levels of anger not seen here since 1990 and the Poll Tax rebellion.
The crowd is expected to take over the whole of the Westminster area as workers leave their workplaces at 5PM.
The schoolkids and students led the way and now at 16:14 the crowd has swelled to thousands of people displaying levels of anger not seen here since 1990 and the Poll Tax rebellion.
The crowd is expected to take over the whole of the Westminster area as workers leave their workplaces at 5PM.
TC
Comments
Hide the following 12 comments
remain calm
20.03.2003 16:27
The police will not behave in a heavy handed manner if you peacefully protest. If you start smashing up buildings, or throwing bottles at police lines then of course you will be subjected to assertive crowd control methods.
Disuade anyone who is contemplating violent protest from doing so. Also, you do not need to block traffic to make your point on a demo.
truth, justice, freedom
Remain calm, but...
20.03.2003 17:02
If you become stuck in a traffic jam, turn off your engine.
Non Violence
Be non-violent -- just like Bush and Blair!
20.03.2003 18:29
I also believe that our movement should be non-violent. I fact, we should try to be as non-violent as the imperialists are who are attacking Iraq now. Of course, we don't have nearly enough ordinance to be as non-violent as our ruling-clas enemy, but we should try!
To prove that we're non-violent, we should make sure that the number of imperialist politicians and pro-war capitalist vermin who are killed in the struggle doesn't exceed the number of Iraqis killed by them.
Anti-warrior
new American rap song - We've been bushwacked
20.03.2003 19:34
jennifer taylor
e-mail:
jhebdentaylor@yahoo.com
Pigs will be Pigs
20.03.2003 19:58
"Remember that many of the officers drafted in to maintain order are probably as opposed to this pointless conflict as you are."
the war is the 'order'; the system of world rule by its current hyper power, the US. by stopping any potantial challenge to the government you are 'maintaingin order' in the sense that you are allowing it to operate to continue to kill people, and therefore you are a complicit pig.
" Also remember that peacefull protest against the tyranny of government is fully supported in the UK. "
peacful meaning inneffective, violent meaning effective riot? why did the poll tax get dropped again?
"The police will not behave in a heavy handed manner if you peacefully protest."
the pigs are pigs and will quite clearly do what ever they want. be sensible. if someone hits you you huit them back. if they are padded you need padding. it they are tooled up you need tooling up.
" If you start smashing up buildings, "
ie. not harming anyone
"then of course you will be subjected to assertive crowd control methods. "
ie, you will be attacked by the pigs.
"Also, you do not need to block traffic to make your point on a demo. "
but you'll cease to make any point at all if its permitted by the state's agents.
steve
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Parliament Square Protest
20.03.2003 20:08
I also saw police trying to provoke protesters and trying to get them into fights (pointing at people and saying "oi, you, do you want a fight then - come here")
Another thing to set straight, i've heard news reports of "hundreds" of schoolchildren in Parliament Square - it was nearer thousands.
Student
Keep up the great work!!
20.03.2003 20:33
Blair will crumble.
Blair will crumlbe.
Blair will crumble.
Block traffic!
Bring Bussiness as usual to a grinding halt!
John
John
Wow
20.03.2003 20:33
To be honest, I thought the policing wasnt too over the top, although I did see some officers getting increasingly pissed off, and taking it out on us. And also, corralling the protesters in Parliament Square was unneccessary. But I think they dealt with the sit-downs pretty well. I took part in most of them, and the worst that happened was I got dragged onto the pavement. They let them go on for a while, so nobody was too unhappy.
I really hope that everyone will be back Saturday, I certainly will be.
Josh Hall
nonsense
20.03.2003 21:22
Blair doesnt represent this nation in spirit. He's already sold out the british people.
truth, justice, freedom
violent policing
20.03.2003 21:45
One young girl collapsed unconcious after police attempted to physically push protestors off the road. She recovered conciousness within 5 minutes or so. It was soon after this that police backed off and allowed protestors to occupy the roads.
If the metropolitan police continue to behave in such a heavy handed manner to schoolchildren, kids as young as 10 or 12, then it is only a matter of time before someone is seriously hurt or even killed.
mark
police brutality
21.03.2003 00:03
a girl i know was hit in the face by a policeman, two other girls are nursing some of the most severely bruised arms ive seen in a long time - and a possible broken wrist (by having their arms locked behind their backs and then being dragged off) another boy i know was also hit in the face - by the same police office, and pretty much everyone i spoke to had been kicked by police at some point, many during the initial "sit down, stop the war" phase where we blocked the roads.
all in all a lot of excess force was used, for very little purpose as i can see, as in the end the police withdrew to the edges of the square anyway.
still the presence of an absolutely amazing drum group at the end helped pick up my day at least a bit :)
john hackett
Photos
21.03.2003 18:57
Katie