Cardiff blockaded again by anti war protest.
la la | 28.03.2003 11:02
Cardiff was brought to a halt again last night as hundreds of angry anti war protesters pushed into the road. In the end police waded in with batons and eight protesters were arrested.
Trouble broke out during the peaceful stop the city protest when the police tried to bring a police van through a blockaded junction. A protester standing in front of the police van was violently arrested without warning, thrown to the ground and handcuffed. Other protesters coming to her aid were beaten by police batons. In the end eight arrests were made, mainly under the public order act.
Around 500 people had gathered in Cardiff city centre to mark a week of this barbaric and horrific attack on Iraq. Many protesters carried pictures of bodies or injured children. An American flag was hung from a statue and burned, to much jubilation!
At around half past five, in the middle of rush hour, the protest moved to the street. The main thoroughfare in Cardiff was brought completely to a halt and cars were forced to turn back. Traffic chaos spread across the city.
After about an hour the crowd moved on to blockade another key junction in the middle of Cardiff. This seemed to really piss off the police. First they got Stop The War to appeal to the crowd to move away, but the crowd wasn’t prepared to cave in to this sort of bullshit and stayed put.
Then they escalated the whole thing by bringing the police van through the blockade. Having sparked a reaction they used the opportunity to arrest and baton protesters, in particular those who they had already marked down as anarchists or ‘troublemakers’. The suddenness and the violence of the police assault strongly suggests that they had set the whole thing up.
The female protester, in a state of partial undress after the scuffle with police, was forced by two police officers to march back across the city centre with both hands cuffed behind her back. The police denied that this was intended to cause pain and humiliation, and said it was because police vans on the scene were full and this was the quickest route to the nearest available vehicle.
The protest continued until seven o'clock, all in all bringing Cardiff to a standstill for an hour and a half. Eventually the crowd dispersed when the stop the war coalition spokeswoman took the megaphone and announced that the 'protest was over', and everyone should go home. Shame on them.
Around 500 people had gathered in Cardiff city centre to mark a week of this barbaric and horrific attack on Iraq. Many protesters carried pictures of bodies or injured children. An American flag was hung from a statue and burned, to much jubilation!
At around half past five, in the middle of rush hour, the protest moved to the street. The main thoroughfare in Cardiff was brought completely to a halt and cars were forced to turn back. Traffic chaos spread across the city.
After about an hour the crowd moved on to blockade another key junction in the middle of Cardiff. This seemed to really piss off the police. First they got Stop The War to appeal to the crowd to move away, but the crowd wasn’t prepared to cave in to this sort of bullshit and stayed put.
Then they escalated the whole thing by bringing the police van through the blockade. Having sparked a reaction they used the opportunity to arrest and baton protesters, in particular those who they had already marked down as anarchists or ‘troublemakers’. The suddenness and the violence of the police assault strongly suggests that they had set the whole thing up.
The female protester, in a state of partial undress after the scuffle with police, was forced by two police officers to march back across the city centre with both hands cuffed behind her back. The police denied that this was intended to cause pain and humiliation, and said it was because police vans on the scene were full and this was the quickest route to the nearest available vehicle.
The protest continued until seven o'clock, all in all bringing Cardiff to a standstill for an hour and a half. Eventually the crowd dispersed when the stop the war coalition spokeswoman took the megaphone and announced that the 'protest was over', and everyone should go home. Shame on them.
la la
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www.geocities.com/bozavine/can/
Comments
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STWC our enemy
28.03.2003 14:16
This may appear petty, but after the police violently arrested peacefull protestors (I am hoping BBC film will prove this, and odd how this happened soon after the STWC threats were ignored), STWC didn't even request an explanation from the police. Instead they used the police tactics to give a 'you'll all get more of the same unless you move' message.
Obviously peace protestors weren't up for a violent ruck like the police were and so dispersed.
In plain english, the STWC deliberatly stopped a peaceful anti war demonstration.
bozavine
police inconsistences?
28.03.2003 14:40
batterd and bruised, this will not stop the momentum and the valuable lessons from being learnt. the STWC heavily let people down last night, leaving space for others to be picked off and treated very harshly. the book is being thrown at anyone who dares to show dissent, we can not allow their bully-boy tactics to deter us from doing what's right.
my thoughts go out to all, stay strong! x.
snooch