After that we went down to Piccadilly the police in tail.We satyed on the gardens a while then marched up Market Street.The police blocked us from going any further so the protesters attempted to storm the arndale.A small crowd managed to get in before the police blocked the door.They were throwing people into the posts and walking the horses into them.
We then went back to Piccadilly Gardens,where the police hemmed in most of the protesters and several shoppers in the centre of the lawn.A guy sat on the grass near us was draged off the ground for refusing to move,the police tryed to force him in with the protesters and a fight broke out.They managed to knock him to the ground and he was arrested.There were some small scuffles around the gardens and a couple of arrests.In the end the police forced everyone out of the gardens completly.
I dont know what happened to the people who were hemmed in as we then made our way back to the bbc.After about 10 minutes outside the bbc we were threatened to be arrested for blocking a public highway with an unlicensed march.I was left on my own with my 2 bugies asmy partner took his younger brother to the bus stop and all the protesters had dispearsed.
A police inspector aproached me,he said he was concerned for my children as it was late and the weather it was bad (in fact it was 6.30pm and the sky was a bit grey)and if i didnt leave now to take them home he would get social services involved.Who would apparently place my kids in care.I explained i was waiting for my partner and couldnt possibly push 2 buggies and carry our banners as well,he wasnt interested and continued to make threats about social services.
One of the officers who had seen my partner earlier said he could see him walking back up Oxford Road.At this point Mr Inspector was on his radio probably to social,lucky for me a friend came over tosee if i was alright,he was concerned as i was surrounded by about 6 officers maybe more.He took a buggy and we walked off.
The inspectors behaviour did not intimidate me as he thought it would,but instead angered and disgusted me.I mean picking on a women alone with children,how low can they get.Also Social Services do a very good job most of the time,its people like this who gives them a bad image by using scare monger tactics on the public.Caz

I find it hard to express in words my disgust for how the police behaved towards the end of yesterday. It was they who provoked the turn in the mood, quite on purpose I suspect by suddenly going into the crowd at the Peace Gardens and stealing banners that contained words like "fuck" - I mean, for fuck's sake! I nearly got pushed over by the Police camera man (number 9798) for trying to stand on the same bench as him (not even right next to him) I said to him I would have moved, all he had to do was ask me.. he claimed to have warned me which he certainly hadn't - he pushed me the second he saw me... and from that point it just went down hill. I heard that one person was arrested for doing a Nazi salute when in fact they had made a peace sign at the police.
The only positive thing about the sick way they treated people in Piccadilly Gardens was that many shoppers not linked to the protest seemed genuinely horrified at the police. And for my friends the other positive thing was without any warning at all a stupid police horse woman rammed us with a horse, they managed to move but the horse stood right on my foot and pushed its horrible backside into my face. Number 7132 by the way.

When a crowd chanted that if those being detained in the police triple line (and horses and TAU) were staying they were staying the police literally flushed them out with a charge of six horses and TAU animals. I left the event feeling really quite sick.

With reference to Patrick's scuffle on the bench with the police photographer, there's this webpage dedicated to our ocular friends (and turning the camera on them!):

 http://www.stuartabercrombie.com/police/index.html