In a peaceful anti-war protest in the town centre of leeds 2 activists were brutally arrested by police on section 5 of the public order act. The Leeds Revolution staged a sponge throwing at an impersonation of George Bush on the eve of the US election. This started at about 1pm until 2:30pm where the police arrived and forcefully broke up the demonstration by arresting 2 activists.
The event was lively and attracted a lot of public support with people more than willing to throw sponges at the impersonations of George bush. No one was being harmed in the act as members of the public were clearly enjoying the event. At 2:30pm a single police man turned up at the scene the protesters refused to stop as it was their democratic right to protest, especially as they were causing no harm to the general public. The young police officer became highly agitated as he knew in current law system in the country he could not do anything to stop the protest. He then singled out a 16 year old female and forcefully grabbed her arm and tried to make the arrest under the public order act. This was a pure tactic to break up the protest by the police officer and singled out a vunerable person from the rest of the people involved. Protesters and the public quickly assisted in holding the girl back from the policemans grasp it was then the police officer in his desperate unprofessional pitiful plea turned his attention to a 20 year old male who was defending the young girl and dragged him down to ground and arrested the young male. Street wardens in the centre of leeds were also helping assisting the petty police officer and managed to grab hold of the young girl by painfully twisting her arm behind her back whilst a friend was desperately trying to keep hold of her supporting and propping her up. This was another example of how a peaceful demonstration, turned violent through the brutality of the police.