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Photos of Vigil and Demonstration Against "Shoot to Kill", Monday 25

maquipix | 27.07.2005 23:46 | Anti-racism | London

Monday 25th evening saw another vigil in remembrance of Jean Charles de Menezes, a young man shot dead by undercover police last Friday. This "incident" happened when special anti-terrorist squad mistook this young man by one of the suicide bombers allegedly involved in last Thursday attempted bombings in London.

Memorial left outside Stockwell tube station
Memorial left outside Stockwell tube station

Part of the crowd in the vigil
Part of the crowd in the vigil

London transport workers also joined the vigil
London transport workers also joined the vigil

The placard says it all ...
The placard says it all ...

... so does this one.
... so does this one.

People improvising placards
People improvising placards

View of the demo in South Lambeth Road
View of the demo in South Lambeth Road

A banner in the demonstration
A banner in the demonstration

Sit down protest in Vauxhall
Sit down protest in Vauxhall

Another clear warning
Another clear warning


The vigil was initially called by South London Stop the War Coalition, but soon it become a non partisan expression of solidarity with the family and friends of Jean Charles, as well a show of outrage against the state sanctioned current policy of "shoot to kill", as members of the local Brazilian and Latin American communities took the initiative and started an impromptu demonstration towards the headquarters of MI5 and MI6 in Vauxhall.

Police seemed to be taken by surprise when around 300 people made a quick move to the middle of the road, and so the crowd started to walk down South Lambeth Road towards the river.

With a mixture of crowd determination, as well as police soft tactics (possibly under orders to be "nice' and "respectful" given the circumstances) the demonstration made it all the way to Vauxahall. At some point three police vans arrived to the scene, but were kept behind the demonstration as police moved in lines at both sides of the demo.

Once in Vauxhal cross, and just in front of MI5 building, police finally made a cordon and prevented the crowd from moving forwards. At this point people sat down in the middle of the road for a few minutes whilst doing minutes of silence in remembrance of Jean Charles de Menezes. By this time a massive deadlock of cars had been mounting around Vauxhall, so police started to be more eager about moving the crowd out of the middle of the road.

Eventually people was pushed back into the pavement where minor scuffles broke out when some protesters tried to cross the police line and push forwards towards Vauxhall bridge.

At the end, police encircled the remaining group of people but let out anyone that wanted to leave. Eventually the crowd dispersed without any arrests.

Here there are some photos ...

maquipix

Comments

Display the following 6 comments

  1. Picket the Sun newspaper!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! — Muslim
  2. I agree — Louise
  3. Smart thinking, Louise — Zorro
  4. Hey Louise.. — not a fan
  5. okay then — Louise
  6. not a fan - not a clue — topi