Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Blood on the streets as Bush enters via Brown's back passage.

mini mouse | 15.06.2008 22:06 | Repression | Terror War | London | World

As demonstrators clashed on the barricades to Whitehall today, George W Bush snuck into Downing Street via the St James Park entrance. Riot police blocked the road from Parliament Square to the park, but few realised what had happened anyway.

St James Park blocked off by riot cops
St James Park blocked off by riot cops

Token march begins
Token march begins

Cops in control
Cops in control

Barriers get lifted
Barriers get lifted

Barriers chucked
Barriers chucked

Out come the batons
Out come the batons

Crowd gets frisky
Crowd gets frisky

Sticks and banners fly
Sticks and banners fly

Police respond with some aggression...
Police respond with some aggression...

..which just gets worse.
..which just gets worse.


5pm and the usual tedium we'd associate with a StW event began. Less than a thousand filled the square, all but a few flogging Socialist Worker or carrying the party's begging buckets.

As the predictable speeches poured out of the pa one 'Socialist Party' stand even had a stab at flogging silkscreens of Che Guevara at a fiver a pop. Knocked out no doubt in some south asian sweatshop for pennies this surely wins a coconut for global capitalism.

No matter. At 6.45 celebs led a pre-arranged token march the fifty yards to the Whitehall barricade. Constables smirked, Stop the War having briefed them of their limited intent.

Others turned out to have different ideas. As placards and sticks flew, a determined mass pushed at the centre. Police jumped to secure the barriers but to no avail. Soon they were in the air flying over the police line's heads.

Cops responded with vicious baton blows. Fingers and heads bled, stabs were made to the stomachs, people fell to the floor but the crowd pushed on. A senior officer ran the line shouting "No Arrests, No Arrests, orders from the top".

Stop the War stewards now pushed to the front to try and calm matters. Ill briefed cops, not realising they were on the same side walloped them with sticks.

As dusk fell the TSG riot cops took the front line. The crowd responded with a sit down, punctuated with the odd punch up and, relative calm having being restored, the introduction of the usual snatch squads.

Bush came, Bush went, Brown probably got bitch slapped - hell, who knows how the Queen managed at tea.

The only thing we can positively relish it that it's the farewell tour and if we're lucky enough he'll stay alive 'till the end and we won't get 'Old Dick' Cheney in charge.






mini mouse
- e-mail: mini_mouse@riseup.net

Additions

Bush did come down Whitehall

16.06.2008 12:53

Checker was correct. Along with 5 others I left the main demo and walked round the back streets to the Trafalgar Square end of Whitehall. It was lined with Bush-supporters - tourists and ex-pats. There was a flurry of activity just after 7 and then a motorcade came through at speed - Laura Bush could be seen wearing her weird Stepford-wife grin and waving like the Queen. Despite attempts by the police to stop us, we raised our placards and blew our whistles. Shame that more protesters didn't do it.

Seahorse


film

16.06.2008 14:52

 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/06/401258.html

as can be clearly seen on the film, it was the samba band that drew people towards the barriers with their sound, not any 'defiance' by the stwc. in fact after a while, the stwc stewards moved to the very front of the crowd and their members were asking people to move away.

it is a shame (or more design by organisers?) that ALL approaches to downing street weren't sites for demonstration. the fences and road blocks from the mall and round down whitehall were all carefully prepared for bush's triumphal entrance, while the stwc had arranged the protesters were busy down at the other end of whitehall. was this the 'negotiation' that went on? we've certainly seen it before.

i don't really want to further the never-ending debate about such allegations and observations, so i think it's just another lesson that people shouldn't rely on stwc protests and should self-organise genuine and workable alternatives on these occasions. it is indeed a shame there weren't more than a handful of people with banners as the cars went past.

rikki


Couple of extra pictures

16.06.2008 16:14



Above, not here

Smash the War


official met press release

18.06.2008 13:10

press release from met police 16/0608

 http://cms.met.police.uk/news/major_operational_announcements/bush_visit_officers_praised


Bush visit officers praised

Following the visit of United States President George Bush to London, the senior officer in charge of the operation has praised the efforts of the officers involved in dealing with attempts to breach security cordons which saw missiles thrown at police resulting in a number of officers being injured.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Chris Allison, MPS Central Operations said:

"We are seriously disappointed by the irresponsible and criminal action of those who have challenged police, physically ripping apart security barriers with the sole aim of breaching security in Whitehall.

"The acts that we witnessed yesterday were deplorable and cannot be described as lawful demonstration.

"This visit demanded the very highest of security. It was a team effort from across the Met. Officers diligence undoubtedly significantly contributed to making the President of the United States' farewell visit to London pass off smoothly.

"I would particularly like to commend the efforts of those officers who maintained the cordons in Parliament Square during the Stop the War Coalition demonstration.

"What started as a peaceful protest turned as hundreds of demonstrators made concerted efforts to breach police lines and security measures. I could not have asked for a better response as those officers held their line in the face of sustained and unprovoked attack. Facing missiles and extreme provocation your response was measured and professional.

"Thanks to everyone involved in this operation for a job well done."

25 people were arrested for a variety of offences including assaulting police and at least ten officers suffered minor injuries during disorder.

A 21-year-old man and a 26-year-old man were arrested and have subsequently been charged with obstructing police and a 60-year-old woman was arrested and subsequently charged with indecent exposure.

Seven others have been bailed pending further investigation and three were given words of advice. One 20-year-old man, arrested on suspicion of a public order offence was released with no further action. 11 people remain in custody.
Bulletin 0000000890 16 June 2008

x


Comments

Display the following 17 comments

  1. great headline you should work for the Son ! — NMLA
  2. Heartening... — fly Posters
  3. You really should! — Third Camp
  4. Was great — hiho
  5. Solidarity — J
  6. Junk reporting — anarchist
  7. Well done! — Paul
  8. ? — General Degenerate
  9. Bush entered through the front entrance — checker
  10. recognize some peps — benji
  11. No violence — G
  12. USA, BUSH and the EU: same ship — StopEU
  13. ask — Fly Posters
  14. Apologies — NMLA
  15. pacifism = pacified — slow down Gandhi, you're killing them
  16. Violence won't win the masses, we need a programme 1st and foremost — Programme
  17. What violence? — normantebbit
Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech