massive over-policing characterised the peaceful march of several hundred people
1 unrolling cordon tape
2 collecting cordon tape
3 front of march
4 colourful crowd
5 surveillance 1
6 big guns
7 the march 1
8 the march 2
9 samba 1
10 all sorts of protestors
11 surveillance 2
12 stop
spirits were kept high by the sunshine and by the samba band (9/14/24), and the crowd was made up of all sorts of people, many with imaginative posters, costumes and props(10/13/16/17etc).
the big disappointment of the day though was that the march came to a stop well short of the excel centre at a god-forsaken road junction away from all passers-by and certainly out of earshot or eyeshot of the delegates. what sort of a protest is this? the police are supposed to 'facilitate peaceful protest' but it was clear here that this protest was out of sight and out of mind. it did of course provide them with the chance to continue their total surveillance (5/11), and i noticed there were visiting police observers from 'lothian borders' police, and from 'tp crime directorate'(23), whoever they might be.
speeches at the end of the march from various local people, councillors, and others, pointed out that the arms fair was becoming more and more unpopular each time, and that the pressure is really mounting to stop it from occurring again in london.
let's hope tomorrow's actions and thursday's protest at the vip dinner are more successful in directly challenging the warmongers and death profiteerers.
