Solidarity demo interupted by police provocation

A small solidarity demo for the 400+ arrested outside the Sheriff's Court on Chambers Street, at 3:30pm today, was interrupted. A group of what appeared to be mostly (but by no means all) Black Bloc people grouped outside the court, chanting to show solidarity to those inside.

Two, then four police appeared. In what appeared to be suspiciously provocative behaviour they then pulled aside a man and detained him. The police accused him of flaunting his bail conditions from the day before, although he strongly denied this was the case. He was handcuffed on the opposite side of the street to the court and the demo, but then walked into the middle of the street in view of the demo by about 4 or 5 cops. Naturally the demo moved towards the centre of the road chanting 'Let him go', at which point more police, who had appeared in the meantime, moved forward to make a line across the middle of the road with the detained man being put in a car in the middle.

Sensibly the demo did not take the bait, and as a van of more cops appeared from the top of Chambers Street they dispersed in several directions.

At least two members of the demo were then stopped and searched by the police as they left, as the last photo shows.