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Bush demo police 'were blood hungry'
Benedict Moore-Bridger and Rob Singh16.06.08
Anti-war protesters today branded police officers "blood hungry" after a demonstration against George Bush's visit to the capital descended into violence.
Ten officers were injured and 25 activists arrested as the two sides clashed outside Parliament yesterday.
Anti-war campaigners claim they were beaten with batons in unprovoked attacks and said the Met were heavy-handed in their approach, despite prior meetings between the two aimed at organising a peaceful protest.
But officers were swamped by protesters after they surged around a barricade blocking the entrance to Whitehall for the President's visit to Downing Street and the Met has hit back by describing the demonstrators' actions as "criminal and irresponsible".
In a massive security operation, 1,200 police were deployed for the first day of Mr Bush's twoday visit to London, with the majority sent to man the barrier.
Officers armed with truncheons and metal batons clashed with protesters as the barricade was "ripped apart" during the 2,500-strong demonstration organised by the Stop the War Coalition, CND and British Muslim Initiative.
The confrontation began after a peaceful start to the protest in Parliament Square. As placards were thrown, officers beat back protesters getting too close. Within two hours, riot police - who were on emergency stand-by - were drafted in to reinforce the police line, leading to even more violent clashes between the two sides.
Amid chants of "shame on you", protesters jeered and whistled as officers used truncheons and metal batons to hit those gathered at the front of the huge crowd. David Jamieson, 21, a student at the University of Strathclyde , was bloodied after being beaten four times around the head as he was pushed into police.
Mr Jamieson, who had travelled from Scotland for the day with two other Stop The War Coalition campaigners - Bryan Simpson, 19, and Jonathan Shafi, 22 - said the level of police violence was "completely unjustified". He said: "I was pushed towards the police line, and as I tried to get back I was beaten repeatedly on my back and the back of my head. My back was turned and I was hit three or four times.
"We did not think that the moment a few sticks came over the police would pull out solid aluminium rods.
"I was here for a peaceful protest - this was our chance to show George Bush how despicable his war crimes are. They are blood hungry - it was absolutely unprovoked."
Protester Suzanna Wylie, 29, was left bleeding from a head injury after being hit by a baton.
She said: "If they let us demonstrate, there would have been none of this."
Mounted and riot police later divided the protesters between two fronts: one on Great George Street and the other at the mouth of Whitehall.
"Snatch squads" then patrolled the area, arresting people who had earlier been filmed by officers and highlighted as troublemakers.
One 17-year-old girl was detained on suspicion of assaulting a police officer. Her friends said she has her A-levels next week. Thomas Hale, 18, added: "It's just ridiculous, she's not the type of person to be stupid enough to attack a police officer. They've got two or three hundred police officers, horses, riot vans, and we have signs and we're shouting and some people have drums."
The violence has sparked a war of words between organisers of the protest and senior Met officers.
Stewart Halforty, from Stop The War Coalition, said: "It has been absolutely disgraceful. We have had more than 20 national demonstrations which have all been peaceful and today we have effectively been attacked.
"It was extremely heavy-handed and over the top. It all turned nasty when the riot police turned up. It was excessive." The Met today said it will begin a " postevent" investigation today. Deputy Assistant Commissioner Chris Allison 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.
"In a number of meetings with the Stop the War Coalition we have attempted to work with them to facilitate lawful protest, offering them a number of opportunities to express their views in a legitimate manner. We have done nothing but negotiate to make their demonstration a success."
He added: "The acts that we have witnessed are deplorable and cannot be described as lawful demonstration."
Mr Allison claimed the protest could have been used as "cover" for terrorists targeting George Bush.
Three people have been charged with offences. Two men aged 21 and 26 were charged with obstructing police and a 60-year-old woman was charged with indecent exposure.
Eleven people are being questioned at central London police stations with the rest being released on bail or without charge.
Reader views (15)
"They've got two or three hundred police officers, horses, riot vans, and we have signs and we're shouting and some people have drums."
No one was attacking the police. People were only looking to express their political views, as is their fundamental right and English civil liberty.
Shame on them
- Andrew Cook, Sheffield, England
Just more evidence of the police fascist state marching on in true 'New World Order' style.
Stand up for your rights and sue for damages. I have been on several anti-war marches and have witnessed over the top reactions from the police before, but nothing like this. The real terrorists and war criminals have revealed themselves as after all we know that the official story of 9/11 is the biggest conspiracy theory and the war in Iraq is illegal. Laws are passed to protect the 'terrorists in the shadows' e.g. hemp and Stevia are banned and Aspartame, mercury in vaccinations and dental fillings and fluoride in water supplies (all known neuro-toxic poisons) are allowed by law.
We can do something about this sad, sorry state of affairs and we need the support of the media. Watch the web site of David Icke as he has got it right!
- Penny Pullen, Grange-Over-Sands Cumbria England
The Police are wonderful, fair-minded and decent.
Unsubstantiated retarded comments from anti-establishment proletariat pseudo-Marxists and Anarchists will not sway the minds of decent law-abiding people in this country.
The frustration of the 'demonstrators' is only greater because the Police did such an effective job at keeping the low-life at bay. Bring on Police power. Subdue the Anarchists!
- Tangomike, Kensington, London
Police thought it was the Countryside Alliance marching I suppose altho' it should've been obvious it was rent-a-crowd.
- Stan, Expat
The way the police treated the Stop the War Coalition protesters at the weekend illustrates just why we cannot trust them with the 42 day without trial bill. Didn't they plug six bullets into an innocent man just going about his life on a Tube train? And nobody has owned up for that yet.
- Albert Hall, Hove England
I know one quite well, although I wish I didn't. It's the wife's cousin.
Thick as a brick, more arrogant than John Prescott on a good day and utterly selfish.
He's one of those, who knows nothing but knows everything.
Steer well clear of all of them.
- Daevid, Dalston, Cumbria
It doesn't surprise me, I was stopped in my car in Finchley Rd, 7 days ago by the 'infamous' riot/armed police who were outside a safe deposit company they had raided earlier in the week. The traffic jam caused by the hopeless Sgt stretched back 2 miles, as I approached the Sgt I said 'you know it's stretching back all the way to Golders Green', he shrugged his shoulders and said I know. 50 yards down the road a 'bully' of a policeman in full storm trooper gear and sub machine gun stopped me and said I was shouting foul language, I said I wasn't and asked for his number, he said I can't give you that because he was special branch, he was very aggressive (I was passive - shocked actually) and just said, you know you're a bully don't you, how many people have you bullied today? At that he shouted at me to move on as I was causing an obstruction (he had stopped me in the fast lane). I was shocked, its just as well I wasn't a Brazilian Electrician.
- Jason Piers, London Uk
Good for the police. This is the way to deal with extremists. We have to pay the police to enforce the law, and to prevent a small minority of pathetic people attempting to enter Downing St for unlawful purposes.
The message is if you don't want to get hurt, then stay away. Or accept the consequences.
- P.Robinson, Northants
The police are the biggest criminal gang in London, I'm not saying that every protester was peaceful but it was obvious to see they where taking pleasure in hitting people. A few were defiantly mentally deranged psychopaths that should not hold a position of authority.
If I was in charge I would have let the demonstration go past Whitehall and stopped and searched people rather than have all that violence take place and put officers and members of the public in danger like that.
- Theo, Herts
Thank your lucky stars SO-19 weren't up front you would all be dead because the police can't shoot to wound. (or exercise restraint generally).
- Jimbob, Kensington
"We did not think that the moment a few sticks came over, the police would pull out solid aluminium rods".
Well folks, you should have had the brains to think of that. You got exactly what you provoked. And I'm paying taxes to fund all that police overtime - which could have been far better spent chasing criminals not hooligans. What happened to the real peaceful protesters?
- Haskey, London, SE1
The police are increasingly arrogant and out of control. One police man for every two demonstrators, snatch squads, mounted police and aluminium batons. All against a protest which is completely justified. They are meant to serve the public not the other way around.
- Andrew Goodwin, London
"Blood Hungry" doesn't seem close to me. I wasn't attacked personally but several times I was goaded by policemen swearing at me, calling me names. Penning us in like animals and denying our legal and civil right to peaceful protest; who can blame some protesters for losing their cool and throwing sticks and plastic bottles? The force we met at the barrier was armed, as every policeman is. We were not. Then they brought out possibly in the region of 20 vans, with horses and then riot police, even though all we were doing was chanting for the detention of of a known criminal (c.f. UN and Iraq) and for our civil rights to be respected.
The police force acted illegally and under the jurisdiction of a increasingly authoritarian governement. We pay them to protect us, not criminals, but as far as i could see all they were doing was beating down innocents for trying to remove (not rip, they started by trying to lift and walk forwards) the barrier preventing us from making our voices heard. The police force is not a diplomatic tool to be used to deny citizens their beliefs in order to protect relations most Britons wish were not so sycophantic.
Beyond this, it is easy to demonise individual, presumably indoctrinated, police; particularly when one witnesses one policeman being carted off by riot police. The real devils at play here are members of our 'elected' Parliament such as Boris Johnson, Jacqui Smith and Gordon Brown for the denial of our rights.
- Thwarted, UK
If the level of bad behaviour was so bad as to justify a aggressive or violent response from the police, how come the level of arrests is so pitifully low? This reeks of the police force being mis-used by the government for political purposes, to show GWB how 'on-side' Brown is.
- Andy, London, UK
This doesn't surprise me. On one of the criminal justice marches I had a nice chat with a police sergeant who advised me to stay away from the riot squad whom are always deployed for crowd control, he stated that they were absolute animals and the police kept them off of normal duties as they were utterly unpredictable.
- Bob Peeler, London
