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Comments
Hide the following 10 comments
no blood for oil!
31.10.2002 21:33
500-1000 people blocked off many busy junctions in the centre of brighton, starting with the seafront outside the pier (where the police charged the crowd using batons and pepper spray).
It seems the police weren't quite sure what to do, as every time we were blocked by riot police we stood and shouted for a while, blocking the road, then doubled back and took a another road junction. This carried on for a couple of hours, moving from one juction to the next all over brighton town centre.
The crowd was a real mixture, many students from Sussex and Brighton Uniersities as well as lots of local people including families, and there was a real noisy carnival atmosphere with drumming, singing and chanting all evening.
As I left we were back at the pier blocking the seafront again (about 20:30) and there were more van loads police in riot gear arriving. I saw one person get arrested, as he was standing in front of a riot van blocking it's way.
t0mm0
No blood for oil!
31.10.2002 21:40
500-1000 people blocked off many busy junctions in the centre of brighton, starting with the seafront outside the pier (where the police charged the crowd using batons and pepper spray).
It seems the police weren't quite sure what to do, as every time we were blocked by riot police we stood and shouted for a while, blocking the road, then doubled back and took a another road junction. This carried on for a couple of hours, moving from one juction to the next all over brighton town centre.
The crowd was a real mixture, many students from Sussex and Brighton Uniersities as well as lots of local people including families, and there was a real noisy carnival atmosphere with drumming, singing and chanting all evening.
As I left we were back at the pier blocking the seafront again (about 20:30) and there were more van loads police in riot gear arriving. I saw one person get arrested, as he was standing in front of a riot van blocking it's way.
t0mm0
No blood for oil
31.10.2002 23:45
Revolt
fight the true enemy : USA
01.11.2002 10:05
anti-nazi
Media coverage
01.11.2002 10:06
sussex rebel
the morning after (11:00)
01.11.2002 11:05
Still, by the sounds of things I got off lightly. On top of the aggressive policing i noticed that several police had turned their shoulder numbers inside out so they could not be read. When we asked one about this he was pretty hostile and refused to say whether it was policy - another winked and said 'the wind blew it'
There was also a lot of agression towards those with cameras . . .
Tom
The Police Lost It!!
01.11.2002 19:26
But i really don't they could cope with it, the crowd were brilliant and were not intimidated by the police tactics. My only criticism is that sometimes the crowd did not move quick enough, but i guess that'just crowd dynamics for you.
The article in the Argus was pretty good, one of their photographers got sprayed with pepper spray!
Brighton Resident
Nice.
01.11.2002 20:05
i was well surprised by the quality of the demonstrating. Once everybody got into it, it became clear that the crowd could outmanoevre the coppers easily, and consequently found themselves controlling the situation. Any attempt at leadership was totally ignored, and the crowd communicated and acted effectively without any real organisational structure or hierarchy. More critical junctions could have been held for longer than they were, and hanging around until numbers dwindled enough for everyone left to get section sixtied was perhaps unnecesary, but on the whole i reckon it was People 4 Coppers 0. Nice.
billy bloggs
repost report
02.11.2002 10:01
...Untill the fucking police got in the act! We were all sitting down peacefully and then a load of cops start dragging people off so we all chained arms so we couldn't be moved and they started pepper spraying people and beating them back with batons. We found a hole in police lines so we went a run and then just ran round the city being chased by 20 riot vans. Every time they cut us off we found another way out and kept them on the run. They kept trying to box us in but weren't very successful untill near the end when they trapped about 30 people.
It was maddness I couldn't believe what violent cunts the police were and how aggressive they were against peaceful protesters what bastards. Well hopefull all this achieved something, at least we made our point.
from u75
Brighton
04.11.2002 01:07
I was walking back from work and had decided to stroll around town a bit to catch some fresh air and suck into the spirit of the town and the people again. By the time I came near my place, I noticed a large build up of police cars in the area and decided to walk into the direction where the action seemed to be. Only then realizing what was going on.
I joined the demonstration for a bit, but as an outsider, not having been involved in the activities of the day, it came accros quite pointless to me. The road was being blocked, but from where I was standing at least, without a clear motivation for- or point to it. Like I said, this probably/hopefully had to do with me joining the demonstration in a rather late state (about 19:45).
What might be an idea for next time though is to bring more flyers/pampleths as I am sure there were more people coming late who were equally lost, and possibly also less informed and convinced of the need of all of us to oppose this upcoming war.
Otherwise it just looks like a power thing from our side to people, showing of our ability to block a random road in a random town and/or annoying the cops a bit.... That might all be fun in a way, but clearly not the main goal. So a bit more information towards those who might not yet be convinced or fellow anarchists/leftists...?
I agree with the people who said the demonstrators seemed to control the situation though as all the cops I saw were clearly confused and unsure what to do. Them being bastards doesn't surprise me though as I am sure it does nobody else. That's what they're trained for.
Brighton