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.

200 demonstrators detained

!!! No DESi !!! | 09.09.2003 15:58 | DSEi 2003 | Anti-militarism | Indymedia | Technology | London | Sheffield

A small breakaway group of protestors earlier outwitted slow-footed cops and attempted to storm the eastern entrance to the Excel Centre hosting the arms fair DSEi 2003.

At about 2:30pm this afternoon, a group of about 200 protestors,led by a samba band, broke away from the main demonstrations today against the arms fair, DSEi 2003, and out-witted the best efforts of the police to contain them.

The samba band slowly and gently sauntered along 'Jake Russell Walk' running parallel to the Victoria Dock Road. They gayly ambled through a local park and then, en-masse, realised that with a bit of luck, it might be possible to get nearer to the Excel Centre - scene of a disgusting trade in weapons of mass destruction.

A thin blue line of wooden-tops tried to hold the feisty freedom fighters back and waved their little truncheons around. The brave soldiers of peace were undeterred and broke through their cordon.

Confusion, terror and panic reigned for a few minutes on both sides as more reinforcements were called for. A man in his late thirties was wrestled to the ground with about six flat foots on top of him. He was cuffed, roughed up and chucked in the back of a meat-wagon. Protests about how this man was treated was met with violence by Plod and his chums.

The peace protestors realised that they were not going to get nearer to Excel as police reinforcements had quickly been called in. The Forward Intelligence Team had their work cut out trying to record the faces of all the freedom fighters.

The quick-witted protestors realised that they could soon get penned in and made a brave attempt to rejoin the main demonstration but the boys in blue had got their act together and boxed the brave resistance fighters in. Again more police reinforcements were called in and there ended up being as many Plod as there were demonstrators - cunningly tying up police resources.

The protestors were told that they were being held for a 'potential' breach of police and possible damage to property and injury to people. A high-up member of the law explained that the protestors would be free to go when they could all decide where they wanted to go - which was difficult as there was no one spokesperson for the group.

A mobile sound system turned up and was allowed _into_ the cordon to play an uplifting mixture of dub and hip-hop to an appreciative crowd and a bored police force.

Eventually the penny dropped with the police that whilst they had to stand still and act 'professional', the protestors could read, chat, smoke, lie down, dance, speak to their chums on the phone and more - as a waiting game, the police were onto a loser.

After one hour, the so-called threat of a breach of the peace evaporated as quickly as it had appeared from out of the ether and the valiant peace activists were allowed to return back to Victoria Dock Road.

We set off in good spirits and then 'our boys' realised that they didn't have any lads up front and did their best to keep the protestors hemmed in as they walked back to the site of the earlier demonstration - the photos show that it looked like a police demo...

There was a little more confusion as to whether the resistance fighters were actually allowed to go before but eventually 'London's Finest' relented and backed away.

What a result!

!!! No DESi !!!

Comments

Display the following 5 comments

  1. imagine!! — no boby in particular
  2. thanks IMC :-) — herded
  3. I felt the same way — EverAmphibian
  4. numbers game — sheff lad
  5. Re: numbers game — another sheff lad
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