The final publicly advertised Disarm DSEi event was the "Picnic in the Park" at Mile End Park in East London on Friday. This was a place for anyone still around to share some food and chat about the weekend's events. Around 15 peeps showed up.


But, predicatable as ever, who should turn up but our old friends the boys in blue. These included members of the Metrolopitan Police's evidence gathering L.I.T.* officers, a police photographer and several regular bobbies. Just outside the park was another van load of cops too, thus affirming that we were really are a serious threat to the status quo.

The main aim of the Police L.I.T. seems to be less about collecting evidence and more about intimidating and hassling protesters. By this time in the week the L.I.T. tactics had gone from being slightly worrying to more of a worn out joke and mildly irritating.

But since there was nothing else happening some of our contingent decided to have some fun. The first action was to string up a black shirt covered in pink love hearts between two lamposts facing the L.I.T officers. This somewhat bizarre symbol was both defiant and fluffy at the same time.

The police response was to slowly edge nearer and this time with their photographer sticking his long lens where it was not wanted.

After a short while some of our lot decided to take action. Making sure they were masked up they fled some distance away and hid behind the odd trees scattered about. Then various cries would go up and they'd simultaneously run a bit closer to the cops to the next trees to hide behind. This would happen several times until they were at closest trees to our flouro-covered friends. Then, after a few seconds, cries of "ahhhh!" would go up and they'd all run away again. This bizarre spectacle happened several times.

The final time we all got up to take part in a similar thing. The difference was that this time instead of running away at the end we surrounded Police, held hands and danced around them facing outwards whilst singing the song "Ring a Ring of Roses". The final line was "We all fall down," which at that point we all fell down before running away again and regrouping.

Finally we marched military style, two by two out of the park and into the tube station where those who dared to follow would be out of radio contact with their collegues in the van above.

I have to say that this was not only a lot of fun but also deeply subversive. The police game of trying to intimidate couldn't possibly work in face of such strange and hilarious behaviour. The presence of the police went from being a source of irritation to the source of our afternoon's fun. The tables were completely turned.

I'm not sure who came up with the idea but it was a f**king good one, a stroke of genius in fact. It's moments like these that give me great hope and inspiration for the future of this movement thing we seem to be a part of. So well done everyone. See ya next time.





* L.I.T. Limited Intelligence Team