Arrived from the east at 16.25 to find PC C290 of the City Police Force and SX103 of the Metropolitan Police trying to push a car out from the middle of the road - hazard lights blinking, a bit of a decrepit old thing, was this the first blockade??

But no, just someone who had broken down on the corner of the Old Street roundabout. And whilst their backs were turned, at 16.27, thirty or so cyclists appeared, cycling slowly around the roundabout. A crowd of people gathered on the north east corner, and at this time there was little obvious police presence, although the not infrequent wail of passing sirens reminded one of their presence. Indeed, wandering back just a block or so, it was easy to spot the vans parked up, hiding in the forecourt of the petrol station or up around the corner.

Another circuit, and the people ran out in the road too! One more complete circuit before the first dispute: london black taxi cab no. 64041 believed that he had right of way and ran into several cyclists from behind. The time now was 17.32.Just prior to this I had been talking to a couple of coppers, asking them how many they thought were here: the reply was promp. 28 cyclists to start, plus around 70 people on the pavement - that made about 100. Not a bad start!

17.36 Coming back around to the northern junction with City Road, a vehicle tried to get through. KF142 of the Met ran over and told the driver to calm down, whilst PC KO318 pushed people away from the cars. Meanwhile, on the opposite corner of the roundabout, a riot van of City Police had drawn up. By 17.42, they had taken the opportunity of a red light holding up the traffic and came running up behind the crowd on the road. Initiially, the protest held back, blocking City Road and Old Street with the help of the police, awaiting the arrival of a band. This occured at 17.47. The crowd then ran off around the roundabout leaving the police diverting the traffic! Incidentally, one interesting addition to the spontaneous convey was a vehicle proclaiming itself the "Ford PROTESTOR" - a police vehicle registration AX02 VSX. There were also many other people joining in, including random members of the public and children with peace messages written on their faces.

However, just a few minutes later at 17.57 trouble seemed to begin. The City Police in particular were overly aggressive, violently pushing people half their size(s) and generally shouting at people. Did their collective memory really go back as far as J18?

At 18.00, the situation with the police was something like this:

• City Road South (towards Moorgate): 16 police pfficers at the junction of the roundabout with 6 riot vans visible further up the road.
• Old Street West: about about 18-20 police officers with 4 riot vans.
• Overhead, 1 helicopter.
• To the East, along Old Street/Great Eastern Street - at least 3 riot vans.
• around the crowd, about 20 or so police, plus 4 motorcycles and a riot van.

Just 5 minutes later, at 18.05 a Section 60 was enacted and the crowd was surrounded, blocking the eastern part of the roundabout but leaving the traffic a lane or so to get by onto Old Street. One person was violently arrested at 18.12as the police tried to compress the crowd into an ever smaller space. He was later released after being charged with affray. WITNESSES ARE ASKED TO CONTACT disobedience [at] riseup [dot] net AS SOON AS THEY ARE ABLE.

Two minutes later at 18.14, the mass was off again! More drumming by the protestors and more pushing from the cops - a familiar story? The demonstration moved around slowly towards the west, eventually ending up coralled on the south-west corner of the roundabout... the road was completely blocked by two riot vans parked nose to tail, and hundreds of people were witnessing the noisy scene.

Incidentally, the police had closed the westbound portion of Old street between Great Eastern Street and the roundabout. This had been effectively closed since pretty much the beginning of the protest, either with very few vehicles getting past the mass or the police blocking the road. It was to remain closed until 18.52 by which time the police had violently attempted to disperse the remainder of the crowd, victimising certain individuals in intimidatory fashions.

Over all, a successful event with the roads shut or disrupted for abouot 90 minutes and loads of police being present to protect us from the ever present threat of "terrorism" - did we feel safe? Are we at war!