Approx. 5 arrests in Charlotte Square as march headed for rally outside Jack McDonnel's official residence. After rally, most headed for the West End junction of Princes Street and Lothian Road to sit down and party, and shut down major intersection, until assured everyone released. Earlier a rally outside St. Giles Cathedral had been followed by a die-in at 1pm and then a march up to the Castle, down the Mound, along Princes Street to the American Consulate on Waterloo Place (approx 50 people stayed at junction of Princes Street, North Bridge and Leith Street, much to the consternation of police, some of whom were on horses, awaiting the return of the main body of the march from the consulate. *All due respect to a man named Victor for getting those 50 people to stick around and be a nuisnace! Teddies against the war!*). When main march returned, everyone headed back up Princes Street, pausing for a rest for about 20 mins half way down, then made their way up towards Charlotte Square where the bit of trouble at the back of the march happened. Supposedly unprovoked police attacks on Stop The War coalition stewards...

If you were in the city centre on Saturday you would be mistaken for thinking so. The massive police presence at an entirely peaceful march was nothing short of intimidating. The police at every step shadowed the crowd, in huge numbers, smug, silent, and un-cooperative. Erecting barriers they prevented the demonstration from being able to protest outside the American consulate, WHY DOES SCOTLAND’S POLICE PREVENT SCOTTISH CITIZENS FROM THERE DEMOCRATIC RITE TO PROTEST OUTSIDE AN AMERICAN BUILDING? The police were antagonising the crowd at every step by restricting the movements of the demonstration. In the end, despite the demonstration organisers valiant attempts to keep the march entirely peaceful, it seems that hundreds of police, on foot and horseback, still had to resort to violently arresting peaceful protestors for petty crimes (I hear one was arrested for waring a mask, another for collecting money without a licence, another for breach of the peace whilst photographing police action!!).

The final insult came when a police spokesman stood in front of the crowd and spun a despicable web of lies about the incidents, and the plight of those arrested waiting for release. All credit to those protestors who later blocked Princes St. and Lothian rd. demanding the release of the arrested, the same protestors who later went to blockade the police station where the people were being held.

On reflection I have one thing to say to the Lothian Borders Police; "In a democracy the role of the police is to ensure the safety of, and to protect the democratic rites of the citizens. In a dictatorship the police acts to impose the will of the dictator, through intimidation, fear and if necessary oppression and violence. The actions of the police this Saturday were not the actions of democratic servant’s of the people, they were the actions of power hungry children nervous of losing their grip on OUR SOCIETY".

This coming Saturday OUR SOCIETY will again peacefully stand and be heard, I hope that we are allowed that rite.

What are we to make of the police tactics for the demo on Saturday? I have to say that I disagree with Toby. Compared to similar protests, like the Reclaim the Streets/reshape urban space events of the last few years in Edinbuegh their were very few police and the fact that they let the demo basically to do as it liked in the city centre was extrodinary.

I remember the Reclaim the Streets in 1997, where the police turned up, surrounded those who were setting on the raod and refusing to move and then haulled them off to St leonatds - 30or so arrested.

I am not saying 'well done police', but lets be realistic about what consitutes a massive and intimating police presence... this wan't it.

I'm sorry to say that I tend to agree with Toby, only my reasons are different to that of his.

I can only presume that neither of you (Toby & Fluffy Bee) came up to St. Loenard's station where we waited & protested for the 5 arrested to be released. This is understandable as most people would have believed the senior ranking police officer who, outside Jack McConnell's residence, promised their release within hours (apparently they just needed to "process the paperwork"), I did. However I stayed with the group for the duration & I'm afraid to say that we were given deadline after deadline none of which were met. After each deadline a certain number of people would, understandably, leave the crowd. So eventually, at 7pm, we were given a promise that they would be released by 8pm, this was followed by, again understandably, an exodus of people. I estimated that from around the 800 people that came to St. Leonard's we were left with around 300. The protest was by this time rather subdued, with the exception of the drummers ! (keep it up guys), so it was with surprise that at 7:20 we witnessed around another 20-30 police officers joining the 50 or so that surrounded us. Even more surprising was the presence of, to my eyes, 4 or 5 (others said there were more than this in the side streets) armoured response unit vans filled with officers.

I would just like to say that up until this point I too had believed the police to have been, barring the arrests, fairly co-operative.

The need for the growing police presence became glaringly clear when at the last deadline a senior police officer told us that they would be detaining the arrested until Monday morning. I believe that the police were trying to provoke a reaction from this now manageable crowd. I also believe that these orders came from the very highest echelons of the law enforcement agency, if not from the government itself.

Apologies for the lengthy reply, all that remains to be said is that Lothian & Borders police have left a good 300 people angry & disillusioned. I wish them luck in dealing with an all of Scotland protest next Saturday, they will need it.

I was one of the 5 arrested at Charlotte Square on Saturday.

I have to say the police presence was remarkably low key up until the arrests, it had led to a very peaceful protest.

One individual was wearing a balaclava and holding an american flag upside down with the words 'fuck bush' on the flag. Two plain clothes cops stuck some cuffs on him and tried to arrest him quickly without being seen - unfortunately (for the coppers) a group of protestors saw what was going on and clustered around. The uniforms were caught off guard and began to panic as more protestors gathered round.

The individual who was arrested was not told at any point to remove the balaclava or put the flag away, he was simply arrested. I was arrested for asking why he had been arrested - I was only told later in the cells.

All 5 of us were held over the weekend, myself and the one with the balaclava being refused legal counsel.

Charges were dropped against 4 (myself included) however the person wearing the balaclava was charged on three counts:

1. displaying material likely to cause offence (with racial aggravation)
2. breach of the police (with aggravated racial intent) and
3. resisting arrest.

trial is on the 10th July in edinburgh - see you there.