London Indymedia

Stopping the city.

Guido | 14.10.2008 22:14 | Globalisation | Social Struggles | Workers' Movements | London

On Friday a demo in the City of London was met with far fewer MET than expected. So the mixture of trots, students and activists went on a tour of some of our more wealthy institutions, much to the alarm of the outnumbered cops who got increasingly sweaty over the next hour as they tried and failed to control the crowd.

Outside the Royal Exchange.
Outside the Royal Exchange.

Heading Into the Royal Exchange.
Heading Into the Royal Exchange.

The doors of the Royal Exchange.
The doors of the Royal Exchange.

"You're all a bunch of merchant bankers!"
"You're all a bunch of merchant bankers!"

Meanwhile outside the front door.
Meanwhile outside the front door.

The side entrance of the bank of England.
The side entrance of the bank of England.

Heading down the road.
Heading down the road.

Facing a number of obstacles...
Facing a number of obstacles...

...along the way.
...along the way.

Cameras all over the City.
Cameras all over the City.

Road action.
Road action.

Oh la la. It is le tres stylish French Gendarme...
Oh la la. It is le tres stylish French Gendarme...

...showing these ignorant brits ow to fight with finesse.
...showing these ignorant brits ow to fight with finesse.

Cop, protester, bendy bus.
Cop, protester, bendy bus.

"Take that four eyes!"
"Take that four eyes!"

Look Henry, the peasants are clearly revolting.
Look Henry, the peasants are clearly revolting.


The Royal Exchange shopping centre was briefly invaded with the cops having to seal the main doors and throw the demonstrators out the back. Yuppie dining in the lobby were treated to some loud debate on the merits of capitalism before the protesters were evicted. There there was another bundle on the steps of the Bank of England side entrance as the cops tried to contain the crowd which then went for a march around the city blocking traffic and generally making a racket.

It seems that the MET have a mere 30 million invested in an Icelandic Bank. You could be forgiven for thinking that they were feeling the pinch already. I lost count of the amount of times I heard them on their radios demanding to know when the back up was arriving. One entertaining addition to the Police ranks was a French Gendarme, presumably on some kind of exchange? He seemed to enjoy getting stuck in to what was minor public order event compared to the riots that regularly hit France. So does this mean that somewhere in the Paris suburbs a homesick London cop is crouching under his shield as masonry and petrol bombs rain down from the balconies above?

The demo ended not far from Liverpool street with the crowd being allowed to leave gradually from a pen. Didn't see any arrests.

Guido
- e-mail: guidoreports@riseup.net

Comments

Hide the following 3 comments

not well met

14.10.2008 23:35

Ah the old shitty police, never did do public order policing very well.
The Met probably never came because they were too busy laughing at what they knew the shitty police couldn't deal with!
'Not our juristiction' I imagine was the cry that rang out!

auntie cap


french cop

14.10.2008 23:38

if the french cop laid his hands on anyone, surely that would be assault as he wouldn't have any jurisdiction in this country?

bonjour


International Policing of Protest

15.10.2008 08:54

Whilst at the ESF in Sweden, German police were seen "paired off" with local and not-so-local (Gothenberg, eek!) police, and Danish police were also in evidence. It appears to be some EU program of exchanging cops to share ideas for tackling crowds. Massively wrong on every level, but then thats what the EU is all about these days.

observer


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