Eyewitness: as events in Los Angeles and Ballymena unfold, more protests in London

With police in Northern Ireland and Los Angeles having to deal with civil unrest Chris Hobbs once again steps into the streets of 'Protest City'.

There was no let up for the Met in the field of public order over the past week as social media laid bare the shortcomings of the overworked police response teams across London and indeed throughout the UK. At the time of writing, senior officers will also be looking anxiously across the water at events in Northern Ireland and hoping that the deterrent sentences meted out in the aftermath of last summer, will prevent any repetition on the mainland.

Midweek protests linked to the Palestine issue have been the notable feature of the past few days, while Saturday saw a leftist ‘Peoples Assembly’ protest against austerity, cuts and Keir Starmer.

Parliament ‘surrounded’ 

The first Palestine protest was slightly unusual in that protesters, sporting red items of clothing in order to symbolise the bloodshed in Gaza, planned to surround Parliament during Prime Minister’s Question Time. The result was a far bigger attendance than seasoned observers anticipated. The ‘cordon’ began on Westminster Bridge and stretched along the front of Parliament before continuing through Victoria Tower Gardens and ending on Lambeth Bridge.
Predictably a small group of pro-Israeli ‘Inserts’ materialised on Westminster Bridge and were swiftly moved to the opposite side of the road, but attracted little attention.

At about 1.30PM protesters began to drift away, however at the gates of Parliament used by vehicles when entering and leaving the seat of our democracy, police made an arrest and, as the male prisoner struggled violently, a crowd gathered jostling officers and predictably chanting; ‘let him go.’ Transport arrived and using tried and trusted ‘extraction’ tactics, the prisoner was moved through the crowd into a police carrier.

As that drama concluded, most of the crowd continued to leave. However, the small group of Israeli activists had moved to the area adjacent to Churchill’s statue. They were joined by pro-Palestinian protesters and police who ensured that debates remained non-physical. In fact, the debates themselves were surprisingly civilised with police keeping a loose cordon between the two groups which, nevertheless still permitted debate.

The only minor and slightly amusing issue involved two pro-Palestinian supporters who must have been in the eighties and who attempted to ‘weaponise’ their mobility scooters and ‘infiltrate’ the opposition. The interactive debate ended when the small group of pro-Israelis left, unhindered, for Westminster Station.

The Peoples Assembly and protest fatigue  

Saturday saw a return to domestic politics when the Leftist People’s Assembly staged a march which was against cuts and austerity. Plenty of trade union banners were on view  as were around 200 noisy revolutionary communists complete with red flags. Palestine wasn’t forgotten however with flags and occasional chants reminding everyone of the ongoing situation.

The march reached Whitehall without incident with the stage having been set up just beyond Downing Street. As with pro-Palestine protests, a number of activists left without listening to the speakers which included Diane Abbott. The revolutionary communists had a quick look at what was on offer before folding up their banners and leaving. As the speakers were introduced, numbers thinned still further leaving just a group of around 500 clustered around the stage.

A return up Whitehall towards Trafalgar Square saw a ‘lonely’ speaker set-up, these are normally positioned as a ‘back-up’ when large crowds closer to the stage make the stage speakers inaudible. The organisers could, justifiably have expected a large crowd of at least 10,000 given current domestic issues but, as seasoned observers agreed, the relatively low turnout was possibly the result of ‘protest fatigue.’

Greta and emergency protests

The inevitable interception by Israeli armed forces of the boat containing Greta Thunberg, fellow activists and ‘aid’ destined for Gaza prompted an ‘emergency’ protest outside the Foreign Office on Monday. Around 700 protesters turned up and took full advantage of the favourable acoustics in King Charles Street to make impassioned speeches and indulge in very familiar chanting.

As the emergency protest took place a small group of protesters turned up in respect of the situation in Myanmar. This group belong to an indigenous group known as the Kachins. Several speeches were valiantly made against the noisy background of the Palestine linked protest but this very polite group of protesters managed to get their point across namely that the Kachins were being persecuted by the Myanmar regime.

At one stage, I left the protest briefly to walk down to Parliament and the Keith Palmer memorial. I returned to the sound of a raucous, ‘let them go,’ chant which indicated that two arrests had been made. Once again officers were surrounded by an angry crowd and then had to move the prisoners through that angry crowd in order to reach the prisoner transport which arrived after about 15 minutes.

The police tactics worked but the hostility of crowd was such that several could feel themselves fortunate that they too weren’t themselves arrested.

Further chanting took place before the crowd dispersed. Alas, for the officers deployed, there was no respite. A further emergency protest took place at 6PM and social media footage showed one individual ‘in the faces’ of police officers.

However, I opted not to remain for the second protest preferring to return home and view the public order situation in Los Angeles. As alluded to above, it remains to be seen whether events in Northern Ireland, Salford and indeed the USA, have any impact on the public order situation across the remainder of the United Kingdom in the days and weeks to come.

Chris Hobbs is a former Special Branch officer who follows public order events for Police Oracle as an observer.

Category: Public Order