Young Blood: Banking On G20?

When Martin and I descended on the area outside the Bank of England, that we seemed to be frequenting on an almost hourly basis, it felt about as dramatic as The Alan Titchmarsh Show. There were at most, 200 people sitting around, and quite a few police standing across the road.
But the day had a sombre mood for a reason - a board towards the front of the square had been covered with messages for Ian Tomlinson, the protestor who had died the day before whilst trapped inside a police cordon. As the crowd was hushed by people sitting at the front, we held a minute's silence for a man who had needlessly died at the hands of the brutal Metropolitan Police. The silence was followed by clapping.
Word went round of possibly marching past the Courts of Justice to show our discontent, and one organiser suggested we leave the area fairly promptly to avoid further confrontation with the police after yesterday's trouble. It was at this precise moment that Martin stood up:
"I think we're already too late guys..."
Within seconds of us holding a minute of silence for someone who had died the day before, the riot police had swarmed in like a pack of wolves. They crossed over the roads towards us and surrounded the square from all angles, with reinforcements appearing immediately from God know's where. The move was completely unnecessary, oppressive and certainly unprovoked... unless minute's of silence are now illegal under Anti-Terror legislation. No-one would give us an explanation, but no-one was leaving. I simply couldn't believe this was happening.
Is this how low we have fallen? Have we got so far that if 100 people quietly sit around in an area of London, they can expect to be surrounded by police? There would be more people in Trafalgar Square on any normal day! It could hardly have been classed as a protest, let alone a "riot".
We were kept there without food or water for hours on end, with absolutely no idea what had gone round. They had also rounded up people sitting across the road, who valiantly staged a sit-down protest in the face of persistent police violence - a strong show of solidarity. Chants of "Shame on you, shame on you!" echoed around the square, and one protestor climbed atop the now infamous horse statue to wave a "Revolution" flag in the afternoon sun.
As the day wore on, again the police combined the "kettling" process with their shock tactics; standing with their batons drawn, carrying out sudden and aggressive arrests for no apparent reason and even bringing out the dogs to bark the day away.
But, yet again, we will not be deterred by their bullying.
Words: Jody McIntyre, 18.


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