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PrintApril 1, 2009
Can London Police Handle the Crowds? (updated)
The G20 conference, which started in London today, is off to a smashing start -- if windows, storefronts, cars, and banks are included in the smashing.
According to the UK Times:
Anti-capitalist protesters have broken into a branch of the Royal Bank of Scotland in the centre of London today after smashing windows with a volley of missiles.
With police on horseback unable to maintain control and being forced back, a series of windows at the building were broken, graffiti was daubed on the walls after some protesters broke into the branch.
Hundreds of protesters were seen to converge on the bank, on the corner of Threadneedle Street and Bartholomew Lane, as a total of 4,000 demonstrated outside the Bank of England nearby.
As police on horseback and in riot gear proved unable to protect the building, which was thought to be empty, officers with dogs charged at the crowd in an attempt to force them back. The crowd were heard to chant: "Shame on you" as officers drove them away from the door.
With the demonstrations - carried out by a combination of anarchists, anti-war protesters, environmentalists and others - rapidly heating up, Scotland Yard said cordons had been put up all around the surrounding area in response to "increasing levels of violence".
With police on horseback unable to maintain control and being forced back, a series of windows at the building were broken, graffiti was daubed on the walls after some protesters broke into the branch.
Hundreds of protesters were seen to converge on the bank, on the corner of Threadneedle Street and Bartholomew Lane, as a total of 4,000 demonstrated outside the Bank of England nearby.
As police on horseback and in riot gear proved unable to protect the building, which was thought to be empty, officers with dogs charged at the crowd in an attempt to force them back. The crowd were heard to chant: "Shame on you" as officers drove them away from the door.
With the demonstrations - carried out by a combination of anarchists, anti-war protesters, environmentalists and others - rapidly heating up, Scotland Yard said cordons had been put up all around the surrounding area in response to "increasing levels of violence".
The London Police certainly appear to have more than their hands full. You can watch the Sky News video of the badly outnumbered and manhandled police force here.
American Thinker publisher Thomas Lifson circulated this video of the humiliation of the British police by Islamic protesters just two months ago.
Things could get worse.
Rick Moran adds: The sign being held by a protestor at the G-20 Summit said it all: "Abolish Money!"
Meanwhile, police and anarchists clashed in London as the Summit is about to get underway :
Protesters targeted RBS – at the centre of a row over £703,000-a-year pension payments to Sir Fred Goodwin, the disgraced former chief executive – and police spent an hour clearing and sealing off the branch, which had been closed today as a precaution.By midday, around 60 protesters and police were involved in scuffles, which saw officers pelted with bottles, eggs, fruit and paint. Some officers also had their helmets ripped from their heads and thrown into the air, which was turned pink and red as protesters let off smoke bombs. Police responded by using truncheons, batons and pepper spray.For two hours, a group of protesters pushed against the police line on Threadneedle Street, provoking intermittent skirmishes that left several officers and demonstrators injured.Police used truncheons and batons to beat back the protesters each time they surged forward. Some in the pens demanded to be released, saying they were being denied the right to march, while others set their sights on the RBS branch.To cheers and shouts, protesters smashed several of the bank's windows, writing "burn a banker" and "scum" in spray paint.Police in riot gear inside the bank tackled protesters trying to climb in through the smashed windows.
Sounds like fun. Using a truncheon on an anarchist, I mean. I recommend American police be equally generous in doling out what those protestors came for the next opportunity that arises. These people live for violent confrontation so why not give them what they want?
The trouble is by no means over. The crowd of dimwits will only increase over the next two days. Let's hope the London Police can handle it.
