G20...

My account of what i saw April 1st

So...i got up....saw ridiculous reports on the tv...headed out the door on my own and decided to follow the silver horse.

London Bridge...LOADS of people there..and we were all in bloody good moods too,despite the rumours being passed around that it was going to be a day of violence...caused by us.

I got chatting to a nice lady called christine..and we agreed to stick together to be each others witnesses..
There were a lot of us and we had a great brass band playing songs for us...banners were everywhere.and we slowly made our colourful and determined way across London Bridge..There was a coffin being passed along...i have video footage of that and i will try to put it all together in the next few weeks..

It'll show you just how things really were there!
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Sightseeing tour will never mean the same thing again to these people i'm sure..
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We smiled at them tho and they smiled back as i took pictures of them and they took pictures of us...each one of us both at the same time taking part,whether it be through choice or not in something  important..something that meant something...something...that was making a collective voice heard!
And there we were...one observing the other...it was quite a weird moment really.
Soon we were arriving at the Bank of England..
As we arrived...HUGE cheers went up into the air from everyone else alrady there,they obviously could see the horse coming in...
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Up til now...the Police really hadn't made their presence felt to be honest...yeah they had been about..but here they all were.
Not surprising really given the sheer numbers of people...!
It was amazing to see,even better to feel!!
Despite what the news may be telling you...to be amongst that many people..who were for the most part there for EXACTLY the same reason you are...feels pretty damn good.
That unity put a smile on everyones face.

Sitting here now...i wonder what the REAL numbers were...how many really were there...because i'm telling you across the capital it was a shit load more than they are willing to say...obviously.

Anyway...i digress..
the place started to fill up quick...and i mean quick..
The police were merrily taking their pictures...whilst we took ours..
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The atmosphere was great...although it was getting obvious to me anyway that soon we were to be hemmed in and christine said she would see if she could get out...
Low and behold...we were trapped!Although they were letting a trickle out somewhere apparently..
Didn't take them long did it.
We hadn't done anything wrong!
NOTHING!!!!
We had all PEACFULLY AND CALMLY MARCHED TO THE BANK OF ENGLAND!

and then bang we were stuck...

I headed the other way..and ended up near the Royal Bank of Scotland...
I have no idea how many people were there..but there were A LOT...
and were were faced with the police dressed in their riot gear..

Now...think about this...
We had all turned up...in happy moods..
Not only had they fenced us in...like animals...for NO reason...
they had now put a wall of police in front of us...right in front of RBS...hmmm?
Why..?

Just....think about that....and please.. draw your own conclusions.

As you can imagine things got pretty wound up..soon the windows were smashed...weirdly it was allowed to happen...
Yet where i was...right in front of the so-called humans bearing weapons...all we had to do was move a bit too much and that was it...battered.
There was even one point where it was really bad and we were hit whilst sitting down...hands up..in the air
I was there for quite some time...chants of who's streets - our streets...followed by who's bank - our bank filled the air...along with songs and loud condemnation toward to police of SHAME ON YOU

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They were pretty nasty but compared to later these lot were pussycats!

Slowly...and i mean slowly things calmed and we were able to "go back the way we came" still not able to get out...
No-one knew what to do..so i hooked up with some people and just started milling about...not going to go into details..
Instead i'll show you some more pictures..
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Everywhere we went we were faced with more and more lines of police..
We had nowhere to go..and as time went on the just squeezed us in more and more.Slowly but surely they moved us violently in towards bank...
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People were beginning to be hurt now..one guy had a tooth knocked out...and bleeding heads were pretty common.
They kept asking us to keep moving...kept pushing us about...

People had been without food or water for hours and hours now..and fenced in like animals..for simply trying vocalise their concerns..
To peacefully protest...
I really cannot see how anyone can justify any of this..

So everyone got squeezed in...
And then out of nowhere...from the side and behind.. Riot police...started attacking people...
I helped one guy...who got so beaten he couldn't see and his head was spilt open...and the swelling that came up immediately was horrific.
No that is not an exaggeration...he was taken off through the crowd and hopefully taken to hospital...

Seems the only way out was to bleed

In that first surge...i don't know how many people got injured...but it was a lot...they just came out from behind the normal coppers...and ran at everyone swinging batons at whoever was in the way...
This guy...got hurt because he tried not to step on a girl that was laying on the floor...
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Around seven ish...maybe before everyone was thirsty...tired...and fed up...
This was when everything began to come to a head..
More and more police were being brought in..
and from the other side we could hear another crowd shouting LET THEM OUT...LET THEM OUT...
To which we would reply...LET US OUT LET US OUT

and as we watched they just kept filing in more lines of police.
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Now...from what i understand...there were a couple of arrests made based on the fact that a couple of people were wearing police uniforms..
I was right next to one of these people when things got hairy...and i would like to state now...that not ONCE did that person utter one word that was offensive...not once did he display any kind of behaviour that could in ANYWAY be described as threatening...in fact i don't think he uttered any words to anyone..AT ALL..!
The odd smile here and there to people yes..but he was not involved in any kind of violence i can vouch for that!
He just calmly filmed what the police were doing!
LOOK...

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And if that looks like impersonating a bloody police officer...then i'm the popes uncle..
And another thing...if this is an arrestable offence..then what about all the stripograms...

Anyway..
From there things got worse and worse...
No matter how many times we stated we just wanted to leave..they just kept pushing us in..they wouldn't listen when we said...where do you expect us to go!
That's when things started to get thrown..and the effigy of the banker was set alight...
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Because of the sheer scale of the riot police... barriers were pulled in front of us..
Trust me you probably would have done EXACTLY the same thing if you were face to face with them...
Bottles were being thrown...the police were ever more violent.

and then they charged...and kept on charging until finally we were enclosed in the square...again telling us to keep moving...we couldn't.

They stopped...and i sat down...exhausted.. with another girl and two young lads...
They looked as tired as me..
But we were still smiling..and then...the police right in front of us...began...being nice to us...

I watched the line carefully and from behind...more kept coming up to "chat" to the ones in front and i felt very uneasy...
I'd seen this happen before...calmness...keep the line there...talk to the crowd...then from nowhere they surge forward and from behind that...a snatch squad will burst through and grab someone...drag them back through the police line and that's it....
I just kept watching..

Strangely..one of the police officers...suddenly said...when i tell you to move....move.
Ok...?
One of the lads asked what he just said and i told him..
Then that was it...no warning they just did it...and yes...in came the snatch squad...
And i still can't be sure if they took one or both of the lads?
Myself and the girl were hurtled back by shields and brute force.. there was nothing we could have done they were in and out so quick it took a second to sink in...
We just stood there absolutely shocked!

Again shouts of keep moving....NOWHERE TO GO...i had had enough.

The once "nice" policeman...didn't want to play nice anymore when i asked what the hell was that about?

Then it was yet again...a waiting game...

Long story short...
we had to stand packed in like sardines down a side street...eventually let out one by one...and then escorted out by a police officer..have to say the one i got escorted out by was actually quite nice to me..

And here's eomthing rather telling...or not...you decide
When i got to the end of the street..
There was a police van there...
Up against it was an old policeman...say around 50-ish..
As i walked past...he turned to me..and he looked at me...with genuine shame on his face and he said...sorry love...

Interesting that...

Then it was out past another line of riot police and out to freedom...if you can call it that..once more...

By then it was 9pm.

There are those of you out there reading this that will have watched the "news" and be reading this and think...that was not peaceful protest...please think again...
We went there to stand up for what is right,and just...we did not go to cause riots..
We did not go to be fenced in and harrased ,nor beaten up and treated like animals.
We went because we have the balls to speak up for what we believe in.

Will it make a difference...?
Do i think that the politicians will have paid any attention?

I really don't know...

How else can we make ourselves heard anymore?

It's certainly not through the ballot box...and don't try to tell me otherwise...
Because if that really was the case...then please explain to me now...
WHY are in in this utter mess we are in?

If the ballott box really IS the way to cause real change...it would have happened by now...wouldn't it.
Don't fool yourselves...and don't let others fool you.

You...and i...have the power to change things...not a piece of paper...

Contact email: imprintme@googlemail.com