G20 Meltdown¶

This morning 4 groups of protesters formed in different areas of London, each representing a different Horseman of The Apocalypse.

The Silver Horseman was accompanied by a gathering that formed around 1053h at London Bridge, for a march highlighting Financial Crimes. Police FIT teams took photos of protesters. By 1102h, 15 police vans arrived at London Bridge, and the first Apocalypse horse emerged amongst a crowd of several hundred people.¶

watercannon arrived outside rbs in bishopsgate

retweetist.com/urls/1245087

Kettle at bank – london g20 twitter

Reports suggest that kettle was formed outside Bank due to a small scale skirmish involving about 60 demonstrators and police. Protestors let off pink smoke bombs. Police were seen using batons to control the crowd. Protestors had managed to surge through the lines and break out but police tightened cordon in response.

1315 BBC reporter Ben Brown outside the Bank of England says: Protesters have been scrawling graffiti on the walls of the Bank. There have been some scuffles in the last few minutes. Some of the demonstrators have been clashing with the police. No large-scale violence but pushing and shoving.

1309 Commander Simon O’Brien from the Metropolitan Police’s Gold Command centre says the 3-4,000 people now outside the Bank of England did not tell the police their plans, making decisions about policing levels “very difficult”. – lol

both from news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7973178.stm

Green¶

People at Liverpool Street Green Eco march were initially prevented by police from marching towards Bishopsgate, but a group of about 400 were able to break thorugh at 1130h.

Red¶

Black¶

At 1130h, around 50 people are outside Cannon Station from the Black Land Enclosure march with one of the four Apocalypse horses. They were completely surrounded by police. A few minutes later, a group of about 150 escaped the pen and moved off quickly with police running to catch up.

watercannon arrived outside rbs in bishopsgate

retweetist.com/urls/1245087

12.25 – Kettle at Bank of England – london g20 twitter
twitpic.com/2od43

13:25pm – Climate Camp: Two violent arrest have taken place at the edge of the Camp and put into police vans parked outside the Climate Exchange, Bishopsgate. At least 3 people arrested in Queen Victoria St, legal observers present.

13:20pm – G20 Meltdown: Riot police vans have moved in at Threadneedle St, police in full riot gear have moved into the crowd, Legal Advisers are being shouted at by cops, before the call stopped we could hear a lot of shouting and a voice saying “police are moving in”.

13.40 report from bibivandersee (twitter) that Plane Stupid had tent confiscated (unconfirmed)

1.42 police seen getting into riot gear in threadneedle street (bbvds twitter)

13.51 kettle in front of bank

protestors inside bank through smashed window nicking furniture lol

13:40 Bank of England – Banner being raised: ‘So many battles against the system and finally it ends by itself’, another saying ‘Stop trading with our future’

witness report on bbc news – journalist for uel today student magazine (american?) – saying front 2 rows of protestors have all been hit with batons at least twice

13:51 Police trampled over people sitting on the ground peacefully with riot police on horses. A guy’s flute was kicked away from him since it could be “used as a weapon”. One imc reporter reports being thrown to the ground, punched and kicked by a police officer, with the cop shouting “It’s a shame isn’t it” as he continued to kick.

13.57 police seen going in with dogs

{1.50pm:
Protesters have broken into RBS and are coming out with computers and files. There is glass and blood, says Paul Lewis. Riot police are advancing on horses.

A “spiderman” has freeclimbed the side of the BofE and unfurled a banner to the awe of onlookers, says Guardian reporter Alok Jha.

1.43pm:
More windows reported smashed at RBS, branch and masked people trying to get in. Chants of “Whose bank?” answered by “Our bank” and “We paid for this, rob the bank”.

www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2009/mar/31/g20-summit-protests

} confirmed by bbc news
14.07 police start to push protestors back outside rbs – starts kicking off on threadneedle street

reports that cctv camera used to smash rbs windows

protestors chanting “whose street, our street!” and “shame on you”

14:11 – police confirm they have tazer guns on standby

14-16 – protestor arrested trying to escape cordon – live on bbc news

14:18 roof protestors arrested

we getting news of 5 confirmed arrests in strasbourg by CRS police from the campsite… village09.blogsport.de from london irc

14.29 kettle moves protestors away from the front of the rbs building

14:36 police say 3 arrests have been made so far

—14.02 2.02pm:
Amongst the graffiti scrawled on the RBS branch:
“Fuck the system”, “Beat inflation – eat the rich”, and “Scum”.
Paul Lewis estimates a hardcore of 20 troublemakers. He has looked inside and says it has been trashed and riot police are inside now. Just to confirm, the RBS branch was shut.

www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2009/mar/3...

14.47 – 14:34 Police reinforcing lines at Bank – an inner ring of riot police and an outer ring of normal police officers.
14:35 People are trapped at Bank and want to get out and get to UEL for the alternative summit at 4:00.

14.51 pictures from twitter

twitpic.com/2ofsj – #imcg20 #climatecampabout 1 hour ago from TwitPic

twitpic.com/2ofsh – #imcg20 #climatecampabout 1 hour ago from TwitPic

twitpic.com/2ofse – #imcg20 #climatecampabout 1 hour ago from TwitPic

twitpic.com/2ofrc – #imcg20about 1 hour ago from TwitPic

twitpic.com/2ofqu – #climatecamp #imcg20 #g20ccabout 1 hour ago from TwitPic

Two Violent arrests at edge of #climatecamp taken through camp and put in van outside carbon exchange in middle of camp – all else see …about 1 hour ago from txt

twitpic.com/2oesv – Edge of #climatecamp #imcg20 #g20ccabout 2 hours ago from TwitPic

twitpic.com/2oed5 – Banner up at bishopsgate #imcg20 #g20ccabout 2 hours ago from TwitPic

At least 25 tents up outside carbon exchange #imcg20 #g20ccabout 2 hours ago from txt

twitpic.com/2ody6 – Tents up at #climatecamp #imcg20about 2 hours ago from TwitPic

twitpic.com/2ody2 - Critical mass at bishopgate #imcg20about 2 hours ago from TwitPic

twitpic.com/2odie – Party at bank #imcg20about 3 hours ago from TwitPic

twitpic.com/2od3e – Party arrives at bank of england #imcg20about 3 hours ago from TwitPic

twitpic.com/2ocyd – Bankers are evil #g20imcabout 3 hours ago from TwitPic

twitpic.com/2ocfc – March on london bridge #imcg20about 3 hours ago from TwitPic

14:58 g20london twitter reports rumours of protestors inside bank of england ad that whole of city closed – neither confirmed

15.00 Police have formed a complete line accross bishopsgate at the north end of climate camp

15.03 police now saying there are 23 arrests

15.07 ben> an attempt to overturn / rock riot polive van is shown on the telly

14:52 Police have been keeping people penned up on Poultry near the Bank of England for the last while. Demonstrators have now broken out of the pen through police lines towards the west.

report from bank of england on Bank of England
www.guardian.co.uk/business/bankofengla...

15:07 Queen Victoria street and Queen Street: 60 people have sat down in front of police vans, blocking them. There is a sound system here too. Other police are trying to push the crowd back towards Bank.

3.05pm:
Police have relaxed the cordon around the Bank and allowed crowds to filter away along Queen Victoria Street.

Some demonstrators told the Press Association said they had seen incidents of police brutality and complained that officers had occasionally “gone over the top”.

“Cops clearly don’t like bob marley just randomly charging the demo during ‘one love’,” Lasthours tweeted.

www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2009/mar/3...

yossarian> 15:14 A couple of hundred riot police are getting shields out of vans on Queen St. / Queen Victoria Street and are starting to push crowds back.

1526 – g20_c4news reports protestors broken through corden at bank of england
police pushed back

15-30 bbc website claims 3000 protestors are outside the bank of england and that several police suffered ‘minor injuries’ news shows protestor with bloodied head squaring up to riot cop and what appears to be a cctv camera being used to smash a window

3.27pm:
Police have now confirmed 19 arrests today, 11 in relation to the armoured car incident, and the others as follows.

1 – threatening behaviour
2 – violent behaviour
1 – obstructing the highway
2 – breach of peace
1 – indecency
1 – possession of class A drugs.
~~-guardian blog~~- www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2009/mar/31/g20-summit-protests

4-02
twitter – olokjha – says police have just stormed threadneedle street 2 mins agobbc news confirms – says police riot squad charged at 4-00 for no obvious reason but that a number of arrests were made

16:20 Bank: the crowd at Bank is now much smaller – a few hundred people are left in a very tight cordon of riot and mounted police.

the bbc has a video of police beating people with batons, and the voice over is saying “the police have batons, but they haven’t raised them yet”

16.29 – bbc shows live footage of riot police charging and pushing protestors back towards the bank of england. report says bottles and cans thrown by protestors. trying to split main crowd into smaller “more manageable” groups

16:35 HSBC windows smashed on East Cheap. Large crowd now at Fenchurch Street.

16.42 lasthours (twitter) reports mass sit down on east cheap and bangers set off (unconfirmed)

from www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2009/mar/3... —
4.15pm:
The “hardcore” protesters have broken through police lines and have made their way to an unboarded HSBC branch on Queen Victoria Street, says Guardian reporter Paul Lewis. An anarchist flag has been raised on an office block opposite the branch, he adds. The Press Association reported a fight on the same street between two men – one wearing a suit – which was broken up by police.

4.07pm:
h2. Police on horses have carried out two charges down Threadneedle Street in a bid to disperse protesters, says Alok Jha, who is at the scene. Alok said everything had been calm beforehand and demonstrators have not been impressed by the police response.

16-49 – twitter – lasthours – someone knocked out by police baton nr cannon st — arrest on Bishopsgate for swearing(!) – - protestors pushed back to bank station 16-56 sitdown on the corner of poultry and quuen vic street 16-59 hundreds of police lining up on princes street

guardian blog
4.44pm:
Things are turning “very nasty” on Queen Victoria Street, according to Paul Lewis. He says protesters trying to sit down in protest have been “pounded” by riot police with batons trying to drive them back towards the Bank of England.
“I’ve just seen a girl unconscious being carried away, her whole face drenched in blood,” tweets Paul.

confirmed – confirmed – 4.49pm:
Someone has been knocked out by a police baton charge near Canon Street (which is round the corner from Queen Victoria Street) according to a lasthours tweet.

17.12 ur32daurt: a girl unconscious being carried away, her whole face drenched in blood. This obv whipping up real anger
h2. Critical Mass

17.19 – bibvandersee confirms builup of police near climate camp
(originally referenced by lasthours)

17.23 – apparently the cops are ‘filtering’ people – looking for some who throw stuff at them and then ran into the camp.
that comes from legal and others in camp

17-31 – they have been mostly doing the opposite, keeping meltdown people away from the camp
massing police on the south side of the camp again as well
police are claiming somebody has been trying to pour petrol over police vans

mara (~yossarian@462.84.6.84.in-addr.arpa) has joined #g20
live reort on bbc – inteviewee confirms seeing the girl knocked unconcious by cops
seems pretty cast iron
bronze command sugests cops coming into camp
yossarian (~yossarian@462.84.6.84.in-addr.arpa) has joined #g20
police say people messing with the vans in bishopsgate so they’ll come in if it doesn’t stop
police gold control just gave statement describing their operation as “proportionate” (!)
not gold – sorry bronze
police intend to go in and get the vans out

17.34
people have let the air out of the tyres
spacehijackers twitter say they’re still being held and only one processed

17.37 – 2 sources say there is a flareup by the corner of the bank
The Press Association reports the detention of "a bald man, who had been taunting the police with cries of ‘William Wallace’ as he beat his chest.

17-57 riots cops at north end telling people in or out so looks like free access might end soon

17-58 we have reports that a line of riot cops has closed off north end

18-17 – lasthours reporting unknown arrest on lombard street

18-19 — press officer for g20-meltdown counts current arrests at 24

From imc-london:

“With a sunny day forcast the Critical Mass bike protest has started.

The Carbon Exchange on Bishopsgate where the Climate Camp is due to try and set up camp later today has been garrisoned by over 100 police officers.

Police are stopping and searching people around the City of London.

A protestor interviewed this morning said “The sun is on our side for once!”

london.indymedia.org.uk/articles/946

Climate Camp in the City¶

1.20pm – reports from g20 london climate camp that 2 people have been arrested though not sure yet as to why

12.30 – A whistle is blown and tents have gone up in Bishopsgate. According to Bibi Van De See – Guardian Journalist at site with activists, updating on twitter, the police appear to be backing off

“Police seem to be backing off … a round of applause and some hugging going on”

Soundsystem has been set up and flowers hung from the tents.
h2. Factory Occupation/s

Others, including space hijackers tank etc.¶

12.40 – Space Hijackers are arrested outside RBS offices.

sh twitter – hijackers officially charged with impersonating police (section 19 police act), taken to west end central station.#g20protest

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7976444.stm

Met Police confirmed that 11 protestors have been arrested.
Tank had police escort.