G20 Summit Next Week

gpc1 said:
Take the hunting marches. You had all sorts, yet when it kicked off it was the general law abiding citizens that felt so passionately and weren’t listened to. It took a peaceful march and some serious police intimidation to turn them into so called thugs and crims.
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Well that's BS frankly....I grew up in 'hunting country' and it does not take any police intimidation to turn those particular so-called protestors into thugs.
 
A legal helpline has been set up for photographers and journalists who need advice when dealing with police during the G20 protests in London.

'Photographers in particular have faced heavy-handed policing in recent months,' states the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) which will have lawyers on call until 5.30pm on 2 April.

'The NUJ is concerned that the police could hamper journalists covering protests against the G20 summit of world leaders in London,' adds the union's website.
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source
 
Well - I managed to walk towork from Liverpool Street to Holborn this morning, and not once did I get eaten by an anarchist.

I assume they're still in bed or too stoned.

I took a few pics of the Bonk Of England and surrounds - a few boarded-up shops and whatnot, but I most certainly wasn't the only one with the idea.
 
they arrive this afternoon! *makes scary ghost noises*
 
lol.

well I live up by the american embassy. this place has been in lock down since late last night.

apparently I might need ID to get in/out of my flat!:eek: But atm in britain you don't HAVE to carry ID by law, so I expect to kick up a fuss instead! -Annoying when I am trying to get to colledge!

also, the only police car to have passed was going in the opposite direction from the protests!
 
what also annoyed me is that one of the two presidential helicopters flew over my roof last night, really rather low! But it was too dark and cloudy to get a shot:(
 
Looks like it's starting to kick off at RBS on threadneedle st. Sounds like there are more police than rioters though so don't expect too much to come of it.

Tasers at the ready...
 
Saw a tweet saying "there's so many photographers out in The City, it's like a Brighton Flickr meet" :D
 
bingo!.jpg
 
AleksanderLoesch said:
lol.

well I live up by the american embassy. this place has been in lock down since late last night.

apparently I might need ID to get in/out of my flat!:eek: But atm in britain you don't HAVE to carry ID by law, so I expect to kick up a fuss instead! -Annoying when I am trying to get to colledge!

also, the only police car to have passed was going in the opposite direction from the protests!
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Where did you hear that?
 
Well that was all rather interesting. Headed down to Moorgate at around 10:30 this morning and followed the protestors to Bank. It was all pretty jovial to start with, jazz band, smiles and laughs all round, but as an earlier post said there were more togs and camera crews athan protesters, one guy who was trying to rally his troops shouted over the loud speaker, 'We're supposed to be an f'ing protest, but there's too many togs around, get them out of f'ing the way'.

It started getting a little ugly around 1pm, when a group of police seemed to get a bit cut off a bit, then a whole load of portesters in blacks masks charged the police lines. At which point had to get back to work - looking at the news kicked off a bit since then

Any when I get home I'll post some shots, although I've got to go back that way so may try and get a few more :)
 
I'd have loved a shot of Russel Brand getting his talentless head caved in by a copper. Scruffy ****.
 
had to laugh at all the photographers in with the protesters, they made up about 60% of the front line lol
 
Humm considering heading over that way, Trafalgar at least.....will see if the sunshine hold out and what it sounds like on the radio on the way home....
 
BTW Myky, the drum on that bingo card is spelt wrong...it should be DJEMBE :D
 
BBC footage of a couple of plonkers smashing up an (empty) RBS branch while about 30 people with big fancy DSLRs gather around taking pictures of them. No signs of police intervention, so a nice 'violent anarchist' photo op for the journos (one presumes)

Meanwhile cops in riot gear pen in a fairly large but apparently non-violent crowd trying to leave the area and then start visibly whacking them with batons while the BBC guy says that the cops aren't using batons. (He may not be able to see what his cameraman can to be fair). Again lots of DSLRs present in the crowd, so no doubt pictures of this will be in circulation eventually.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7977063.stm
 
Druid said:
BBC footage of a couple of plonkers smashing up an (empty) RBS branch while about 30 people with big fancy DSLRs gather around taking pictures of them. No signs of police intervention, so a nice 'violent anarchist' photo op for the journos (one presumes)

Meanwhile the cops pen in a fairly large but apparently non-violent crowd trying to leave the area and then start visibly whacking them with batons while the BBC guy says that the cops aren't using batons. Again lots of DSLRs present in the crowd, so no doubt pictures of this will be in circulation eventually.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7977063.stm
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A couple of police officers were hitting the backs of their shields with the batons whilst pushing protesters back who were pushing them in the first place, but nice way to twist things.

Also noticed one "Protester" pulling a scarf up to hide his face.
 
I'm all for freedom of expression, but that's all getting a bit silly. I hope they've rounded up the criminals and vandals and thrown them in the back of a nice comfy paddy wagon.
 
Ah, is that what it was. I could see the batons going up and down, so it looked like they were whacking people to me.

edited to add. Just looked again. Still looks like at least some of them are whacking people although I can see some shield beating going on further back.

Check the officer at the far end of the police line for example, his baton is ending its swing well into the crowd ahead of him.
 
Got to laugh at the chumps who smashed the window while surrounded by a hundred or so DSLRs. Got evidence?
 
Myky D said:
I understood the spelling of djembi to be pretty fluid.

Digeridoo is spelt wrong wrong, though hahahahaha
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Every book I've ever seen has it spelt 'Djembe'...although I don't tend to refer to the 'manuals' much anymore :lol:

I don't play the Digeridoo though, so I couldn't comment :D


As for an uberlawyer, and punishment for these actions...no doubt most will get away with it. They always seem to.
 
ChrisMClark said:
Every book I've ever seen has it spelt 'Djembe'...although I don't tend to refer to the 'manuals' much anymore :lol:

I don't play the Digeridoo though, so I couldn't comment :D


As for an uberlawyer, and punishment for these actions...no doubt most will get away with it. They always seem to.
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I've always spelled it djembi - I used to play it reasonably badly.

As for the protests - the problem is, now that it's been so hyped, trouble has got to be seen to have happened, in order to justify all the hype and consequent preparation.

They should have held it in the middle of nowhere in Scotland again. Inclement weather and lack of available fast-food joints does wonders for the consideration of one's protest.
 
In general though it seems to have been pretty peaceful. Nothing you could credibly call a 'riot' and certainly nothing that remotely lived up to all the hyper-exaggerated media hysteria about 'anarchist carnage' over the last few weeks.

The only aggro seems to have been in the City and that seems relatively minor stuff: a bit of property damage for RBS and HSBC, the police penning in groups of demonstrators and shoving them around with some blows exchanged but apparently with no serious injuries on either side and only a few arrests so far.

People elsewhere though were still talking about a 'carnival atmosphere' and generally having a pretty good time it seems. So unless it suddenly turns into the Tienamen Square massacre in the next hour or so, it sounds like the threat to civilisation as we know it was greatly exaggerated, for whatever reason ...
 
Ah b****r it, sun is shining, other half isn't home for a few hours....I'm gonna go check it out.....
 
mid_gen said:
Ah b****r it, sun is shining, other half isn't home for a few hours....I'm gonna go check it out.....
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You might want to stay away from the Bank of England. I'm told that the police still have a whole bunch of people penned in and unless they let them disperse, as they have elsewhere, things may get ugly when enough of them really badly want to go to the toilet.
 
They were still penned in about an hour ago by riot police and horses and the police had set up cordons so you couldn't get within 300 yards of them. May have been fairly carnival like but the police looked absolutely knackered.

Funny but there were a group of revolutionaries or anarchists or whatever they are having a coffee in starbucks as I passed - think times have changed a bit.
 
Have spent some time in the "pen". It got a bit grumpy at lunchtime when a load of people broke out and I followed.

It's a bit of a weird protest to be honest - very confused with lots of angry people, but they are all angry at different things.

Having a break right now on a park bench using the City-wide wifi for a connection. Coolio.

Some pics:

#1 Guy getting arrested
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#2 Demo moves from Liverpool street. Climbed some handy scaffolding for this one
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#3 The devil and his mate make an appearance
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#4 Watchers on the roof of the RBS building.
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#5 Bit of a party on as an impromptu disco kicks off
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Aside from a few sprouts being thrown I've not seen any serious violence. Police are out in force and whilst they had an epic fail attempting to corral everyone in at lunchtime they seem to have the upper hand now.

I'll hang about for a while to see if anything kicks off later (if England lose the footie for example).

Tobers
 
I'm just walking up the Strand. 20 odd mounted police just gone past but nothing exciting. Will probably get hungry and give up before i get to the city haha
 
Sounds like a fairly large group of people near the BoE are still penned (it's been several hours now) and are getting very ****ed-off about it from comments I'm seeing elsewhere.

Also it looks like the police are limbering up to forcibly clear the fluffy bunny peace camp. Which might be nasty because it's full of little kids and families.
 
I'm at the cordon now. Can't see much, lots of tired people from all parties around.
 
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