G20 Summit Next Week

Just been watching it on BBC News...it looks pretty tame! Has it calmed down or something? The football fans from Glasgow were more intimidating looking when they trashed Manchester last Summer!

Plenty of photographers about though by the look of things!
 
I'm at the cordon now. Can't see much, lots of tired people from all parties around. Few bins burning.
 
Just been told to move, looks like the are going to disperse them. Dogs coming out.
 
Sounds like things are getting nasty in a couple of places now.

19:15 - Climate Camp: Police have attacked on the South Side of the camp, indiscriminately beating people who are holding their hands up. Police cliam it is to contain the camp as many parts of the city are out of control.

18:57 Climate Camp: Police mobilising at both ends of the Climate Camp, moving riot police up to the edges of the barracades.

18:35 - G20 Meltdown: Riot police have charged into the crowd at Mansion Hs from Lombard St. Reports of indiscriminate violence against the crowd and several injuries. Passers by have also been caught in the charges.
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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 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
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Druid said:
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.
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Druid said:
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.
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Druid said:
Sounds like things are getting nasty in a couple of places now.

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Yadda, yadda, yadda. I think it's plain to see which side of the fence you sit on. ;)

:p
 
15:56 - Queen Victoria St and Queen St: Large group kettled in, with more riot police joining cordon around them. Riot police still pushing the crowd back in variuos directions, Crowd chanting: "who's streets - our streets" and "Shame on you", And every few minutes the crowd is attempting to break the police line but being beaten back.
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Oh, the irony.

:lol:
 
I'm guessing indymedia may have a slant on what they are posting?
 
Downsy said:
I'm guessing indymedia may have a slant on what they are posting?
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So does everybody. So it makes sense to listen to all sides and make your own mind up IMO. Photographic evidence really helps too I'd say.

Right now are a lot of reports of the police attacking the camp full of peaceful middle class hippies and little kids though and I wouldn't be at all surprised if it made the news (the BBC still have a crew there apparently), as these aren't dreadlocked crusties up for a fight with the cops, but well-to-do Guardian reader types who are worried about the planet etc. They even had their own litter collection teams to make sure they didn't leave a mess afterwards ...

Added: BBC video of the climate camp from earlier today. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/7977561.stm
 
AleksanderLoesch said:
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:(
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Can't have been Obama then, he has 2 other choppers that fly with him at all times.
 
AleksanderLoesch said:
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:(
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Air Force One/Sam 21 (I think) would have been landing about 200m from my old man's front door if they hadn't opted for Stanstead! His motorcade did however drop into Mildenhall on board a C5 which I did see :)

It has been there before though...I saw it when Bush was on board a couple of years back!
 
purpleclouds said:
Air Force One/Sam 21 (I think) would have been landing about 200m from my old man's front door if they hadn't opted for Stanstead! His motorcade did however drop into Mildenhall on board a C5 which I did see :)

It has been there before though...I saw it when Bush was on board a couple of years back!
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They take a spare chopper in the plane also, along with a backup 'Beast'. Which I was amazed at.
 
wasn't too bad at all!

didn't see one tog or camera man get hurt by the protesters.

BUT! saw tonnes of togs getting whacked at by pc plod and mr truncheon!

one got a clobbering on the head, and the other got his Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III compleatley smashed up to pieces!!!! first whacked out of his hand, then 3 paddy's stomped on it!:eek: and another got his elbow broken (saw him on tv later complaining!)

They were all press aswell. Showed their press cards, shouted it at them, saying they wearn't in the protest etc.... mean police!:razz:
 
AleksanderLoesch said:
wasn't too bad at all!

didn't see one tog or camera man get hurt by the protesters.

BUT! saw tonnes of togs getting whacked at by pc plod and mr truncheon!

one got a clobbering on the head, and the other got his Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III compleatley smashed up to pieces!!!! first whacked out of his hand, then 3 paddy's stomped on it!:eek: and another got his elbow broken (saw him on tv later complaining!)

They were all press aswell. Showed their press cards, shouted it at them, saying they wearn't in the protest etc.... mean police!:razz:
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Didn't I see a thread in which someone wanted to know where to buy a press pass so he can avoid any hassle in the street?
 
Sounds like the police stopped attacking the climate camp (very likely due prompt reports by the BBC crew) and are just penning them in, which will work a bit less well than it usually does as a collective punishment because they've brought portaloos and plenty of food and drink.

Currently the climate camp hippies are having a bit of a dance (according to twitter) :p
 
Ah, maybe spoke too soon.

21:19 - on the north side of the climate camp, outside the kettle, a sit-down protest has been attacked by over 100 riot police.

21:03 - Climate Camp: Snatch arrest squads in operation on South side of Camp

20:50 - Police have cleared London Bridge

20:42 - Climate Camp: There is now a sit down protest in front of the police vans and lines blocking traffic on Wormwood St being held in solidarity with the climate campers currently trapped by police. Still a party atmosphere with lots of music within the climate camp kettle
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i have one better than a twitter feed!

my sisters friends with the people who did it (campaign against climate change (campaign CC) and the climate camp etc... she was their untill 9pm. and she is still in contact with those there! (she has a friend who's father is a top human-rights lawyer so she is passing-on advice etc...)

sounds fun actually! the police were being nice by the time she left (asking if they had everything they needed :lol:)
 
Another perspective via Twitter.

# #g20 Hard core from BoE protest have joined fluffies, who are still peacefully playing guitars, despite madness all around. 2 minutes ago from web

# #g20 Now at other end of camp, much more police. Blue lights flashing on vans, looks like police getting ready to charge again. 5 minutes ago from web

# #g20 Climate Camp protesters at this end say police have been making various charges at more hardcore end of street for last couple of hours 12 minutes ago from web
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Back home and having a nice cold beer. My feelings about the day are as follows:

- A very good photographic challenge - how do you get positioned to get the shot, what settings to use to get the shot - how to avoid getting caught up in violence.
- A rather bizarre demo. I'd say at least half or more of the people there at lunch time were actually spectators rather than protestors.
- The number of DSLRs out there was just incredible - they were everywhere.
- At several points where the police had separated groups of people, everyone would look around waiting for something to happen, only to realise that pretty much everyone there was actually a spectator. Quite funny really. Some England supporters kept things going though as they could at least chant well.
- The police did their "pen people in" thing. I knew they would and didn't mind getting caught up in the first confinement as there was a lot to shoot, but cleared out when the crowd just shoved the police aside, and managed to avoid it again. My pal Lee got re-confined again and only got out at about 8:30pm. He must have been in there for 5 hours or so. I brought him some food & water to keep him going.
- The police seemed fairly sensible. I didn't see anyone getting badly treated at all where I was. If people didn't comply with orders to get out of the way, they got pushed along but that didn't seem overly harsh to me.
- Overall the demonstrators were all grumpy, but about lots of different things and as a result the whole thing was rather incoherent. One lady carrying a banner with "Consumers Suck" written on it had a t-shirt on saying "buy me something". That made me laugh :D.

Overall, a hard day, a bit of excitement and a few shots wired to the papers from McDonalds. I'm up again at Excel tomorrow so we'll see how that goes.

Tobers
 
Just got home....hunger and tired feet got the better of me. Was all quiet round the BOE when I left, lots of police, protestors milling about just looking knackered.
 
Numerous reports along these lines now showing on Twitter.
RT @notq: Police officers using anti terror outside #climatecamp to make people delete images of police under threat of seizure #g20
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Sadly the BBC and other media are also reporting that someone collapsed and died within a 'protest camp' near the Bank of England. Details unknown as yet.
 
Druid said:
Sadly the BBC and other media are also reporting that someone collapsed and died within a 'protest camp' near the Bank of England. Details unknown as yet.
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probably one tab too far.
 
Have to say I am entirely neutral on the subject. I'm sure there was a bit of rough from both sides. The only keepers I got from the day were policeman having a sit down....they all looked knackered, wouldn't be surprised if tempers frayed later on in the night.

Like everyone else has said, there's no coherence to the protest, same as when I was in on Saturday. No-one really knows what they were protesting against....climate change? war? bankers? capitalism? government? police? No-one looked like their heart was in it. I got a few pictures at 250mm of some guys on top of Bank tube entrance....when I got home and peeped they one of them was sat there with a DSLR round his neck, not exactly 'hardcore anarchists' like the media were making out. I was set next to a couple of lads on the tube home who had been there all evening and they were just kids who went out to have a bit of a tussle with the police so they could brag loudly about it to all and sundry.

Sum up G20 protest in one word.....limp.

Sad about the guy dying, but these things happen.
 
Druid said:
Sadly the BBC and other media are also reporting that someone collapsed and died within a 'protest camp' near the Bank of England. Details unknown as yet.
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Yeah I heard about this - apparently the police were trying to get to him to get him out but were forced back with a hail of missiles.
 
Although a man did die, it was not part of the cordon, and the police wern't drying to"get through" to save him.

It happened a around the corner/down the road from where all the "action" was, and before jernoscum at idiot-hubs such as "the sun" took on the story, all the news sources were saying (and quoting THE POLICE!) that the death did not have any relation to the protests (-ie he happened to die close to the protests by chance).

Though how things were yesterday, I don't suppose you can be 100% about what happened (unless you where there)
 
Myky D said:
So they are!

Does that mean it didn't happen, then?
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Well, this is where you get into the realms of quantum physics, deep thought, time travel, liebel cases and general crazy-endusingness.

the sun most often puts a bit of a "spin" on things to match their views and match general popularity. When I say "spin" i mean bending of the truth to down-right lying!

sometimes they make entire stories up!

and sometimes, JUST sometimes....

once you have won the lottery whilst being struck by lightning from an asteroid about to hit you. REPEATEDLY. then the sun actually reports something honestly :lol:

oh wait. no they don't. its the ruddy Sun!:lol:
 
AleksanderLoesch said:
Well, this is where you get into the realms of quantum physics, deep thought, time travel, liebel cases and general crazy-endusingness.

the sun most often puts a bit of a "spin" on things to match their views and match general popularity. When I say "spin" i mean bending of the truth to down-right lying!

sometimes they make entire stories up!

and sometimes, JUST sometimes....

once you have won the lottery whilst being struck by lightning from an asteroid about to hit you. REPEATEDLY. then the sun actually reports something honestly :lol:

oh wait. no they don't. its the ruddy Sun!:lol:
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As I said - it's become emotive and I don't want to rock the boat.
 
Myky D said:
As I said - it's become emotive and I don't want to rock the boat.
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no, don't worry! your allowed to bash "the sun" they bash everyone else!

sorry, its my daily dose of rantings about the media (I study it at college) and know a fair bit about how such "institutions" work, and how they get entangled with politics.... queue Alistair Campell's entrance!:lol:
 
AleksanderLoesch said:
no, don't worry! your allowed to bash "the sun" they bash everyone else!

sorry, its my daily dose of rantings about the media (I study it at college) and know a fair bit about how such "institutions" work, and how they get entangled with politics.... queue Alistair Campell's entrance!:lol:
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Yes I did Media Studies too, and likewise have studied the systems from the inside out. You may see from my previous posts I also tried to be an anarchist for a while, and have been involved in and on various marches and demos.

While The Sun is widely lauded as cr@p and full of shot, it cannot be denied that with such a large readership (it was 70% of the newspaper audience when I was studying) that it's clearly doing something right in it's reporting - truth or no - it appeals to an awful lot of people.

What you end up with is the question "Does the meeja reflect or inform the views of the audience?", and you end up with the answer "a bit of both".

Generally after this the conclusion is that people are stupid, ill-informed and easily led, and once you understand and accept this you can see it in most mass gatherings of people wanting to express a particular viewpoint.
 
AleksanderLoesch said:
the sun most often puts a bit of a "spin" on things to match their views and match general popularity. When I say "spin" i mean bending of the truth to down-right lying!

sometimes they make entire stories up!
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And many of the other sources quoted on this thread don't?
 
I went yesterday. As expected it was quite violent. Not as much as I thought but it was pretty crazy in parts.

There were loads of clashes with police since they blocked us all in. I was in the containment and didn't get out until after 8:30pm. Was stuck in there for 8 hours without food, water and for most of it a toilet (they had several porto-cabins).

Normally i'm quite unsympathetic towards protesters simply becuase they don't listen to the police, but as of yesterday i'm more on the side of the protesters. The police kept charging, forcefully pushing people back with their shields, hitting people with batons and when people fell over, kicking them.

There was one instance where about 6 people fell over becuase the police pushed them over, and the police proceeded to kick them and hit them with batons.

I was hit several times with a shield, once in the neck which hurt a bit. Also got hit on the head with a baton. My friend got hit really hard on the shin with a baton.

The attack on the Royal Bank of Scotland branch was pretty insane. Protesters smashed all the windows, graffitied the walls and stole computers. Was right at the front for that one, insane. Got covered in glass a few times.

The police aggravated the protesters so much aswel, i'd say most of the violence was directly related to the police pushing people and in some cases using too much force.

And there were sooooo many photographers there. It was ridiculous. I'd say probably more photographers than actual protesters. Seemed like everyone in Greater London with a camera showed up.

My photos:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/noahgoodrich/
 
To be perfectly honest, anyone in a big mob of people that are engaged in smashing up a bank can reasonably expect to get a good kicking when the police try and bring some order. If you don't want to be on the wrong end of it, don't get involved.

And I'm not a supporter of either side, I think it's good that people protest and sometimes smash things up to get their voice heard, but they have to accept that they will get worked over a bit by the police.
 
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