LSE students have condemned the police aggression they faced at the G20 demonstrations in London two weeks ago.
Students attended the G20 Meltdown protest outside the Bank of England and the Climate Camp near Liverpool Street station, both of which have been the subject of complaints about police tactics.
Third year Sociology student Tim Wilson told The Beaver, “The force the police used was excessive and unnecessary. The Climate Camp was peaceful but riot police just rushed in, trampling on and beating people with batons without warning.”
Students taking part in a sit-in defence of the Climate Camp protest against market-based solutions to climate change were trampled on, punched and beaten with batons while holding their hands above their heads, with one LSE student receiving serious facial injuries.
“But at the same time the mood on the whole was very positive. As somebody who hasn’t been to many protests before I would definitely tell people not to let the police violence deter them from taking part in future demonstrations,” Wilson added.
Police “kettled” protestors inside the camp until after midnight without warning and made several aggressive attempts to disperse the camp, despite an earlier agreement with camp activists about the way the camp would be policed.
Students had initially been part of a successful attempt to repel the police, standing in the path of the advancing officers with their arms raised above their heads.
A second year History student, Franck Magennis, who was among one of the last protestors to be removed from the camp, said that the policing of the camp was disproportionate. “Many people were just passing through and couldn’t get out. There was no negotiation and a totally unwarranted sense of hostility,” he said.
Third year Government student Anna Krausova was left with nausea and stinging eyes after coming in to contact with Police pepper spray during the Bank of England protest on Wednesday.
Krausova told The Beaver she was protesting peacefully and no one around her had been posing a threat to the police, “I hardly expected that exercising my right to peaceful protest would entail having pepper spray sprayed in my eyes.”
“There is no way this can be seen as a ‘proportionate’ response to standing and chanting outside the Bank of England. Instead of facilitating peaceful protest, the police were the ones who responded violently,” she added.
While at the Climate Camp, police instructed press photographers to delete pictures they had taken. The UK National Union of Journalists recently launched a campaign against “overbearing policing” at protests.
LSE students have attended vigils for Ian Tomlinson, who died during the protests. The Independent Police Complaints Commission are investigating claims by activists that Tomlinson died as a result of a head injury caused by being pushed to the floor by police.
A Metropolitan Police statement described its operations as “restrained and proportionate”.
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