Tensions
as three protest marches converge in central London
Opposing
marchers from left and right kept apart by police as Chris Kaba’s family hand
in note to Downing Street
James
Tapper, Damien Gayle and Raphael Boyd
Sat 26 Oct
2024 19.14 BST
Three
protest marches converged on Whitehall on Saturday as anti-racist activists,
relatives of people who died in custody, and supporters of the far-right figure
Tommy Robinson held separate demonstrations.
Thousands of
Robinson followers were divided from a counter-protest of Stand Up to Racism
supporters by barriers, stages and lines of police officers.
Between them
was the United Families and Friends Campaign (UFFC), made up of relatives of
people who have died in police custody. Five family members, including a cousin
of Chris Kaba, delivered a handwritten note for Keir Starmer to Downing Street
after hundreds had walked from Trafalgar Square.
Police made
three arrests. The Metropolitan police said there had been a “brief period of
pushing and shoving” near the Stand Up to Racism stage and that an officer had
been assaulted when “a group from the Stand Up to Racism demonstration tried to
push through a cordon at the end of the Mall”.
The other
arrests were for a racially aggravated public order offence and for breach of
the peace at the Uniting the Kingdom demonstration in support of Robinson, the
English Defence League founder who was in custody after being arrested on
Friday.
The
41-year-old, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, is accused of being in
contempt of court after the airing of a film at a protest in Trafalgar Square
in July.
He went to
Folkestone police station on Friday, where he was remanded before a hearing at
Woolwich crown court on Monday concerning allegations that he breached a 2021
high court order barring him from repeating libellous allegations against a
Syrian refugee who successfully sued him.
Robinson was
separately charged on Friday with failing to provide his mobile phone access
code to police under schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000, Kent police said.
The campaign
group Hope Not Hate estimated that 15,000 to 20,000 people joined the Uniting
the Kingdom demonstration on Saturday.
Robinson has
recently focused on Peter Lynch, a 61-year-old who died in prison this month
having pleaded guilty to violent disorder at the Holiday Inn Express in
Rotherham during the riots in August.
Lynch, who
had four children and three grandchildren, had yelled “scum” and “child
killers” at police and was seen holding a placard accusing judges, the World
Health Organization and Nasa of corruption.
Some at the
Uniting the Kingdom protest wore T-shirts or carried placards saying “I am
Peter Lynch”.
Tommy
Robinson, displayed on screens, was unable to attend the protest as he was in
custody. Photograph: Chris J Ratcliffe/Reuters
After
arriving at Parliament Square, supporters stayed to watch a screening of a new
documentary by Robinson, which took the place of a stump speech.
Along
Whitehall, Stand Up to Racism supporters watched speeches by speakers including
the Labour MPs Diane Abbott and Kim Johnson.
Separately,
relatives of Kaba joined the UFFC annual remembrance procession at Trafalgar
Square. After delivering their message to the prime minister, they said they
wanted to remind him of “everybody’s right to life”.
Kaba was
shot dead by firearms officer Martyn Blake in 2022 when police tried to stop
his car; the officer in question was acquitted of murder last week. It was also
reported last week that Kaba had been captured on CCTV days before shooting a
man on a nightclub dancefloor.
Yvette
Cooper, the home secretary, tried to calm police anger that Blake had been put
on trial by pledging that firearms officers’ identities would be protected if
they are prosecuted, unless they are convicted.
Sheeda
Queen, a cousin of Kaba, said Cooper’s measures were “almost like we’re being
punished because my cousin’s case got that far within two years.”
Marcia Rigg,
the sister of Sean Rigg, who died in police custody in 2008, said they wanted
to remind Starmer that “everybody is entitled to their right to life no matter
what”.
She said:
“If there’s a crime then they go to prison and serve their sentence. Not a
death sentence. There is no justice.”
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário