UK: Mayday demonstration clashes
01 March 2000
On 1 May, a Reclaim the Streets (RTS) event drew several thousand people (4,000 according to conservative police estimates), and 5,500 police were deployed to oversee what organisers called a "guerrilla gardening" action. Trouble flared after 2pm, when protesters started marching up Whitehall to Trafalgar Square, a few cans and bottles were thrown at police guarding Downing Street, before a small group targeted a McDonald's restaurant, smashing the windows and entering the premises. This was the cue for the riot police, who were present in numbers and visible from the start, to break up the event.
The police split up the demonstration in Whitehall using two vans flanked by two rows of riot police. Most demonstrators passively stood by as police advanced clearing them towards Parliament Square and Trafalgar Square, where they had sealed the exits. Protesters, tourists and passers-by were held for several hours as police checked video evidence to target "ringleaders" and make arrests. There were reports of further clashes in the early evening in Aldwych and Kennington, where police were escorting the last group of around 300 people they had rounded up, away from the scene.
Ninety-eight demonstrators were arrested in connection with the protest and fifty people have been charged at Horseferry Road magistrates' court, to date. DNA and fingerprint samples drawn from broken glass, blood or part-eaten hamburgers are being studied to track down people responsible for violence against shops and windows. Police sources defended the police response as "proportionate and professional", arguing that the "disorder was obviously highly organised by a small number of people...coordinating events using a system of mobile phones and coloured flags".
Politicians and media commentators condemned the protesters. RTS, despite their refusal to cooperate with police, had issued publicity in the weeks leading up to the demonstration to emphasize that "This is not a protest", encouraging creative forms of resistance. After the action, RTS defended its validity, "celebrating the potential to turn sterile areas of our city into healthy, diverse and useful ecosystems". Furthermore, it denied responsibility for the clashes: "Events that occurred outside Parliament Square were not part of the Guerrilla Gardening event."
When people began marching in Whitehall it was almost predictable that trouble would arise around the prime minister's residence in Downing Street, war memorials such as the Cenotaph and the McDonald's fast-food outlet. However, only McDonald's suffered extensive damage, while monuments and walls were daubed with graffiti. This prompted a massive police response and the widespread use of video cameras, footage of which was selectively used to magnify instances of violence, encouraging criticism of protesters.
Criminalising protest
This approach is proving instrumental in government efforts to redefine "terrorism" in the Terrorism Bill as:
"The use of serious violence against persons or property, or the threat to use such violence, to intimidate or coerce a government, the public, or any section of the public for political, religious or ideological ends."
The civil liberties organisation, Liberty, has criticised the proposed definition in terms of its inclusion of "political ends", the absence of a definition of what constitutes a "serious threat" or risks to the "health or safety of the public", and "violence" to property, when previous anti-terrorist legislation has been reserved for instances involving deaths or serious injury. Liberty's briefing highlights "that it is capable of encompassing activities which whilst unlawful cannot properly be defined as terrorism". Organisers of demonstrations should, thry say, be mindful that even sporadic incidents of "violence" could lead to the use of draconian anti-terrorist legislation against them.
Independent 3-4.5.00; Guardian 20.4.00, 3