Police tactics at tuition fees protest questioned after further angry clashes
At least 38 protesters and 10 officers injured as windows of buildings broken and car carrying Prince Charles attacked
* Esther Addley, Adam Gabbatt and Vikram Dodd
* The Guardian, Friday 10 December 2010
As temperatures fell towards freezing last night hundreds of demonstrators who had been kettled on Westminster Bridge were eventually allowed to leave around 11.30pm after the latest in a series of showdowns between protesters and police over tuition fees turned ugly.
The atmosphere for much of the afternoon had been relaxed and almost cheerful as many among the crowd repeated chants, danced to portable sound systems or huddled around small fires made from burning placards, but at 5.40pm, when news of the MPs' historic decision reached the crowds gathered in Whitehall, it took a turn for the worse.
Within an hour, the scuffles that had been erupting all afternoon escalated into more violent confrontations, windows were broken at several buildings including the Treasury and supreme court and Winston Churchill's statue was vandalised. The violence spread as protesters apparently caught police unaware and moved towards Oxford Street.
On nearby Regent Street, a car carrying Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall was attacked as they headed for the Royal Variety Performance at the London Palladium, with a window of the vehicle being cracked in the violence. Paint was also thrown and splattered the car.
The violence poses questions for the Metropolitan police commissioner, Sir Paul Stephenson, over his force's tactics.
Superintendent Julia Pendry said the police had not lost control of the capital. "We are in control," she said. "There was no intelligence to suggest we were going to have rampaging people." She condemned the "wanton violence and wanton criminal damage".
The Met said: "Police completely condemn the outrageous and increasing levels of violence that some of the protesters are now involved in. This has nothing to do with peaceful protest. Students are involved in wanton vandalism including smashing windows in Oxford and Regent streets. Innocent Christmas shoppers are being caught up in the violence."
At least 38 protesters and 10 officers were injured. Six officers required hospital treatment, Scotland Yard confirmed. There were 26 arrests: one for drunk and disorderly, three for criminal damage, two for arson, 12 for violent disorder, four for assault on police and four for burglary.
As the night progressed, those who remained at Parliament Square were surrounded by police officers in riot gear. Hundreds tried to get out of the square but were contained by police at all exits.
For much of the afternoon, protesters had been kettled inside the square, unable to leave and sporadically pushed back by officers on foot and horseback.
Then as night fell they were shepherded on to Westminster Bridge. Zoe Walsh, 22, a student at Warwick University, said: "We were kettled on the bridge from 9.30 until 11pm. They said they would let us out over the bridge, but then kettled us in on both ends. It was really, really tight, absolutely freezing, there was no space, basically.
"Everyone waited quietly. They wouldn't give us any information on when we'd get off – one policeman said, 'I'm not allowed to tell you anything' when I asked how long it'd be."
Gabriel Lukes, 14, left Dunraven school in south London on his own to join in the march. He was kettled in Parliament Square before being moved to Westminster Bridge just after 9pm. He stood alone for two hours before being allowed off at 11pm. His father Peter was waiting for him. "It was cold, cramped, you had like half a metre to yourself," he said. "It was just terrible."
Bernard Goyder, 19, a history student at Soas, said: "We were penned in on both sides of the bridge by police in full riot gear. I would estimate there were at least 200 on either side, kettling a crowd of well over a thousand. They finally let us out at about 11.10pm, but we had to walk out in single file past a line of police – I think they were looking to identify people they'd spotted earlier and grab them.
"The conditions on the bridge were atrocious. There were no toilet facilities, and we were held there for two hours with about as much space as in a crowded lift.
"I think it's a form of collective punishment by the police. I overheard one say it served us right for the trouble we'd caused earlier.
"I think people are still being kettled at Trafalgar Square. This is a travesty of democracy."
One of the protest groups involved claimed 30,000 had attended the march, although for much of the afternoon the number appeared significantly lower.
"Police resorted to kettling tactics and horse-charged once again, and thousands of students, including young teenagers, are still being detained," said a spokesman for the Coalition of Resistance. "Appeals from the organisers of the demonstration not to use these tactics were ignored."
One man was pulled twice from his wheelchair by police for being too close to their lines. Finlay McIntyre told the Guardian that his brother Jody was at one point pulled from his chair and dragged bodily across the ground by officers when they were deemed to be too close to police horses.
Shiv Malik, a freelance journalist, was treated in hospital for a head wound after he was hit by a police baton during a charge. He said two officers, including a police medic, had refused to help him and he was sent across the square to find another exit, from where he was able to make his way to hospital.
For much of the day the atmosphere around parliament, where most of the early protesters gathered, was calm. The first sporadic outbreak of violence began at around 3.30pm when a group of around 20 protesters, all clad in black with balaclavas covering their faces, charged the police lines with a pre-prepared metal battering ram. The core group of protesters broke through, triggering ugly scenes as protesters and police fought in small isolated groups.
After police reclaimed their line across the street leading from the square, some protesters continued to clash with officers, hurling sticks and paint, while police responded by lashing out with batons, and charging at speed on horseback.
Earlier, in the opposite corner of the square a group of schoolboys, still in uniform after walking out of classes in the morning, hurled sticks, eggs and firecrackers at police, while starting a small fire using toilet roll, placards and a GCSE mock economics exam.
Thomas Shephard, an MA student who had come from Liverpool and whose friend carried a placard reading "Cameron you are a douche", said the flashpoints at the cordons were "really horrible and irresponsible" and dismissed the small number of troublemakers as "idiots".
He added: "We've had protests in the past with large numbers of people and that has just been ignored.
"Disruption like this sends a message, even if I don't agree with people who are throwing stuff. I also wholly disagree with police being really harsh with reasonable people like the rest of us."
Sly Gullick and Oscar Lyons, both 16 and year 11 students from Stratford in east London, had brought a pack of cards and were playing a few hands with female friends.
Gullick said: "I want to go to university and I'm not sure that I will ever be able to afford it if these cuts go through."
Some made impassioned philosophical arguments for the importance of universal education, while others carried good-humoured placards reading "Don't be a dick" or "Down with this kind of thing".'
Police tactics at tuition fees protest questioned after further angry clashes | Education | The Guardian
Prince Charles and Camilla caught up in London violence after student fees vote
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