Nine police injured as violence f lares again at Covid- deniers protest
VIOLENCE erupted yesterday as riot police broke up a mass demonstration of anti- lockdown protesters and Covid- deniers in London because it breached social distancing rules.
Around 100 Met Police officers marched into Trafalgar Square to disperse the ‘We Do Not Consent’ protest after thousands gathered to listen to speeches by conspiracy theorists David Icke and Piers Corbyn, brother of the former Labour Party leader Jeremy.
Skirmishes broke out and officers from the Met’s specialist Territorial Support Group made 16 arrests. Nine officers were injured, two of whom were taken to hospital with head i njuries. Violent clashes between demonstrators and police later continued in Hyde Park.
It was the second consecutive week that anti-lockdown protests in London have erupted in violence. Last week the Met made 32 arrests at a rally of Covid-deniers in Trafalgar Square. Yesterday’s organisers were granted permission to protest by Westminster Council but told to complete a risk assessment and ordered to comply with social distancing rules.
They also had to abide by a regulation that no more than 30 people could gather together during a political demonstration.
One speaker at the rally asked the crowd to maintain social distancing, prompting boos and ironic cheers. One officer at the scene estimated that more than 3,000 people, most of whom were not wearing face masks, were crammed into the square. Other estimates claimed thousands more attended.
Just before 3pm, almost three hours after the rally began, Scotland Yard issued a statement saying the crowds were ‘putting people in danger of transmitting the virus’ and announced they were ‘no longer exempt from the regulations’.
Minutes later officers marched towards the stage in front of the National Gallery to break up the protest. Earlier, former BBC sports presenter Icke, 68, had bellowed at officers to ‘stop enforcing fascism for the psychopaths’.
During a rambling speech, 73year- old Piers Corbyn branded coronavirus a ‘great hoax’ and led a chant of ‘take down 5G’ – a reference to conspiracy theories linking the virus and 5G communications masts. ‘Yesterday’s conspiracy theory is today’s truth,’ he shouted.
Some of those at the protest brandished placards saying ‘no to mandatory vaccines’. One 43-year-old woman, who had travelled from Leicester with her nine-year-old daughter, insisted she would refuse to be vaccinated against Covid-19, should a jab be developed. Her daughter, who was holding a placard that said ‘the lockdown is a scam’, has not received any of her childhood vaccinations, she added.
Other protesters brandished placards with a symbol denoting QAnon, an ideology in the US that centres on the theory that a global network of elites is kidnapping children and harvesting their blood.
Met Commander Ade Adelekan last night slammed the use of violence against police and said there had been no effort by organisers to keep those assembling safe from transmitting the virus.