Dozens of protesters have been detained by British police after a peaceful Black Lives Matter solidarity march turned violent.
Officers can be seen tackling demonstrators to the ground, throwing others against buses, and skirmishing with crowds who were staging a sit-in on one of the capital’s busiest streets outside Big Ben and the Palace of Westminster.
Police appeared to be blindsided by the scale of the protest, with very few personnel deployed in the early stages of the action. But more than 300 officers were soon scrambled to the scene, and at its peak there were 37 police vans, 6 police horses and a police helicopter overhead.
Newshub was one of few media outlets on the ground alongside CNN, AP and Australia’s Seven, but the BBC and ITV stayed away for reasons unknown.
The demonstration started as a peaceful march of thousands of Londoners from Trafalgar Square in the central city to the US Embassy in Nine Elms. From there, the huge crowds spontaneously made their way back to the city, gathering outside the Prime Minister’s residence at Downing St, and also outside the Houses of Parliament in Westminster.
Chanting of “I can’t breathe”, “No Justice, no peace”, and “Say his name: George Floyd” echoed around the streets for 30 minutes in what was largely an organic and peaceful demonstration.
It wasn’t until vans and vans of police officers were jettisoned to the area that it began to escalate, and protesters’ resentment and anger towards US law enforcement was redirected at their British counterparts.
Officers bore the brunt of anger and frustration, and largely persevered through the abuse hurled at them by a minority of protesters.
With both sides at loggerheads, and tension turning from a simmer to a boil, patches of violence erupted and many demonstrators were chased, tackled to the ground, or thrown against nearby buses.
Others were handcuffed, and taken away in police vans - many resisting and proclaiming they didn’t know what they’d done wrong.
Newshub spoke to a handful of protesters who reiterated that the vast majority of those were peaceful and not inciting violent clashes with officers.
“Police brutality is disgusting, the way they treat us,” one of them told Newshub.
”It happened in the US, it didn't happen here, it happened over there, but we still need to stay together as one people. We're human, we're brothers and sisters,” another said.
One passing motorist, Edwina, even parked her car in the middle of the road in solidarity with the crowds, even if it meant she was given a traffic infringement notice.
"It's been a terrible year for everyone and to add something like this on top of it is too much for our hearts,” she told Newshub.
It’s not known how many people were officially arrested during the clash.
Organisers are now planning for an even bigger protest next weekend.
