I love London. Have I mentioned my love for London recently?

[madwitch]

Ì also work in the wrong bit of it.

From the police community news type thing:

COMMUNITYSAFE.GOV.UK

Climate Demonstrators 30.07.08

Climate Caravan demonstrators planned action for 30th July 08.
Demonstrators are believed to be planning to meet at London Bridge at 11am
crossing in to the City on foot and on pedal cycles. The caravan will
include a number of people dressed as penguins. Once in the City, the
caravan is likely to park up and for a couple of hours with demonstrators
dressed as penguins visiting a number of firms in Central London (not just
the City) whose business is seen by the environmental movement as
adversely affecting the climate, such as banks and oil companies as well
as embassies of countries whose activities are seen to be detrimental to
the climate. Their activities are also likely to include some street
theatre, music and exhibitions. At approximately 3.30pm, they intend to
carry out a guided tour of the City. The activities overall are not
believed to be likely to result in any disorder and the focus is on
creating a carnival-type atmosphere. The possibility of individuals
carrying out some more radical action cannot, however, be discounted.
There is a policing operation in place around this event and the most that
is expected is minor acts of civil disobedience. The main thrust of the
action is one of theatre and carnival.


PENGUINS!

Comments

[robinbloke.livejournal.com]

PENGUINS!!!!

Hopefully there will be photos of this :)

[medusa-nw.livejournal.com]

I sent the report to Sasha as well, she's currently doing a temp job at News International, who are based by Tower Bridge. Hopefully they'll send some people down! :-)

[robinbloke.livejournal.com]

Of all the protests I had to miss... this should be one I should do!

[satyrica.livejournal.com]

yeah, I tried to wander down to where they were spending the night (near Oval) yesterday only to happen upon the Great Kennington Flood instead . ..

[madwitch.livejournal.com]

Camping penguins? Even better.

[emilytheslayer.livejournal.com]

That's so sweet! And I love the way the police respond to it, basically saying "Yup, it's going to happen, we know about it, we'll be there, don't worry. This is what they're planning, if it gets out of hand we'll take care of it, no biggy."

It seems very different from the attitude towards protesters here.

[blackstone.livejournal.com]

I NEED A PLANE TICKET RIGHT NOW.

[madwitch.livejournal.com]

They're used to us doing weird things in this city, at the Rickmob they just stood around grinning. They do much the same at the Anon protests, they seem to find those quite funny.

Also, they're used to protesters. There's a march or a protest about something pretty much every weekend, maybe one during the week as well. They know which ones may cause trouble, they're very prepared. We had our day of every protest turning into a riot, I think they're very happy that we've all calmed down since then. :-)

[emilytheslayer.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I remember seeing the pictures from those. Protests here I guess have a tendency to go violent quicker, but gee, I wonder if that could POSSIBLY have anything to do with the police treating marchers like they're terrorists? I mean, ok, there are other reasons and there's a whole history here, but still.

[madwitch.livejournal.com]

The Poll Tax Riots and the Criminal Justice Bill mini-riots were how things used to be. Protests got way out of hand, running battles, riot police, all night rioting, much damage. We have the history, it just doesn't happen so much any more. Sometimes it does, there were some scuffles and accusations of police brutality a couple of months back.

But we have so many. SO MANY, and it's so much rarer for there to be violence now. The CJB protests (which I went on, but left before the rioting) were billed as the last free protests before they had to be regulated, etc. I swear, we have more now. They just aren't running battles any more. Both sides have calmed down, the police don't assume that all protests will be violent, but are ready in case they become so, and we don't assume the police are all pigs who want to beat us up.

We had a protest march led by Bishops the other day. Bishops.

[medusa-nw.livejournal.com]

Great Kennington Flood? What have I missed now? :-)

[satyrica.livejournal.com]

http://www.thelondonpaper.com/cs/Satellite/london/news/article/1157154039229?packedargs=suffix%3DArticleController

not quite what I's expecting to stroll into . . .

[medusa-nw.livejournal.com]

Good lord, that's a lot of water...