The G20 protests in central London turned violent today ahead of tomorrow’s summit, with a band of demonstrators close to the Bank of England storming a Royal Bank of Scotland branch, and baton-wielding police charging a sit-down protest by students.
Much of the protesting, from an estimated 4,000 people in the financial centre of the capital, was peaceful, but some bloody skirmishes broke out as police tried to keep thousands of people in containment pens surrounding the Bank of England on Threadneedle Street. A minority of demonstrators seemed determined to cause damage, seeking confrontation as they surged towards police lines. Late tonight, much of the City remained cordoned off.
Perahps the G20 is something worthy of demonstrating, but who are these kids? Half of them are wearing Nike, Puma, and Atlanta Braves gear. Give me some people living off the land with some locally made clothes and then I will listen to you as opponents of capitalism and the global economy. It is a worthy event to protest, just don’t look like whiny hypocrites that participate in the system that you are protesting.
The majority of these protesters are just wannabes. They missed the great protests of are time and are overly attracted to the “mystique of protesting”. Most have no depth of understanding of the issues and are really nothing more than caricatures. These pictures show a sad kind of protest. It’s more smashing and looting than protesting. I always wonder if these people after a protest think, what did it change? They are not winning peoples hearts and minds with this.