I was there from 9.30 till 1600 and didn’t see a single ounce of trouble.

The police completely underestimated the volume of people that turned up and simply couldn’t cope. I witnessed myself 2 offices trying to hold back hundreds of people from getting out of a packed Whitehall and onto Westminster Bridge - they didn’t stand a chance. I mean 1500 officers in total to control and manage a spread out crowd of est 300 - 500k people. Plus a group of counter protesters.

They also allowed through their own incompetence a group anti-protesters (some masked up) to be too close to the main event and the inevitable ensued.

I don’t condone any form of violence and from what I see there wasn’t any. However, when you consider the enormity of yesterday and the strength of feeling in this country it’s an absolute miracle there weren’t any more trouble than the few scuffles we’ve seen. For context 423 people were arrested on the main two days of the Notting Hill Carnival compared to 9 arrests yesterday.

And I also wouldn’t trust what the police say either tbh - I certainly don’t believe there were 26 officers injured. From the footage available that seems a highly inflated figure.

Posted By: RightOnCue, Sep 14, 10:31:31