Anarchists storm the City in G20 protests

02 Apr 09

As expected, the G20 protests descended into anarchy and violence yesterday afternoon, with several police officers injured and a branch of the RBS trashed. How well did the Met and private sector organisations cope with the disorder? Brian Sims reports from Threadneedle Street.

By Brian Sims

Violence erupted outside the Bank of England when 4,000-plus protestors – many of them wearing bandanas or hoods to conceal their identity, and sporting steel toe-capped boots – were penned in by Metropolitan Police Service officers adopting ‘The Kettle’ technique for negating crowd disorder.

A mob descended on the Royal Bank of Scotland branch located at Threadneedle Street, forcing their way in just after lunchtime having thrown smoke grenades and smashing windows with metal poles.

Hundreds of onlookers cheered as the windows caved in and items belonging to the branch – including printers, chairs, desks, computer hard drives and monitors and various items of signage – were either looted or hurled into the street.

Anarchists (many of whom were seen to be drinking heavily) daubed slogans – among them ‘Screw The System’, ‘Beat Inflation: Eat The Rich’, ‘Scum’, ‘Class War’ and ‘Hang The Bankers’ – on to the building’s edifice. Missiles (including bottles, coins and even stolen computer keyboards) were also thrown in the direction of police.

Protestors filmed on hand-held cameras

Despite protestations from some right-minded and peaceful protesters to cut the violence, other activists began lighting a fire inside the RBS branch by mixing petrol with cider.

Police officers filmed the rabble-rousers from on high thanks to hand-held video cameras. One officer down below was smashed over the head with a metal bar. He was evacuated from the scene by colleagues for treatment. Other activists expended all their efforts on attempting to batter officers in the face with makeshift clubs fashioned from wooden blocks, and steal their headgear in representation of some kind of moral victory.

Riot police wielding carbon fibre batons as part of the largest policing operation ever witnessed in the Capital eventually managed to force the crowds back and close surrounding streets amid what New Scotland Yard referred to as “increasing levels of violence”.

That violence erupted during a tense stand-off between demonstrators and police directly outside the Bank of England. Plenty of activists were repeatedly seen to goad the Met officers and throw paint at them, but to their credit the officers stood firm and didn’t respond.

Crass City bankers fan the flames

Many protesters carried signs, many of them designed to raise awareness of financial and climate change issues. One sign read: ‘Ice Sheets Melting, Take Action’. Another said ‘Consumers Suck’ and another ‘Carbon Change: Too Little, Too Late’.

Not helping the situation in the least, some of the City parasites whose actions directly led to these protests were seen gesticulating at the activists from building rooftops, at the same time brandishing wads of bank notes and throwing fake ones into the streets below. I suspect they must be hugely proud of themselves. Maybe it’s these people who should have been locked up instead?

Former banker Caroline Carter was a peaceful marcher. Carter opined: “I suggest the bankers give up their pensions and give something back to the community they’ve affronted.” My thoughts exactly.

Mansion House and The Royal Exchange

Clashes later broke out at Mansion House Street and Queen Victoria Street near the Bank, with police commanders forced to deploy multiple vans, officers on horseback and hundreds more personnel to rescue a van that had been surrounded by protesters.

The anarchists – several of whom were protesting against the introduction of ID cards, while others openly flaunted their communist leanings by urging everyone present to renounce capitalism – shook the vehicle from side to side in a bid to overturn it.

In front of The Royal Exchange building, demonstrators hung a mannequin dressed in a bowler hat and with a severed arm from a set of traffic lights, before eventually setting it ablaze.

As of last night, 88 people had been arrested for a variety of offences. 11 demonstrators were apprehended for wearing fake police uniforms and trying to drive an armoured personnel carrier marked ‘Riot Police’ into the heart of the protests.

When darkness fell, the clashes continued. Protestors threw glass bottles at the police and used steel railings for ram-raiding operations. A further effigy of a banker covered in chip fat was set alight, as were street signs and traffic cones. Many demonstrators were angry at not being allowed to exit the cordon, although they were eventually permitted to leave in small groups.

How effective was Operation Glencoe?

The rampage inside RBS will certainly raise questions about the effectiveness of the £7.2 million policing and security plans – dubbed Operation Glencoe – that were put in place. Everything was orchestrated from a Control Room in south London that was used to monitor live images from thousands of CCTV cameras.

On the whole, the police’s herding tactics seemed to work pretty well, and it would appear that – RBS aside – damage was on a minimal scale.

Elsewhere in the Capital, environmental campaigners staged a successful ‘swoop’ outside the European Climate Exchange on Bishopsgate, with more than 1,000 people bringing tents to set up camp for the night.

Initially, police and journalists were in danger of outnumbering the protesters in the City but, as the day wore on, the crowds began to thicken.

The officer in charge of the G20 operation, commander Bob Broadhurst, this morning praised the way that the majority of protestors co-operated with police throughout yesterday’s demonstrations. Commander Broadhurst also thanked Met officers for their hard work throughout the day, which resulted in a "restrained and proportionate" policing operation.

Commander Broadhurst commented: "Yesterday was a very busy day, with the eyes of the world focused on London. While it was extremely hard work, I'm happy with the way the day progressed as the overall mood was good. Unfortunately small groups of protestors intent on violence mixed with the crowds of lawful demonstrators. Some have been arrested already, and officers will be looking to identify others through footage from evidence gatherers. However, these were isolated incidents and, despite missiles being thrown and officers requiring person protective equipment, a level of safety and control was maintained.”

There were approximately 5,000 officers involved in the entire operation. This included policing the demonstrations, security around a large number of protected delegate parties and the continuing operation at ExCel. There are 4,700 police officers on duty today.

What happened at the offices of DTZ

Located on Royal Exchange between Threadneedle Street and Cornhill lies the world headquarters of real estate specialist DTZ. Yesterday, the company – and its appointed guarding company First Security (Guards) – found itself in the thick of the action, but fantastic attention to detail, meticulous planning and co-ordinated security measures realised a pain-free day.

Speaking exclusively to SMT Online this morning, DTZ’s senior building manager Gary Foulds explained: “We completely closed off the front of the building, and reduced access and egress such that people movement was through one door only. All necessary points in the building were watched over by officers from First Security. In fact, we trebled our guarding capacity for both yesterday and today.”

Despite the protests moving on to the ExCel Centre in London’s Docklands, where the G20 Summit is taking place right now, there are fears that a Memorial Service is being planned for later today in the Bank of England area to commemorate yesterday’s death of a protestor. If the event transpires, there’s a worry that scenes could descend into an ugly affray between police and activists.

The man's death is apparently being investigated by the Independent Police Complaints Commission. The matter was referred to them by both the City of London Police and the Metropolitan Police Service. The victim, wearing a T-shirt over a football top, was found unconscious by a member of the public near St Michael’s Alley, which is next to Cornhill, at around 7.30pm yesterday. Police were called over and the officers, wearing helmets and protective clothing, formed a barrier around the man as paramedics attempted to revive him.

As the officers tried to revive the man, they came under attack from protesters lobbing bottles. A post-mortem on the deceased man is taking place today.

Foulds continued: “First Security’s officers have done a tremendous job for us. Special praise has to go to the company’s operations manager Adam Williams, who has been on site since 7.00 am yesterday morning and was still there when I spoke to him just a few minutes ago.

Preparations in place for all eventualities

“It was – and has been – a great team effort,” said a tired but obviously relieved Williams, who has been with First for the last 12 years of his career.

“We practised lock-down scenarios in the weeks leading up to yesterday’s events. Although it’s not normal for physical buildings to be attacked on occasions such as this, as we saw with the RBS facility anything can happen so you must prepare for all eventualities.”

To that end, all signage on the building was covered over and members of DTZ’s staff briefed extensively on their roles for the period of the protest marches.

“All of the officers on site were specially trained for yesterday and today,” continued Williams. “We have emergency toolkits in place as well as defibrillator units just in case they happened to be needed.”

Professionalism comes into full effect

Williams didn’t pull any punches in stating: “To be honest, Brian, yesterday the Bank of England area was akin to a war zone. It was truly frightening at times, but if you work in security the adrenalin kicks in and you do your job. All of my team members were calm and really professional.”

Foulds and Williams have been colleagues for the last seven years, the former having built up excellent strategic relationships with the City of London Police and the Metropolitan Police that Williams believes helped a great deal for this latest bout of anti-capitalist sentiment.

“We were privy to excellent intelligence information from Special Branch,” added Williams. “There’s an encampment of police personnel in the building now in case any further incidents arise this afternoon. All-in-all it was a great team effort, with the perfect end result for the client.”

Obama cavalcade upstages the protestors

To be fair, US leader Barack Obama stole the show from the protestors on what was to be a very slick international debut for the newly-entrenched Leader of the Western World.

Obama’s outsized motorcade was but the first in a series of armoured convoys passing through the Downing Street gates, Prime Minister Gordon Brown also holding private talks with President Medvedev of Russia, President Hu of China, the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Taro Aso, the Prime Minister of Japan.

French Premier Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, will today be pushing for the G20 gathering to make clear progress on tighter regulation of financial markets and replace the ‘light touch’ Anglo-Saxon model blamed for the current crisis.

Sarkozy is quoted as saying: “I will not associate myself with a Summit that would end with a communiqué made of false compromises that would not tackle the issues that concern us. As of today, there is no firm agreement in place. The conversation is going forward, there are projects on the table. As things stand at the moment, these projects suit neither France nor Germany.”

Obama’s response? “The core notion that Government has to take some steps to deal with a contracting market place and to restore growth is not in dispute. It’s the finer points of action upon which we all need to agree.”