London, March 29: British campaign group South London Solidarity Federation has condemned the violent tactics used by the police to tackle the massive anti-cuts demonstrations held on Saturday.
Spokesman for the group John Green hit out at the police treatment of the London rallies as “violent without any sense of proportion.”
“We have witnessed police brutally launch into demonstrators without any restraint. This is not an aberration but a continuation of their behaviour on other recent demonstrations,” Green said.
Police deployed 4,500 officers on the streets of central London on Saturday to deal with the largely peaceful demonstrations, which organizers said were attended by up to 500,000 people.
But officers clashed with a number of angry demonstrators, employing heavy kettling tactics against protesters, including those on their way to Trafalgar Square in an attempt to break the rallies into small pieces which could be easily contained.
“All of a sudden about 10-20 Met police came storming down the steps of the National Gallery, ran straight to the Olympic clock. I have never seen such a fast escalation of violence in my life. Everything just kicked off; glass everywhere, police hitting people, people being dragged across the floor. I just can’t believe it,” an eye witness said.
The police arrested 201 people in the violent incidents which left 84 people, among them 31 officers, injured. Officers are keen to make more arrests through the use of video evidence in the coming days.
This comes as the GMB union’s leader Paul Kenny has called on the people to turn the local elections on May 5 to a nationwide referendum on the coalition’s economic and social agenda.
“The Government’s strategy is wrong, unfair and will not get the country working. The next step is for the alternative voice to be counted in the ballot box in May. GMB will urge voters to reject unemployment, poverty and cuts in public services,” Kenny said.
——–Agencies