I must admit to being surprised that we haven’t heard of more people—both protesters and police—being injured yesterday. The window of my office here in parliament looks out onto the gates of the Commons and Parliament Square and almost every time I looked up yesterday afternoon the rioters seemed to be charging the rather thick blue line. It wasn’t a crowd surging forward but a full-on medieval style assault.
Obviously, it is wrong and worrying if innocent protesters got beaten by the police. But there were so many people intent on violence at yesterday’s protest that the police were in a nigh-on impossible position. If they had not forcefully held the line, I really do not know what the hard core would have known. They didn’t seem to be interested in just symbolic gestures.
I’m told that the police are confident that they gathered a substantial amount of intelligence yesterday and will soon be in a position to arrest some of the ringleaders of the violent element.
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