Today’s newspapers show several pictures of angry protests, with vandalised statues and zero social distancing. They tell a story: of demonstrators who seemed to be alienating potential supporters and risking re-igniting the virus that is destroying the very lives they rightly claim matter. But that’s not a fair picture of what happened at the weekend. The vast majority of those demonstrating did so while respecting social distancing and without violence or destruction. I was at just such a demo. It might not have grabbed the headlines, but what happened in Tooting Common is far more representative of what happened.
I’m a councillor in Queenstown in Battersea (home to the US Embassy) and was invited to speak at a small demonstration on Tooting Common. A local resident found herself moved by what’s happening in America and wanted to show some solidarity. She had never organised a demo before, but just wanted to make a stand.Her
