here in trafalgar square at the #BlackLivesMatter demo. hundreds of people shouting “i can’t breathe” and “stop killing us”

the crowd takes a knee whilst chanting “no justice, no peace”

“george flloyd, say his name”

anger here is palpable as the crowd grows. people calling for an end to white supremacy, for white people to take responsibility and remembering those who have been victims of police violence in the uk- “mark duggan, say his name”

and we’re in the move, thousands heading down whitehall chanting “black lives matter”

huge cheers as the crowd goes past busses beeping their horns in support. chants of “no justice, no peace”. police chopper ahead, we’re arriving at the gates of downing street.

shouts of “fuck the government and fuck boris” and the crowd mar get in towards parliament. protesters shouting “stop killing us” at police offices lining the route

march has crossed the river and currently entering into vauxhall. lots of vocal support from cars and people out on the roads

protest arrives at US embassy and thousands take a knee outside shouting “i can’t breathe”

still here outside the US embassy. hundreds if not thousands here chanting “george flloyd, say his name”

had to run home from the demo to charge my phone, but left it as demonstrators were staging a sit in amongst traffic on chelsea bridge. a couple of points on the demo:

1) as march left US embassy, walked through battersea+ up to the bridge police were increasingly antagonistic. would form lines splitting the march, holding it just long enough for ppl to get annoyed, then break. hard to see justification in an entirely peaceful demo (so far)

2) the anger in the demo today goes far beyond george flloyd. people were chanting about mark duggan, belly mujinga, white silence and the hostile environment. black lives matter movement may have sprung from police violence, but it is about so much more than that...

... that thousands of people would come out to demonstrate in the middle of a pandemic shows how angry and raw people are, and how prescient so many of these issues still are, despite decades of lip service from the establishment.

over and over the chant "enough is enough" was heard. people want to see change - real, tangible, structural change. this movement, and the righteous anger, upset, grief and sadness driving it isn't going away any time soon.

caught back up with the #BlackLivesMatter london demo, still going strong with hundreds blocking the junction outside parliament shouting “i can’t breathe”

heard reports of arrests down in vauxhall, and have seen a few police vans whizzing down that way but trying to confirm that now. here outside parly police seem to have formed a loose line by the tube station.

an old white guy to the side (unconnected to the demo) has chosen this moment to start shouting about “being white and british”. really has not read the room.

more info on those arrests (h/t @mlothianmclean) https://twitter.com/metpoliceuk/status/1267143114491416580?s=21 https://twitter.com/metpoliceuk/status/1267143114491416580

cops here walking through the crowd warning people about corona legislation. crowd looks like it’s not going to start dispersing any time soon so feels like a prelude to more arrests being made (first they inform, then they enforce according to their guidance on it)

scuffles breaking out as protestors shout “calm down, it’s what they want”

it’s getting very heated here. vocal element of the crowd calling for peace and non violence as fights and scuffles continue to sporadically break out. people are chanting “we want change” in the face of police.

it’s kicking off further onto westminster bridge too. a separate group of protestors facing off with the police here.

throughout all of this chants of “george flloyd, say his name” ring out. accusations from within the crowd of police aggression and antagonism being shouted at them “you can keep pushing us, we will come back to the streets, you can keep arresting us, we will come back..”

.. to the streets. you can kneel on our necks, we will come back to the streets”.

particularly aggressive arrest about 5 mins ago and now a group of perhaps 30 of us have been kettled

another brutal arrest as people try and leave the kettle. after i finished filming they took the guy out of my sight line but people in the crowd were screaming “you’re hurting him” “you’re going to break his arm”

one of the cops has blood on his shirt from the guy they just arrested. this is fucking grim.

happy to announce most of us are out of the kettle

back at trafalgar, where it started 7 hours ago and it seems quiet now. from what i can tell there are still a couple of disparate groups out and about but for the most part, it seems to be over but the anger and the rage we saw on the streets today will not disappate overnight.

there’s another demo planned for wednesday at 1pm in hyde park, and demonstrations and protests continue across the world tonight.