G20: RBS raided by protesters, windows smashed and fire started

by mudricky | April 1, 2009 at 07:02 am

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RBS Branch in London City.

An attack on a branch of RBS in London is one of many things that you could see today watching the news on television.

As 4000 protesters walked about the streets of London, images and videos on websites and TV showed these impressive crowds, and also a huge army of police.

And as you can see below Now Public users have been uploading their own photos, be it a camera phone or DSLR. (The full G20 photo footage on Now Public can be found here and it's own channel here)

Of the RBS attack you could see windows being smashed and office equipment thrown out of the windows.

One thing you couldn't miss was the media, cameras for photo and video all over the place.

Protesters who smashed the windows entered the building and started a small fire using anything they could find near by.

Police have made arrests regarding the RBS attacks and have said they will track down and arrest anyone else involved.

Early on during the protests, the protesters went to the Bank of England, this is where there is a large camp.

As they stood at the Bank of England building office workers waved £10 notes from the windows. The protesters reacted with boos and shouting.

(Links in regard to this story SKY News)

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Blue Crush

at 07:21 on April 1st, 2009

It's starting to get ugly!

aberdulais

at 09:46 on April 1st, 2009

From what I understand, the demonstrations and protests that took place over the week-end and again today, Monday, were mostly by the highly organised and planned groups, who had also had many prior discussions and meetings with the Police in London. These are not the groups that the Police are most worried about....they are very much more worried about the numerous groups that have significant networking capabilities, and who have NOT met with the Police to discuss their plans. Fractions of these groups were responsible for driving the armoured vehicle into the City this morning, ( which was stopped early on by the Police) and the group that attacked the Royal Bank of Scotland this afternoon.

The environmental group for example has been mostly very peaceful, if not annoying to the Police. They simply errected tents and put out sleeping bags in Bishopsgate, and have so far been mostly ignored......except by the commuters in London, as this is one of the busiest routes in the Captial which is now blocked and looking like a Rock Festival......

My best guess is that tonight and tomorrow the undercover 'silent' groups who are very much more hard core, will actually make themselves known. It is at night that they are not in the full glare of the World's media and SKY/BBC cameras. As they have said before, protesting is not a 9-5 job..!!

Talking of Police orchestration, I noted that when I logged on to a variety of CCTV/WebCam sites around the City of London, these were all 'Down' which presumably means that the Police have requested that such cameras be switched off in an attempt to block any co-ordination by protesters......I think this is an interesting manipulation of the use of the CCTV security cameras by both the Police and the Protestors..and a story I am looking at in more depth.....

Finally, one Policeman was apparently heard to say 'Thank God for Obama, if it had been George Bush here this week we would never have coped ...'

dowdinsk

at 13:44 on April 1st, 2009

err, small niggle but today wasn't Monday, it was Wednesday April 1st, aka Fossil Fools' Day.

re "the armoured vehicle", it's very much disarmed, more linked from here

"so far been mostly ignored"... reported on london indymedia baton charged by riot cops in the early evening, ie after the commuters had mostly gone home

"these were all 'Down'" - yep that's normal, comes together with a caption saying its to help keep London's traffic flowing too!

BBC has a fairly decent report on Climate Camp G20 here

jazzyzazzy

at 08:16 on April 1st, 2009

a did predict a riot,even the old age pensioners are out in force protesting.It has only just begun it would not surprise me if anarchy ensues.People are just so fed up hearing the same old lame excuses and false promises.

itslefty

at 08:56 on April 1st, 2009

I don't normally watch TV but this morning I watched sky news, not for any particular reason.

I noticed that they were building the G20 protest up like you would expect to see on a cup final day or the grand national, Sky news were saying there was going to be trouble, they showed people sitting on the pavement drinking a cup of tea poured from pot.

They also showed us plywood being erected into window frames as you would expect to see if we had a hurricane warning.

The top images for this story show the rbs bank getting attacked where was the plywood?

Many photographers on hand just at the right place at the right time, that looks set up to me.

propaganda in action.

good story.

lefty_liberated

at 14:23 on April 1st, 2009

IM LEFTY :P

mudricky

at 14:27 on April 1st, 2009

lol

jordan

at 10:37 on April 1st, 2009

I read that the fire was started when protestors burnt a banker in effigy.

GianLeo

at 11:31 on April 1st, 2009

These were shot in Trafalgar Square not long before the square got flooded with people of the End Wars rally. Despite the excitement and madness going on in the City and the incoming march into the square, the atmosphere was peaceful and quiet (though the sheer number of policemen around was a good hint...). The foot on the left will be only the first of several attempts to destroy this street-art piece...

GianLeo has contributed a photo to this story.

amyjudd

at 11:47 on April 1st, 2009

What the workers did at the BOE is shocking, but attacking another bank? That is just not worth it I think.

lefty_liberated

at 14:22 on April 1st, 2009

You gotta eat the rich before they eat you.

aberdulais

at 11:50 on April 1st, 2009

Great piece of street art and fantastic design concept....be assured that it will survive for a very long time, at least in photograph form, and hopefully all viewers/readers will be publishing a copy of this on their facebook etc sites - keeping this piece alive, long after the long foot of the ignorant have failed to understand it.....

Room 1834

at 13:31 on April 1st, 2009

for a future world built on principles of freedom, direct democracy, mutual aid, solidarity and equality without rulers or masters more underclassrising.net all images are taken from indymedia and copyleft

Room 1834 has contributed a photo to this story.

sara star

at 13:47 on April 1st, 2009

Is any one throwing shoes yet?

dowdinsk

at 13:55 on April 1st, 2009

nah, that was done in both London and Edinburgh on the Gaza protests in January, but its a tad peripheral to the meltdown of capitalism?

basra

at 14:05 on April 1st, 2009

We spent half the afternoon at the temporary camp site around the corner of our London studio on normally one of the bussiest streets of the City of London, Bishopsgate. The RBS Bank on the corner was turned into a fortress by the police, but the camp site down the road was a peaceful sit-in with great people from all ages. In between the building sites where finanicial capitalism continues to create its skyscrapers no matter what it seems, the save the planet crowd turned out to be heavy media users, from phones to photo to video, with even a bicycle-powered sound system. Media and technology are definitely central to such an event. We planet savers are not anti-technology but please take turns pedaling if you want to keep dancing!

basra has contributed a photo to this story.

nonsibattechiodo

at 14:10 on April 1st, 2009

a privilege to be part of the colorouful protests at the bank of england, to see the place stormed by people of all sort, everyone there for the same reason, and not for the usual ones, and not the usual suits. i loved the chaos and the sense of freedom. police barriers during the protest and towards the end, closing all us in, trying to tire us, did not manage to spoil the general atmosphere and the enthusiasm and motivion of the people there.
people together!

nonsibattechiodo has contributed a photo to this story.

lefty_liberated

at 14:21 on April 1st, 2009

Wow look at that. That is an incredible photo.

René

at 15:10 on April 1st, 2009

what are they trying to slip by us while this expected protest takes over the news?

jazzyzazzy

at 15:17 on April 1st, 2009

It respect being lost on all sides.Its a shame it has come to such a awful sense of anxious and anger. People have been really made to suffer as soon as the war begun.New Labour with the Blare Babes was all about pushing women to the front line to assure they fall at the last line.................................................Its a shambles and it has been created by the goverment not the people, the general public have as much right as anyone to stand up for the sake of there own dignity and survival. The dissabled people have been forced to work when they clearly cant, the students who are all running up student loan debts,only to find that after all the hard work and study to achieve a degree in their chosen field.They are left to dwindle around temp jobs or droping out completely to travel or ,or,or, Here in the UK you will have a clever guy who has a degree serving you your pitza. The jobs are being replaced by technology. The world of power is one big ego trip.

Barry Artiste

at 21:17 on April 1st, 2009

friggin mindblowing

Paschen

at 21:18 on April 1st, 2009

The beginning of a revolt or a revolution?

The bail out plan was the wrong road to take. Reforms is what is needed and justice.

From every G8 or G11 or G20 meeting there has been a constant escalation of anger and frustration for over a decade now. When will the elite start to listen? I suppose only after their heads start rolling as Louis the XVI ended up rolling.

Can we not learn and be pro active rather then require such revolts and before reforms are made.

We suffer or rather our elite suffers from Louis XVI syndrome.

Roy C

at 21:25 on April 1st, 2009

For me, the protesters are the mirror-image of the elites screwing up the world. They are mostly anarchists and other extremists. They make a lot of noise but they don't represent a lot of people.

GerCMByrne

at 05:48 on April 2nd, 2009

Exactly. They are no more representative of the majority than the fat cats. I hate mindlessness; targeting everything because you disagree with something is not intelligent or engaged. There are a lot of people in those protests who get off on the excitement, and their fanaticism is no better than any other thuggery.
Respect though to the ones who protest with imagination and respect, they're far more interesting.

lefty_liberated

at 11:00 on April 2nd, 2009

They are angry at bank bailouts which is why banks were targeted. There are also groups there promoting climate change.

Chris E Hansen (not verified)

at 22:51 on April 1st, 2009

We are all angry, breaking windows is the least of our dark wishes.

Like a duck to onions

at 02:05 on April 2nd, 2009

djermano

at 05:59 on April 2nd, 2009

People should take the time to read this...it is not going to get better with Obama..He is quite delusional...

http://www.countercurrents.org/petras010409.htm.................

Rev. Jermano

AM3332 (not verified)

at 15:01 on April 2nd, 2009

Wow that was heavy reading ... so Zionist`s.. well thats not beyond the realms of possibilities is it ... The IMF set conditions on the bail outs... anybody heard any of the conditions or am I just being silly to think that the true agenda would be brought to light.. ?