Rachael Venables Profile picture
Jun 3, 2020 8 tweets 5 min read Read on X
There’s easily hundreds of people already heading into Hyde Park for the start of the #BLMLDN protest this afternoon. Many carrying Black Lives Matter signs and placards @LBC
Chants of “George Floyd!” and “Belly Mujinga!” ringing out from Hyde Park now. Belly was the ticket collector who died of Covid-19 after someone spat in her face. #BLMLDN

This campaigner’s urging protesters to space out, and respect social distancing. @LBC
Look at the incredible turnout already at the #BlackLivesMattter protest in London this afternoon. Hard to guess at numbers but hundreds still pouring in. Most wearing masks and trying to stay apart, but that is almost impossible. @LBC
“Find your humanity and breathe, breathe for George.” #BLMLDN
Now the crowd are on the move, thousands of them leaving Hyde Park - blocking traffic. Screams of “No Justice, No Peace” as they go #BLMLDN @LBC
Jay’s on the #BLMLDN protest, she says what happened to George Floyd “was a lynching.”

Earlier I asked another protester whether he was scared of the virus in these crowds. He told me “racism is the real virus, I’m more scared of that, and it’s been going on way longer.” @LBC
Traffic’s been at a standstill here for over an hour. This woman’s trapped in her car, but she’s joining in
Deafening screams of “Shame on You” outside Downing Street as the Black Lives Matter protest meets Westminster. Thousands are gathered back at Parliament Square and what looks like thousands more up at Trafalgar Square. @LBC

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More from @rachaelvenables

Dec 14, 2022
I’m at the Old Bailey for the sentencing of Jordan McSweeney, who murdered 35-year-old Zara Aleena as she walked home in Ilford in June.

Slight delay as he is refusing to come to court. His defence say he ‘doesn’t want to relive’ the night by watching CCTV played out. @LBC
@LBC Jordan McSweeney is still refusing to come to the court room. Sentencing now beginning with him absent, though he is in the building.
@LBC The court hears how McSweeney attacked Zara Aleena "with a savagery that is almost impossible to believe. He repeatedly kicked and stamped on her head and body; he tore some of her clothes from her body in order that he could sexually assault her; and then he attacked her again."
Read 42 tweets
Oct 14, 2022
Just Stop Oil have just thrown soup over Vincent Van Gogh’s Sunflowers in the National Gallery. @LBC
They walked into the gallery this morning and threw two tins of Heinz tomato soup over the masterpiece - which has an estimated value of $84.2 million.
A Just Stop Oil activist who was in the room tells me (thankfully) the painting is behind glass. Big police presence outside the Gallery now
Read 6 tweets
May 23, 2022
Former Deputy Assistant Commissioner of the Met Lord Brian Paddick just suggested to @AndrewMarr9 the force “may not have investigated [partygate] as hard as they could have done, because they didn’t want to upset Number 10” @LBC
Lord Paddick made the comments after comparing the Partygate investigation to the Met’s failure to investigate phone hacking at first - saying in that case they didn’t want to upset their friends in the media.
Lord Paddick also tells @AndrewMarr9 @LBC the Met needs to clearly explain to the public why Boris Johnson did NOT get a fixed penalty notice for the Nov 2020 event - given what these pictures suggest.
Read 4 tweets
Mar 25, 2022
5,279 Children were Strip Searched by the Met Police in London in the past three years (that's five every single day.)

THREE QUARTERS of them were from ethnically diverse backgrounds

Just under half were black

Only 22% were white 🧵
lbc.co.uk/news/three-qua…
The Met's already under pressure over its use of the tactic, after a damning report found racism was a factor in a 15-year-old girl, "Child Q", being strip searched while on her period at her school in Hackney, without an appropriate adult in the room.
Shadow Policing Minister @LabourSJ says strip search on children should only be used in 'exceptional' circumstances when lives are at risk.

As for the racial disparities, she calls that "wrong, on a basic human rights equality front."
Read 8 tweets
Mar 11, 2022
This is Tanya and Richard Spinks. She's Ukrainian, he's a Brit, and they both live in Lviv.

On Tuesday, she got an email from the Home Office telling her to go to a visa appointment 500 miles away in *Kyiv*

- to an office that's closed. @LBC
@LBC The booking for an appointment to take her biometrics was made on 18th February - for Wednesday 9th March.

The site has since closed, and they eventually managed to get out to Poland.

But on the 8th they were staggered to get a follow-up email, reminding them to go to Kyiv.
Richard Spinks told me it's "beyond incomprehensible."

To think of anyone else receiving this email potentially now "struggling through a war zone, past Russians, to get to an appointment that doesn't exist."
Read 6 tweets
Mar 7, 2022
Fire in a high rise on Whitechapel High Street. London Fire say ten engines & 70 firefighters are at the scene. They’re asking people to avoid the area if possible
Now 100 firefighters are tackling this blaze in Aldgate. You can see external parts of the building flying off as the flames spread. Praying everyone is ok
Now, Sadiq Khan says 20 fire engines and more than 125 firefighters are working to tackle the fire at the block of flats and offices. It's the Relay Building, also home to Houblon Apartments
Read 9 tweets

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