hello! this is @bencsmoke, Huck’s contributing editor here once again in london where thousands of people have turned out for the third #BlackLivesMatter protest to be held in the city since the killing of george floyd by minneapolis police on may 25th
the protest comes days after tens of thousands gathered in London’s hyde park before marching through the city on weds. that demo ended in violent clashes, arrests+ a kettle which went on to the early hours. you can see our full 13 hrs of coverage here:
the square here is already completely full with hundreds still streaming down streets towards it. there are similar demos planned up and down the country today, and i’ll hopefully be checking in with a few of them as the day goes on.
if you’re out protesting today, i want to hear from you! dms are open here, so tell me where you are and what you’re up to. i will once be out and about until the bitter end keeping you updated with everything that’s going on!
over the last few days there have been people asking why people are out in the UK demonstrating about the killing of a man in the US. @Micha_Frazer wrote a short history of police brutality in the UK which answers lots of those questions. read it here: huckmag.com/perspectives/o…
scale of the protest is once again hard to grasp but the noise from the chants, cheers and claps is overwhelming. no doubt that the momentum is growing. people on the ground here want real, tangible change that goes far beyond the particulars of a few tragic and horrendous cases.
the march is now on the move away from parliament towards victoria. crowds stretching as far as the eye can see. shouts of “george floyd, say his name” and “black lives matter” once again filling these streets as a samba band plays somewhere within the crowd. 
front of the march is halfway to victoria and those in parliament square are still stood still by all accounts. it’s hard to get true scale on the ground but if it goes all the way back, as it seems to, it means the crowd numbers in the tens of thousands
#BlackLivesMatter graffiti is being daubed over bus stops and streets as the crowd marches on. the crowd is peaceful and cars honk their horns in support as they’re swallowed up by thousands of people out here marching.
getting reports that police tried to break up a demo of ~30 people in wood green, north london. they reportedly turned to a young woman holding a sign with the names of those killed by police +asked “where are the names of those killed by black gangsters” h/t emily reynolds
as the front of the march reaches victoria, and impromptu raves break out in the street around the samba band, parliament square (pictured) is still full of demonstrators 📷: ellen forbes
victoria is the place where belly mujinga, a tfl worker, was spat at, allegedly by a racist who claimed to have corona. she later died from the disease. after days of pressure from demonstrations such as these the CPS have reopened case into her death, having previously closed it
in emotional scenes at the demonstration at hyde park on wednesday, one of her relatives called for justice.
protestors here have scaled victoria palace - the theatre that hosts the west end run of hamilton- holding signs saying “black lives matter”
just to correct an early tweet, Belly Mujinga was a station worker for thameslink, not tfl as previously stated.
trying to ascertain what’s happening towards the back of the crowd as the front heads to buckingham palace. a text from a friend says it all “it’s hard to say- everyone is everywhere”.
as we round the corner, and the top of buckingham palace comes into the view the crowd erupts with shouts of “end white supremacy”
the crowd kneel in front of the palace chanting “no justice, no peace” and “black lives matter”
as the majority of the crowd seem to be coalescing around victoria, the splinter group is off back towards parliament square. various people in the crowd at different points along the route(?) report huge numbers moving in lots of different directions across westminster
the picture is similar in manchester in the north of the country. i’m told there are “a couple of thousand” on the streets there. pics of there and other cities to come as i get them!
back here in london, we’ve rejoined parliament square which is still filled with tens of thousands of people.
hundreds are milling around whitehall where security has been ramped up outside downing street after clashes between protestors and police went late into the night here on wednesday
large and loud contingent of the crowd collecting outside downing street shouting “boris is a pussyhole” “george floyd, say his name” and “no justice, no peace”
thousands kneeling outside downing street shouting “hands up don’t shoot” and “i can’t breathe”
on the other side of westminster village, thousands are streaming across vauxhall bridge towards the US embassy, im told it’s so packed you can’t get without half a mile of it.
i’ve said it before but the sheer scale of this demo is hard to take in. parliament square, downing street, whitehall, the US embassy, victoria all filled with thousands of people. along the fence outside parliament hundreds of signs have been left.
it’s getting heated here in whitehall as a group of police escort a group of people who’d been shouting racist abuse away. crowd chants “who protects the racists? police protect the racists”
the numbers here are smaller now but no less angry and loud. where before there were tens of thousands there are now thousands. here in whitehall they’re spilt between noisy jeers at downing st and a more festival vibe in parliament sq where ppl are beating up a trump punchbag...
in manchester, thousands are gathered in the city’s picadilly gardens
what’s striking is the number of homemade signs here. normally at a demo of this size, you’d expect to see hundreds if not thousands of placards from certain groups or organisations who’d helped organise or just turned up. this is v different. it’s organic mass movement of people
that organic element really captured by how it’s played out today. tens of thousands of people, out on the streets heading to different places simultaneously, all driven by rage and anger at racism and police brutality
violence breaks out once again as another man who who as allegedly shouting racist abuse is chased by protestors and then escorted off by police
more heated clashes as people in the crowd shout “don’t give them what they want”
thunder claps here in whitehall as the sky darkens and the rain pours and lightning splits the sky. fireworks are being thrown. people shouting “i can’t breathe” this feels very apocalyptic
we’ve just been charged by cops. a copper fell off his horse which then trampled people. it’s pandemonium. people are screaming. video coming.
police charge #BlackLivesMatter protesters in whitehall
this is chaos
relative calm has fallen back in whitehall as a line of riot cops and protestors face off. people shouting “enough is enough” lots in the crowd physically shaken and crying. looks to still be some people on the floor behind the police lines
“don’t worry, about a thing”. things a bit calmer now. for a second it looked like it might kick off again as someone threw a firework at the line of police horses, but the tunes seemed to have added a bit of chill.
there’s now a rave going on in front to riot police lines just outside of downing street
it’s been relatively calm here for the last half an hour or so, crowds still right up against the lines of riot police, chants of “black lives matter” but nothing of the chaos of a little while ago and it’s finally stopped raining
police horses leave the scene amid loud boos from the crowd, who’s numbers have now dwindled to be hundreds
tempers fraying here once again as people in the crowd call for calm
more scuffles here as anger spills over
people in the crowd are stopping those who are throwing things, pleading for calm. those at the front have their hands up and are shouting “black lives matter”
someone threw a bottle and the riot police charged protestors. saw at least one person bleeding. people in the crowd screaming for people to stop throwing stuff. the atmosphere is tense here to say the least.
protest has been violently kettled. lines of riot cops streaming up whitehall from parliament square.
protestors running against police lines to try and get through. shouting “black lives matter” and “shame on you”
police pushing back protestors with their hands up chanting “black lives matter”
further up whitehall towards parliament square, scuffles are erupting outside of the kettle
protestors protect a man praying as riot police push forward
someone has hit one of the riot police with a giant plank of wood. 2 metres behind this, another man has joined in praying.
protestors now join in prayer as scuffles continue. the atmosphere down here is incredibly surreal. simultaneously very calm and very fractious, liable to explode at any moment.
protestors continues to push back against the police line. people contained in here are angry. another line riot police has just arrived.
i’ve now left the kettle but there are still perhaps 200 people inside. huge numbers of riots cops everywhere on whitehall and the mood still incredibly fractious. a helicopter is still circling above.
with that we’re wrapping up our coverage of today’s protests here. there is another scheduled to take place outside the US embassy here in london tomorrow at 2 which i’ll be reporting on once again from here.
thanks to everyone for following along and as ever, solidarity with everyone fighting police brutality and racism here, across the UK and the world.
to finish off, here are some of the hundreds of signs left outside of parliament today.
