Marchers ‘Risking Lives' As Violence Blights Message

Anti-Racism activists who attacked and injured police have been roundly condemned for resorting to violence and ignoring coronavirus restrictions.

- Mark Reynolds

With more Black Lives Matters protests taking place in London and elsewhere, politicians, the Police Federation union, head of the Met and members of the public all blasted the unrest.

The Winston Churchill statue was vandalised with neon green graffiti during the protest in London’s Parliament Square.

Amid the melee in London a female mounted officer was left with a collapsed lung, broken collarbone, and shattered ribs after she fell after riding into a traffic light.

She need surgery and remains in a stable condition.

There was also growing alarm that protesters were ignoring social distancing guidelines during the pandemic and fears their actions could lead to another spike in infections.

The violence left 14 Met Police officers injured after 13 more were hurt in earlier protests. Their chief said the assaults at the Black Lives Matter rally were “shocking and completely unacceptable”.

Dame Cressida Dick spoke out after seeing the heated clashes with a minority of demonstrators in central London on Saturday night.

The violence, which saw flares hurled and a Boris bike – the capital’s rental bicycles – thrown at a police horse, followed an otherwise peaceful demo.

The force said 29 people had been arrested after tensions escalated when tens of thousands packed Parliament Square.