Black Lives Matter protests taking place in the United Kingdom took a violent turn on Wednesday evening, with police officers guarding the Prime Minister’s Office attacked with punches and objects thrown.
Thousands of protesters marched through Westminster, London, on Wednesday afternoon to the city’s initially-peaceful Hyde Park demonstrations in sympathy with protests taking place in the United States over the death of George Floyd in police custody.
Protesters chanted now well-known slogans also seen at a prequel march that took place at the weekend, including “no justice, no peace” and “no racist police”.
Chants of “the UK is not innocent” intend to highlight that issues in race relations between the police and public are not limited to the United States.
ut the protest later descended into scuffles and fighting with police. Punches were thrown, and protesters attempted to scale the railings of the Prime Minister’s Downing Street official office while, indoors and just yards away, Boris Johnson was giving a daily press conference on the coronavirus pandemic.