Brighton’s March for England

At last year’s ‘March for England’, the police “kettled” anti-fascist protesters and arrested several, apparently for being verbally abusive. At the same time they took no action when EDL people made fascist salutes and hurled insults at passers by. When I complained about this to a police officer, I was told they had been “as good as gold”. I gained the impression that the police viewed the anti fascists, many of whom were anarchists, as the real problem.

This year’s event was different. Though anarchists did take a lead in confrontations with the police – and a few acted aggressively –  they were far outnumbered by the many hundreds of anti-fascists who noisily lined the march’s route, at times four deep.

This year, at least in the early stages, the police seemed more courteous and even-handed and at times took action to stop excessively provocative actions by MFE marchers. I saw some examples of superb policing, maintained in the face of provocation, but as time wore on I also saw some police abuse their positions.

I was pushed over by one officer, who stormed up the steps from the road onto the crowded raised pavement above Queens Road. I didn’t fall to the ground, but my coffee spilled over someone else. As people bumped and trampled on each other, to get out of the way, I saw an officer deliberately target an older bearded man, who looked to be in his fifties or sixties. The man was obviously attempting to move away, but the officer had clearly lost his temper and pushed him with full force. The man fell over backwards to the pavement and was only saved from hitting his head on the stone step by my leg. He could easily have been knocked unconscious or have been killed. He got up and said he was all right, but the officer certainly didn’t check. The crowd had not been acting illegally and was not aggressive, just shocked. A truncheon fell to the floor – possibly belonging to the same officer –  but significantly no one attempted to remove it or use it against the police – and it was retrieved.

Just minutes later I found a young woman on the floor, her eyes and nose streaming with tears and mucous, her mouth literally foaming. An older woman was helping her to bath her eyes with bottled water and I gave her my bottle as well. The girl was obviously in great pain and distress and kept saying “But I wasn’t doing anything. I wasn’t doing anything. Why did they do it”. It was only then that I realised the police had pepper sprayed the youngsters who’d tried to stop the march by standing in the road.  I left her with my water and moved on. It was then that my husband told me he’d seen a police officer indiscriminately spraying across the protesters’ faces. Experienced protesters intending aggressive confrontation with the police tend to wear face masks, so it was probably the least confrontational who suffered most.

We moved down to Church Street and waited outside the museum. There were very few people there and most were unconnected with the march or protest. The police horses led the way, 4 or 5 abreast. Suddenly, they rode forward and attempted to drive people who were drifting across the road out of the way. One police officer road his horse up onto the pavement. We backed hard against the wall in order to get out of the way, but he deliberately rode towards us, so close that I could feel the horse’s body. I was able to push into the angle of a stone column or I might have fallen. He raised his truncheon, but we stood our ground and he rode on. A woman came to ask me if I was all right.

Police are highly trained and well paid professionals. It is their job to uphold the law and deal with provocation without losing their temper. Other public servants, such as nurses and social workers have at times to deal with insults and physical abuse. Most do not resort to violence and neither should police. They should also be able to tell the difference between protesters who are law abiding and those who are not.

Finally, it was highly predictable that a few irresponsible people in the crowd, some I suspect very young, might throw things.  If some of the police had been positioned along the route alongside the protesters, they would have been better able to stop this. Standing alongside the protesters would also have made it clear to all concerned that the police’s job is to impartially  protect the anti-fascist people of Brighton & Hove quite as much as extreme rightwing activists from elsewhere.