Several hundred thousand protesters rally in London against lockdown tyranny

Sky News
Sat, 24 Apr 2021 23:04 UTC

'Just a few people breaking the law,' according to UK media...

Thousands of people have defied social distancing rules to march through the streets of central London - mostly in protest against COVID regulations including face masks and potential vaccine passports.

At least 10,000 demonstrators have been marching through the capital in the Saturday sunshine, according to Sky's home affairs correspondent Mark White, who was there.

Comment: Mark White needs new glasses. There were hundreds of thousands - if not over a million - people protesting.

A march initially said to be part of the "Kill the Bill" movement against laws granting greater powers to police was seemingly usurped by those protesting about coronavirus.

Mark White said: "The vast majority of people who are here are actually protesting against the rules around COVID, against vaccination, against the rules around masks.

"Lots of other concern as well about the potential for vaccine passports."

White added: "A lot of different groups that have come together with a lot of different areas they are concerned about, under a general heading they say of an attempt to preserve their freedoms - and rail against what they say is a continuing effort by the government and authorities to curtail those freedoms."

© Reuters / Toby Melville

People out shopping in Oxford Street were met with calls from the crowd to "take your masks off", as many protesters carried signs featuring the usual, disproven, scientifically impossible conspiracy theories about vaccines.

Comment: Oh 'the usual'! Yellow journalism at its finest.

On Saturday evening, eight police officers were injured as they worked to disperse crowds in Hyde Park. Two officers were taken to hospital but were not believed to be seriously hurt.

Missiles including bottles were thrown in small pockets of disorder, the Metropolitan Police said.

Three people were arrested for offences including assault on police and are now in custody.

Comment: That's one way of putting it. Another - as seen in recorded video footage - is that a small pocket of police waded into the crowd at Hyde Park, attempted to turn off or confiscate the sound system playing music at the end of the massive rally, then got chased (and rather beaten up), all the way out of the park, by a sizeable crowd of around a thousand people...

Police had asked people not to attend

Ahead of this weekend, the Met released an open letter to anyone thinking of protesting.

"The MPS strongly advises people not to attend any large gathering, for the protection of yourselves and others. We are still in the middle of a global pandemic," it said.

"Please be advised that you may also be at risk of committing a criminal offence. Under the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (Steps) (England) Regulations 2021 no person may participate in a gathering of more than 6 people outdoors, unless certain exemptions apply."

Bristol also saw crowds gather to protest in sunny weather on Saturday.

Comment: More footage of the protest, via RT:

Actor and mayoral candidate Laurence Fox, who has promised to do away with Covid-19 restrictions entirely if elected, was an enthusiastic participant. Posting videos of hordes of people marching through the streets, he decried the "total corruptstream media blackout" of the protest.

As of mid-afternoon, the mood seemed jovial. Though gatherings of such a large scale are still forbidden under the UK's lockdown rules, the mostly maskless crowd marched freely through the city.

Unlike protests by climate activists over the preceding days, Saturday's march was largely ignored by the mainstream media, with only a handful of British tabloids dedicating short stories to the demonstration.