Some videos from today’s protest in central London. Bit rough, but mainly uploaded to give you an idea of the police presence, which was pretty excessive and over the top at points. Definitely got the feeling that they were going for a show of strength in the leadup to the Olympics.

First video: police push a woman to the ground. This seemed excessive – she’d just been standing there. You can see the lineup of special police (riot police?) here. Haven’t seen these uniforms before I don’t think.

Not the natty little blue caps, anyway.

Quick look at the police from inside the kettle. Kettling lasted about half an hour. They took names and addresses at the end of it. I was able to leave with my press pass.

This video shows the sort of numbers the police had and their flanking of the protest…people were singing the Stormtroopers theme from Star Wars:

And a video of the protest as it reached Trafalgar square:

This is another video of the protest as people blocked the streets – gives lie to claims that the demonstration was too small for the mainstream to cover. There was a lot of anger here and a lot of people expressing it.

This protest was well-attended and feisty. And certainly overpoliced. Can’t wait for the Olympics.