31 Arrested at Two London Protests
Police made 31 arrests across two big protests in London on Saturday. One was an annual march marking the Palestinian Nakba.
The other was a rally by British far-right activist Tommy Robinson called Unite the Kingdom. Two men were arrested near Euston station in London.
They were wanted in connection with a hit-and-run in Birmingham where a man was run over. The men had traveled to London to attend the Tommy Robinson rally.
Thousands of people took part in both protests across the city. Police sent 4,000 officers including reinforcements from outside London.
They called it their biggest public order operation in years. Live facial recognition technology was used at a public order event for the first time.
The two marches were kept on entirely separate routes. The Nakba Day march was moved away from its preferred route to Trafalgar Square. It was rerouted from Kensington to Pall Mall.
Key Terms 4
- Nakba Arabic word meaning 'catastrophe'; marks 1948 displacement of Palestinians
- GBH Grievous bodily harm; a serious physical assault charge in UK law
- Facial recognition Technology that identifies people by scanning and matching their faces
- Tommy Robinson British far-right activist known for anti-Islam and nationalist campaigns