Thursday, 12 December 2013

Students march through London setting bins on fire for #copoffcampus protest

A MOB of about 2,000 students have taken part in a protest in central London which has seen a building broken into and rubbish bins set on fire. 
Reports suggest the group have travelled through Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly and Hyde Park Corner after blocking streets in Holborn in the West End.
Protesters have clashed with the Metropolitan Police across central London but the police have emphasised that no arrests have been made at this stage.
The students, believed to be mainly from London universities UCL and SOAS, are protesting over the way police handled last week's demonstration over the future of student unions and cleaners contracts.
The event has been christened as #copoffcampus on Twitter and tweeters have flooded the social network with pictures from the march.
The BBC also came in for criticism due to their lack of coverage of the event and alleged misreporting of the issues.
One user wrote: "When @BBCNews so woefully misreports the issues, the movement only grows..#copoffcampus"
Another simply wrote: "We're fighting for a better world, not just a better pay."
Another factor in the protest is believed to be the inquest into the death of Mark Duggan, whose shooting sparked the London riots in the summer of 2011.
Demonstrators outside the High Court could be heard chanting: "Police killed Mark Duggan."
Pictures have shown protesters striking a van's windshield with signs while others tried to open the van's doors as police inside tried to close them.
A Met Police spokesman said officers were monitoring the protester's march.
He said: "No arrests have been made at this stage.
"We will always look to facilitate peaceful protest. What we must balance is the rights of people to protest with the public's right to go about their daily business.
"We have had an appropriate policing operation in place throughout the course of this afternoon, including pre-deploying officers at a number of central London locations."