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G20 summit
Police warn of 'unprecedented' threat to London from over 2,000 G20
protesters
Police are describing the threat to London from G20 protesters as
"unprecedented"
on the day of next week's summit.
By Christopher Hope and Kurt Jones
Last Updated: 9:10PM GMT 26 Mar 2009
However senior officers were insistent that London would not be shut
down for the G20 meeting for world leaders and said people would be able
to go about their business.
Police are expecting as many as 2,000 protesters to march through the
Square Mile on April 1 on the eve of the summit.
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On April 2, when the summit is held in the Docklands, seven separate
demonstrations are expected in London.
Commander Simon O'Brien, from the Metropolitan Police, described the
scale of protest and the challenge to the police because of other events
in London as "unprecedented"
He said: "G20 is attracting a significant amount of interest from
protest groups. There is an almost unprecedented level of activity going
on.
"We are seeing the return of some old faces. People who have we have not
seen on the protest circuit for many years in London."
Officers have been monitoring social networking sites like Facebook to
try to stay one step ahead of the protesters as part of the crackdown,
dubbed Operation Glencoe.
He said: "That's a key area of our intelligence gathering. That's where
we are picking up a lot of our intelligence about numbers and what
certain groups are aiming to achieve."
The Met had plans to deal with 'a range of contingencies' - including
the possibility protestors will try to storm the Bank of England or
other prominent buildings.
Last night, campaigners posted a detailed map on the internet, showing
the locations of offices of scores of law firms, energy companies, banks
and defence in the City.
Mr O'Brien said he backed advice from small business groups that City
workers should dress down next week and not carry any corporate branded
bags.
The G20 in the middle of a state visit from the President of Mexico,
football internationals between England and Slovakia and Ukraine, and
the Varsity boat race.
He said: "It's fair to say that this is one of the largest, one of the
most challenging and one of the most complicated operations we have
delivered."
Officers from six forces will work 10,500 eight hour shifts policing the
G20 between March 24 and April 2. The Met has cancelled all police leave
on April 1 and 2.
Senior Whitehall sources have told The Daily Telegraph to expect
"widespread disruption" with parks and roads likely to be closed for
most of the week.
Up to 40 armed convoys are expected to ferry diplomats and world
leaders, including President Barack Obama, when they arrive in the UK
from Tuesday.
The map, a copy of which has been seen by The Daily Telegraph, being
circulated among protesters identifies more than 125 targets across the
City, including dozens of international corporations, banks, and oil
companies.
More than 50 financial institutions are pinpointed, including some of
those - like RBS, Lloyds TSB - blamed for precipitating the current
economic crisis.
The map, titled "Squaring up to the Square Mile", also locates the
London branches of the so-called Big Four accountancy firms
Pricewaterhouse Coopers, Deloitte, KPMG and Ernst & Young.
The London offices of city law firms Allen & Overy, Clifford Chance,
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Linklaters and Slaughter and May are
among 20 legal offices located.
Other companies and institutions picked out include arms traders,
ratings agencies and companies involved in carbon trading - the complex
market mechanism intended to reduce CO2 emissions that will be the focus
of environmental groups' anger at the G20 demonstrations.
The map urged potential demonstrators to vent their anger at the
"carpeted, warmed and well-lighted offices" of corporate capitalism,
quoting the writer CS Lewis's attack on the "managerial age".
It said: "The Square Mile is the dying heart of this business, where fat
cats gamble with people's livelihoods, homes, communities and the
environment, while awarding themselves fat bonuses and state bailouts.
"A system that wreaks destruction everywhere must be resisted
everywhere. The Square Mile is the place to start."
The map also contains plans of the ExCeL centre in Docklands where the
summit begins on April 2, and the neighbouring hotels where delegates
are staying.
It said: "We are going to bang on their hotel doors.... to deliver our
message of a world beyond capitalism."
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Thursday, 26 March 2009
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