Following a moment of erupting tension with police at protests on Thursday over what protestors are calling ‘unjust and heavy-handed’ arrests at a Kurdish Community Centre, some of those who had been present tell City News they’re feeling regretful.
‘The police aimed to provoke us, we can’t fall into their hands’ one senior protestor said.
‘Those people had been trying to have a decent demonstration from the beginning’ he added.
The brief clash took place on the evening of Thursday 28th. Protestors had marched down Green Lanes from Turnpike Lane tube station. After stopping for roughly five minutes at the turning for Stanhope Gardens, which leads to the Kurdish Community Centre, the marchers suddenly began moving quickly down this street.
Police had blocked off Portland Gardens, the cul-de-sac where the Community Centre is located and were IDing any residents attempting to cross this blockade.
As the march arrived at the end of Portland Gardens some began throwing bottles at the police manning this blockade. They rushed forward and dismantled the barricade before police surged forward and regained control.
Even as this happened many senior demonstrators attempted to deescalate the situation, standing between more excited protestors and the police.
‘Anne’, a local resident in her sixties who had been at the frontline of the police stand-off, said she felt the older generation could learn something from younger demonstrators.
‘We’ve always about being in your face. I’m not scared of anything, I jump in first and think later. Younger people are smarter about it’.
She spoke about recent demonstrations where climate protesters had managed to get into the audience for a speech by Priti Patel and disrupt proceedings ‘for a good twenty minutes… We used to be just be outside making a lot of noise… I think I misunderstood when Bruce Lee said ‘be like water’, I’m more of a tsunami’.
Some members of the Kurdish community have started an encampment on Stanhope Gardens. Speaking about the demonstration, one Kurdish man at this encampment said ‘You can have a thousand people protesting peacefully, but if one of the gets violent or shouts a terrorist slogan, that paints the whole thousand people in the same light”
He hopes the clash with police wouldn’t distract too much from their cause. ‘Kurdish people have been oppressed in their homeland; in Turkey, Syria , Iran and Iraq. We came to the UK for safety. We fought terrorists, we fought ISIS; now we’re being treated like terrorists.”
Many protestors told me how they grew up in the Community Centre, and hated how it was ‘made a place of violence by the police’.
‘Its a safe space for a peaceful, law-abiding community’.
Police continue to occupy the Kurdish Community Centre on Portland Gardens the community continue to protest at the encampment at the end of the street.
Since Thursday’s clash there have been no similar incidents and the protests,including one focussing on wider Kurdish issues in Trafalgar Square on Sunday, have remained peaceful.
Headline‘We regret clash with police’: Kurdish community speaks out after arrests
Short HeadlineProtesters at Kurdish Community Centre voice regret
StandfirstProtesters: We allowed ourselves to be provoked by police and hope clash doesn't distract from our cause
Following a moment of erupting tension with police at protests on Thursday over what protestors are calling ‘unjust and heavy-handed’ arrests at a Kurdish Community Centre, some of those who had been present tell City News they’re feeling regretful.
‘The police aimed to provoke us, we can’t fall into their hands’ one senior protestor said.
‘Those people had been trying to have a decent demonstration from the beginning’ he added.
The brief clash took place on the evening of Thursday 28th. Protestors had marched down Green Lanes from Turnpike Lane tube station. After stopping for roughly five minutes at the turning for Stanhope Gardens, which leads to the Kurdish Community Centre, the marchers suddenly began moving quickly down this street.
Police had blocked off Portland Gardens, the cul-de-sac where the Community Centre is located and were IDing any residents attempting to cross this blockade.
As the march arrived at the end of Portland Gardens some began throwing bottles at the police manning this blockade. They rushed forward and dismantled the barricade before police surged forward and regained control.
Even as this happened many senior demonstrators attempted to deescalate the situation, standing between more excited protestors and the police.
‘Anne’, a local resident in her sixties who had been at the frontline of the police stand-off, said she felt the older generation could learn something from younger demonstrators.
‘We’ve always about being in your face. I’m not scared of anything, I jump in first and think later. Younger people are smarter about it’.
She spoke about recent demonstrations where climate protesters had managed to get into the audience for a speech by Priti Patel and disrupt proceedings ‘for a good twenty minutes… We used to be just be outside making a lot of noise… I think I misunderstood when Bruce Lee said ‘be like water’, I’m more of a tsunami’.
Some members of the Kurdish community have started an encampment on Stanhope Gardens. Speaking about the demonstration, one Kurdish man at this encampment said ‘You can have a thousand people protesting peacefully, but if one of the gets violent or shouts a terrorist slogan, that paints the whole thousand people in the same light”
He hopes the clash with police wouldn’t distract too much from their cause. ‘Kurdish people have been oppressed in their homeland; in Turkey, Syria , Iran and Iraq. We came to the UK for safety. We fought terrorists, we fought ISIS; now we’re being treated like terrorists.”
Many protestors told me how they grew up in the Community Centre, and hated how it was ‘made a place of violence by the police’.
‘Its a safe space for a peaceful, law-abiding community’.
Police continue to occupy the Kurdish Community Centre on Portland Gardens the community continue to protest at the encampment at the end of the street.
Since Thursday’s clash there have been no similar incidents and the protests,including one focussing on wider Kurdish issues in Trafalgar Square on Sunday, have remained peaceful.
