The Guardian
Black Lives Matter protests block roads around UK
Protesters block road near Heathrow in London, halting M4 traffic, with similar action seen in Nottingham and Birmingham
Haroon Siddique
Friday 5 August 2016 13.34 BST Last modified on Saturday 6 August 2016 01.36 BST
Black Lives Matter activists protesting against racism in the UK blocked roads in three major cities on Friday, including London, where traffic was brought to a standstill outside Heathrow airport.As the movement carried out a coordinated day of action, it took police hours to end demonstrations at key routes in Birmingham and Nottingham, as well as the capital.
By midday, protesters who had chained themselves to one another remained in place in Nottingham city centre, bringing buses and trams to a halt, and on the approach to Heathrow, causing lengthy tailbacks.
Black Lives Matter UK (UKBLM), a loose network of anti-racism activists, called the “shutdown” to coincide with the fifth anniversary of the death of Mark Duggan, who was shot dead by police during a hard stop (a planned operation that involves armed officers deliberately intercepting a vehicle to confront suspects). Duggan’s shooting, and the police response afterwards, sparked the 2011 riots.
Natasha Nkonde, a UKBLM activist, said: “[Duggan] represents another death in police custody with no consequences. Black people are overrepresented in these cases. In the past year we’ve had Mzee Mohammed, Sarah Reed, Jermaine Baker – we are in a crisis about the brutality being inflicted on black people. Sarah Reed had mental health issues and was beaten up by the police and found dead.
“We’re upset about the 3,000 deaths in the Mediterranean this year and of course post-Brexit we know there’s been a 57% increase in hate crimes. We are seeing people talking about how they are being attacked, abused in the streets.
“Other forms of protests have been exhausted and so the disruption today is bringing back to the mainstream discussions around black lives and the racist structures and inequalities we know about.”
On Friday night protesters who had gathered in Ali Aftab park in east London blocked the nearby Whitechapel Road. Transport for London also reported disruption on Shoreditch High Street.
On Friday morning outside Heathrow protesters had unfurled a banner saying “This is crisis” and lay on the road chanting “black lives matter” on the approach to the Heathrow tunnel, bringing traffic, which was busy because of the school holidays, to a standstill.
The demonstration began shortly before 8am and police were not able to remove the last of the protesters, six of whom had attached themselves to each other, and fully reopen the roads until just before 12.30pm. The Met police said they made 10 arrests.
Heathrow was chosen for the demonstration partly because it was where the Angolan deportee Jimmy Mubenga died while being restrained by private security guards in 2010.
When the protest began it caused traffic to be backed up all the way to junction 4 of the M4, where people exit for the airport.
Nkonde said: “The delays for people on their way to holidays are regrettable but we’re talking about injustices, 1,500 families [whose relatives have died in police custody], who have been given no justice, no convictions.”
She said more action causing disruption on Friday was possible.
In Nottingham, protesters attached themselves to each other at around 8am and lay across tram lines in the city centre, halting traffic. They were eventually removed about three hours later. Three women aged 30, 48 and 50 and a man aged 30 were all arrested on suspicion of causing the wilful obstruction of a highway, Nottinghamshire police said.
Screens were erected around both the Nottingham and London protests, which Nottinghamshire police said was done to avoid distracting drivers.
In Birmingham, activists chanted “no justice, no peace” as they blocked traffic on the A45 on the approach to the city’s airport. The protest soon ended when police officers dragged them out of the road.
A West Midlands police spokeswoman said four women and one man had been arrested just before 7.30am on suspicion of obstructing the highway and failing to comply with section 14 of the Public Order Act.
Black Lives Matter rallies are planned on Friday in Alexandra Park, Manchester, and St Peter’s Gate in Nottingham, both at 6pm, and Altab Ali Park in east London, at 6.30pm.
The UK movement is following in the footsteps of its US counterpart, which was formed in response to a number of police shootings of black people.
In a video interview with the Guardian’s Owen Jones, Black Lives Matter activist Wail Qasim said: “We face the same problems [as the US] with our criminal justice system here wherein you’re much more likely to be stopped, you’re much more likely to be arrested and then charged. And then, once you go in front of the courts, you’re much more likely to be convicted and given a harsher sentence meaning that our prisons are full especially of black and Asian men and women.”
Calling for Friday’s protests, the group also said black people were more likely to be unemployed than white people, and more likely to be permanently excluded from school, and referenced the increase in reported racist hate crimes since the Brexit vote.
Nkonde said the group was a mix of people, from full-time campaigners and organisers to students and people working in various professions.
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