Bro, am gonna blow ya away, innit

It's been a while since my last post and Ive done quite a lot, so this is a fairly long post.  Try not to nod off.  On Sat 18 Feb there was another Syrian protest at their embassy in Belgrave Square.  This time however, the protest was to be proceeded by a march.

The MSM is full of interviews with politians  and 'activists' who want western intervention in Syria, whether in the form of sanctions, no fly zones or even the  military option.  I have written in the past that the regular protesters at the embassy are all for the military option.  They see it as the only way to depose Assad.  I was more than a wee bit surprised to see the march to the embassy consisted of around 1000 members of the Islamic extremist group, Hizb ut Tahrir.  This group is banned in many countries, and had Cameron not reneged on his pre elections promise, they would be banned in the UK as well.

The Hizb ut Tahrir  stance on Syria, as many of the placards they carried on the march stated, is no form of  intervention at all.  This begs the question 'Why would a group of Syrians, who openly campaign for military intervention, suddenly be hand in glove with an extremist group, who are their polar opposite when it comes to the question of intervention?'

Hizb ut Tahrir should be banned in the UK.  They have publicly said that those who believe in democracy are 'Kafir' (unclean).  They allegedly say it is 'dangerous' for Muslims to integrate into western society.  They have long been suspected as being a driving force behind the radicalisation of Muslim youths in the UK, indeed would - be suicide bomber Omar Sharif was allegedly radicalised partly by Hitz ut Tahrir activists at his UK university.

Where the Syrian demos at the embassy have always been a mixed effort, with men, women, and children all mixed together, this time the women were forced to march behind the men, and were kept separate from them during the static protest at there embassy.

None of the Hitz ut Tahrir hierarchy were present during the march or demo at the embassy.  A look at the photo at the top of this post gives an insight as to the ages of the Hitz ut Tahrir marchers.  It would be impossible to say whether these young guys are being radicalised.  However, it's no stretch of the imagination to see them as another generation of Muslim youth who will fail , due to the influence of community ideology, to integrate into western society. Thankfully, most in the community have nothing to do with these extremist groups. The protest at the embassy ended peacefully.  The bottom line is I can't see how a group with alleged links to Islamic terrorism is going to help the poor sods who are being killed on a daily basis in Syria.  All it does is cloud the public perception of the Syrian protesters in London.  Alleged hardline  Islamic terrorists  protesting against a govt?  Anyone see a pattern emerging?

On the 23rd I spent the morning at Operation Forward Defensive.  This was a full scale training exercise for the emergency services.  The scenario was all too familiar in London.  A terror threat in a tube station.  For the purpose of the exercise, the disused Aldgate station was opened.  From the media gallery opposite it looked impressive, with a full array of emergency services responding quickly.  I felt sorry for the drivers of the silver police carriers.  Having dropped their cargo of cops outside the station, they then had move the vans away.  This entailed driving down the centre of the road, lined on both sides by emergency vehicles of all sorts, all under the gaze of the media.  The gap either side of the vans looked to be centimetres wide.
They managed it without any scrapes, although this was done at walking pace.  One example of what it would probably be like in the real situation.  After watching the initial evacuation of the station and treatment of the injured, I nipped inside to see what is normally the unseen aspect.  The police had a large room equipped with tables and officers were busy taking statements and details from witnesses.  It looked very well organised.  It must be a hell of a job to do in real situations where people are in shock, injured etc.

In the afternoon it was off to Whitehall.  Yet again there was a distinctly African flavour to the proceedings.  I was due to photograph the delegates from the Kick Racism Out of Football conference that was being hosted by the PM.  However, I was late and missed it.  Ah well, there were appx  3000 Somali protesters opposite the gate to Downing Street.

Now, Somalia gets a bad press in the UK.  Mostly down to the inner city gangs of Somali youths who are responsible for a lot of crime in London.  Oh yeah, and everyone has seen Black Hawk Down!  I have to confess that I expected trouble at the protest.

I started to take a few shots and was surprised to find the protesters posing for the camera.  There were none of the masked youths found at Congolese demos.  The crowd were colourful, friendly and noisy.  I asked them for details of the protest - why, what, where, etc.  It was explained to me that these protesters came from the north of the country and referred to this area as Somali-land. They want recognition of their part of the country as an independent state. They hated the Somali people and the transitional govt.  This was the biggest demo in Whitehall for ages and I did not see one arrest.  They left at the designated dispersal time, some shaking hands with the cops as they left.

I popped into Downing St and photographed David Scameron meeting the Nigerian president, the  bizarrely named Good Lock Johnathan.  After the photo call it was time for home.

Arriving at Westminster tube station there were two BTP vans outside but that is not unsual.  However, suddenly another two cars and an ambulance arrived with blue lights on.  The occupants rushed into the station.  I spoke to the young guy who was handing out the Evening Standard  outside the station and asked what the crack was.  He explained that there had been a big fight outside the station a few moments earlier between some people from the protest ( most of them had flags and were in fancy dress) and another group of young black guys. They had continued the fight down on a platform.  He said the police had gone charging down with dogs.

Bro, am gonna blow ya away innit

Ok, I unpacked the cameras and waited.  Before long a young black kid was led out by paramedics and put in an ambulance.  He was followed by a WPC with a prisoner.  The prisoner was young and black.  His hood was up covering his face.  To say he was surprised to be photographed is an understatement.  He went mental.  The death threats rang out - ' Bro,  am gonna blow ya away innit'.  'Delete dem photos now ya pussy'. ' Wot day for anyway?'  When I told him they were for the papers he lost it, struggling to break free from his WPC escort, while telling me all the things he was to do to me with his gun and his knife.  I was aware that several arrests had been made down on the platform and I wanted to photograph them all.  However, I was on London Underground property and the cops were not keen on me taking any more shots as it was clearly making the prisoners even more violent and harder for them to handle. They didn't move me but I sensed it wouldn't be long before they did. I had a couple of shots so once again I packed my gear away.  As the platform in the station was shut, I decided to walk to Leicester Square station.

As I headed up St Martins Lane I noticed a police CCTV van and several coppers pulling cars over to a coned off area at the side of the road.  I spoke to  a Sgt to find out what was happening and he explained they were checking for illegal minicabs and defective vehicles.  I asked did he mind if I photographed them working, suggesting  that it was good PR for the Met's Safer London campaign.  He agreed and once again I unpacked my cameras.  I stayed for an hour.  I saw seven cars stopped.  Of that seven one driver was found to have allegedly have no licence, no insurance, and the was wanted for allegedly leaving a petrol station without paying for fuel.  I found this out by earwigging on a conversation between some of the cops. Within thirty minutes the car was seized and towed away.  Passers-by asked the cops what was happening and everyone seemed pleased to see the visible police presence in the west end.

There is a very busy few weeks coming up so I should be back to posting regularly soon.