KILL THE BILL
BRISTOL / LONDON, 2021
The day after we endured police violence at the vigil for Sarah Everard on
Clapham Common, we took to the streets for several consecutive days and
nights in protest. This was the intensely formative period of time between the
Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens using his police equipment to kidnap,
rape and murder Sarah Everard and the formation of what has since been
worked into the Kill the Bill Coalition by activist groups and unions on the left.
These photos were taken on 15th March, the second night of the protests.
The Met Police were out in full force to intimidate protesters and ‘protect’ Churchill’s statue, proving yet again that they value statues of dead men
over the lives of women.
"What happened on 21st March was an outpouring of rage against the violence of the police.
The crowd fought back after police officers attacked the crowd with batons and riot shields.
Pepper spray was used indiscriminately, people were charged at with horses and hit over the
head with batons and shields . The protesters fought back, seizing police riot shields, helmets
and batons to defend themselves. By the end of the evening several police vehicles had been
set on fire.
Those who defended themselves against the police have been branded ‘thugs’ and ‘wild animals’
by both Priti Patel and the police spokesperson. The police have been out for revenge for what happened at Bridewell ever since. That revenge has come in the form of the brutality used against the Kill the Bill protests in Bristol on March 23rd and 26th. And in the use of riot charges
– the most serious public order charge available in English law punishable by a maximum
of ten years in prison – against those who fought back on March 21st.
The demonstration on 21st March was against the Police, Courts and Sentencing Bill, a bill
which aims to give the police even more power to repress political dissent, and which will
destroy the ways of life of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller Communities. It will also massively expand
the prison population through further criminalisation, longer sentences and more powers to
imprison children.
Communities across the UK face violence at the hands of the police every day, but they only
call it violence when we fight back!
We need to support those that have fought back and show those in prison that they are
never alone and not forgotten."
www.gofundme.com/f/ktb-prisoner-support-fund
