People are seen running from the officers and throwing bottles, sticks, and even flares at them while the police charge forward.
Breaking: Police are charging on horseback in order to disperse the crowd in London, UK. The protests have turned violent at this hour. pic.twitter.com/UOa8yVSdJ9
— PM Breaking News (@PMBreakingNews) June 6, 2020
At one point, a mounted female officer fell off her horse, ending up in hospital with injuries.
Scenes from #BlackLivesMatter
protest in London. Footage of a police horse without its rider, running through a crowd in Whitehall.whitehall
(footage via @TruthRaiderHQ). #BlackLivesMatterUK #BlackLivesMatterlondon pic.twitter.com/fO7HRfWHFo— Stefan Simanowitz (@StefSimanowitz) June 6, 2020
Her injuries were “not life-threatening,” the Metropolitan Police said in a statement, adding it would investigate the circumstances of the incident.
Other videos show a horse breaking loose from the officers, creating a scene of chaos among the protesters. It’s unclear if that is the same animal from which the officer fell.
Police horse GALLOPS during Black Lives Matter protests in #London
Clashes led to #flares being thrown by protesters and #police on horseback losing control of a horse which can be seen escaping through the crowd.
MORE: https://t.co/seJJ5rWqKk pic.twitter.com/1LgX92j9po
— RT UK (@RTUKnews) June 6, 2020
“The horse made its own way back to the nearby stables,” the police added.
Separate videos show the horses being assaulted by demonstrators, with one even having a bicycle launched at it.
Rioters in London are assaulting police horses. pic.twitter.com/DIR8vNoMuF
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) June 6, 2020
A perimeter was then set up to keep protesters away from the entrance to Downing Street, where the prime minister’s residence is located.
Things seemed to calm down not long after, as protesters turned to chanting slogans including “Boris Johnson is a racist” and “We are one.”
A total of ten officers were injured in Saturday’s events, while 14 protesters have been taken into custody, the police said. It is possible that number might be greater as the night goes on, however.
https://youtu.be/PdPp5wLsgRc
A statue of Winston Churchill in Parliament Square was vandalized with spray paint, sparking outrage over the fact that such a desecration occurred on the 76th anniversary of D-Day.
Protesters also targeted the statue of US President Abraham Lincoln, writing ‘BLM’ (Black Lives Matter) and the names of George Floyd and other black people who died at the hands of police.
Lincoln refused to recognize the secession of the slave-owning states following his 1860 election and led the four-year war to defeat the separatist Confederacy and abolish slavery in the US. He was assassinated in 1865.
Source: RT