The plans were announced by Defend Our Juries on Friday, a week after 857 people were arrested under the Terrorism Act at a demonstration outside parliament opposing proscription. It said the next phase of the protests represented a major escalation that would create an unprecedented challenge for the police, with 1,100 people already registered to take part and risk arrest.
The violence we encountered during the operation was co-ordinated and carried out by a group of people, many wearing masks to conceal their identity, intent on creating as much disorder as possible. Many of those individuals have now been arrested and we have begun securing charges. The contrast between this demonstration and the other protests we policed yesterday, including the Palestine Coalition march attended by around 20,000 people, was stark.