A vigil will be held on Queen Square this Saturday as part of a national day of action in memory of Chris Kaba, a 24-year-old black man shot dead by London’s Met police. Kaba was unarmed when he was killed by a single bullet shot by a firearms officer following a traffic stop and short car chase in Streatham Hill on September 5. The officer … Continue reading Vigil for Chris Kaba, killed by police
This is part one of a two-part series looking back on one year of Kill The Bill in Bristol and asking what lessons can be learned and what questions remain unanswered. Part two is available here. On 21 March 2021 Bristol experienced its first, explosive protest against the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts (PCSC) Bill. One year on 12 people are in prison and dozens … Continue reading Kill The Bill: One Year On – Part 1
This is the second part of a two-part series looking at the legacy of Bristol’s Kill The Bill movement one year after the first protest. You can read part 1 here. Protests continued weekly throughout March and into April. Following the appalling events of March 21 and 23 both protesters and police were wary of one another, and although relations thawed over time there were … Continue reading Kill The Bill: One Year On – Part 2
The relationship between Extinction Rebellion (XR) and the police has always been contentious. From its inception, XR has been the target of criticisms due to what Dr Nafeez Ahmed, in an infamous Medium article, calls their ‘fetishising’ of the police whereby police are treated as an source of opposition and simultaneously as a potential ally to bring about governmental change. The group, which encourages mass … Continue reading XR Bristol and the Police: an uncertain future.
Saturday’s Kill The Bill protest ended with a show of force from Avon & Somerset Police. After the main Kill The Bill protest, Bristol’s thirteenth, had ended on College Green at around 21:30, a small group of around 50 protesters marched back through the centre and to a squatted building on High Street. Here they stood in the road and outside the squatted building, which … Continue reading Heavy-Handed Policing at May Day Kill The Bill Protest
A pause on College Green during the Kill The Bill protest on Saturday, April 17th, gave demonstrators the opportunity to discuss their emerging movement’s relationship with the police. The nine Kill The Bill protests that have now taken place in Bristol have brought together individuals and groups from a diversity of backgrounds in resistance against the government’s proposed Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill. Yesterday’s … Continue reading Kill the Bill Movement Debates Relationship With Police
The end of emergency coronavirus restrictions on protest saw Avon & Somerset police return to their established hands-off approach to policing as the fourth Kill the Bill protest took place on Tuesday evening. A&S police have built a reputation for loose protest policing tactics over the last few years, especially around Extinction Rebellion protests and last year’s Black Lives Matter protests, where police commander Andy … Continue reading Return to Protest as Normal for Fourth Kill The Bill Protest
Violence was brought to the streets of Bristol again on Tuesday 23rd March as police used force to dismantle a peaceful encampment on College Green. The camp, which was part of the wider Kill the Bill protests against the Police, Crimes, Sentencing and Courts Bill, had been intended to raise awareness about how the rights of Travellers would be curtailed by the Bill. Protestors at … Continue reading Hostile Treatment From Police in Second Night of Unrest
