YouTube video shows mounted police DID ride at student protesters in Trafalgar Square 24 hours after they denied charging

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 2:25 PM on 27th November 2010

• Videos
• Add to My Stories

Scotland Yard faced added pressure today after footage emerged of mounted officers charging at protesters who were demonstrating against tuition fees rises.
Police had initially denied that they used horses to break up a crowd of 1,000 protesters who gathered in Trafalgar Square on Wednesday night in a wave of national demonstrations.
But a five-and-a-half minute video posted on YouTube 24 hours after their claim shows up to a dozen mounted police causing panic as they ride at speed into the crowds.

Charged: Mounted police ride at student protestors who were demonstrating against tuition fees rises in Trafalgar Square on Wednesday night. The Met had initially denied the tactic.

Force: A police officer grimaces as he rides his horse past protesters a earlier in the day during demonstrations in Whitehall

One pregnant woman who claims to have been pinned against a wall by one of the horses said she feared she and her baby could have been killed.
Footage from the tuition fees protests was shot by Brunel University graduate Fred Tscepp, 22, and shows some demonstrators hurling missiles at police.
They claim to have congregated  in  Trafalgar Square after fellow protesters were believed to have been trapped in a police cordon for six hours.
Moments later at around 7pm a line of police officers who formed a barricade on Whitehall suddenly parts and around a dozen mounted police canter at the crowds.

Horses: Protestors appear to have been wedged against a fence as mounted police tried to break up a crowd of around 1,000 people

Crowd control: Three horses walk through crowds after several others cantered at demonstrators on the opposite side of Trafalgar Square

Hundreds of students panic and then three police horses are seen among crowds walking at demonstrators. At one point three protesters are wedged between a horse and iron railings.
A pregnant woman is seen crying as she tries to flee the animals. Eleven witnesses have since come forward to say that they were charged at.
Sara Tomlinson, 45, and Margot Turner, 55, two mothers, said they were among the crowds who were ridden at by police  when they arrived to collect their children.

It is not uncommon for police to use horses in public order scenarios, but charges into crowds are rare.
The forces handling of protests have been under intense scrutiny following last years G20 protests in which newspaper seller Ian Tomlinson was killed.
The Metropolitan Police's commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson initially denied any knowledge of mounted police charging at crowds. He said: 'I was at the debrief last night, there was no reference to that whatsoever and I have no reference to it.'
But at a Met meeting on Thursday he refused to clarify what happened. He said: 'Of course I will, but in doing that I don't want to then create a headline saying I'm acknowledging something's happened.'

Trained: Mounted police control the demonstration earlier in the day at Whitehall before a video was filmed showing the crowds being charged

Clash: Police meet lines of protesters at demonstrations in London this week

A Met spokesman also denied that horses charged. The said: 'Police horses were involved in the operation, but that didn't involve charging the crowd.'
But after the YouTube video was posted the force has since admitted that horses did charge the crowd.
'The use of police horses to disperse and distance the crowd was an appropriate and proportionate tactic at that time in the given circumstances.'
Joanne McCartney, a Metrolitan Police Authority member, who quizzed the commissioner on the charging tactics at a meeting said she would pursue the issue.
She said: '[Sir Paul's] was a response I expected, however knowing what happened at the G20, a lot of evidence came out later from citizen journalists, and it was quite clear when I mentioned the charging that he wasn't aware that there had been that activity with horses, that he hadn't got all the information there, but we'll have to wait and see I think.'
More than 16,000 people are signed up for a third day of action next Tuesday against removing a cap on tuition fees.
Sir Alan Langlands, chief executive of the Higher Education  Funding Council, warned that the row risks damaging the reputation of universities among overseas students.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1333596/Tuition-fees-protest-Video-shows-police-DID-charge-students-Trafalgar-Square.html#ixzz16Uq5DCNO

 

More...

• ‘My mum went crazy’: Student protester pictured in riot helmet says his life has been ‘ruined’