G20 Summit affects Cats!

The G20 summit affects cats because it affects all of us and cats are a part of the family. I was in London today protesting at the Bank of England. There were about 4,000 people there. Many more were, I believe, expected. This was disappointing. A lot of the people were spectators, or part-time protectors and then there were the press. There were a mass of photographers. I myself was interviewed by Reuters about the G20 Summit. Despite the fact that all the corralled people at the time were being peaceful the police insisted on falsely imprisoning all of us (except the press) for several hours after the demonstration had effectively ended.


G20 Summit protest opposite the Bank of England, London (the City). Photo by Michael Broad. Please provide a credit if and when using it.

Despite my arguments with the police I was unable to leave the area in front of the Bank of England. No warning was given that we would be, in effect, imprisoned and many people were deeply upset by this. Out civil liberties were taken from us (freedom of movement) and the police refused to listen. The police were uncaring and showed no sign of behaving decently and with discretion. They could have made judgments about individuals and let them go home but no. Everyone was corralled into about 10 acres of roads in and around the Bank of England for about 3 hours or more. As stated this was false imprisonment, technically. Individual policemen failed to explain themselves. One policeman quoted something to do with a law which allows them to override the crime of false imprisonment. It was extraordinary to be imprisoned like this. The news later on television hardly mentioned it. Yet for the 4,000 people on the ground it presented a massive problem and for no apparent reason. The reason most protesters gave was to provoke a riot. I don't think that is true. The reason was because the police were intent on dividing up the protesters and quelling in, my opinion.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) states:

• Article 13 - Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.
• Article 9 - No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile

I think that there is an arguable case that government is in breach of these articles. I was at the protests because the G20 Summit affects cats and us all and I owed it to us and our cat companions to be there.



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