Five protestors share their stories from Sunday’s Kill the Bill protest and riot

The dust has begun to settle on the protest-turned-riot of last Sunday, but police are warning people not to take part in any more large gatherings being organised this weekend.

After a series of police statements, ongoing investigations, arrests and a peaceful protest on Tuesday that was cleared by riot police, a number of protesters have now given their side of the story.

Vee says: “We got to the protest at 3pm and then we marched. It was nice. I met a woman, she was a photographer, she must have been in her 60s. It was nice to look around and see a variety of ages, people even had their kids there.

“Everyone listened to one another and it was really beautiful, but after a bit of time went on everyone just disappeared so we were thinking the protest was over so we just sat down at Castle Park.

“About ten minutes later my friend rang and was saying we should go to the police station, he said people had been arrested.

“I remember getting there and seeing this wall of police officers in front of me with shields and behind them a wall of police officers on horses. That was really scary.

“I thought ‘why are they in riot gear now, rather than when there were thousands of people?’.

“It’s strange to me because when protests happen in Bristol we always start at College Green and always finish at College Green, so why are the police blocking our way from getting from the city centre back to College Green?

“When I got there the pushing and shoving had already started. It seemed to me that someone would be having a conversation with the police, and they would say something the police didn’t like and then they would then push them.

“As it got darker and as it got later, people were drinking and started to get more drunk. As that was happening that’s when I started to see bottles flying and things like that.

“I was talking to these female police officers, I was shouting but only because I had to so that they could hear me. I was saying to them, that it is so disrespectful of you to be a female police officer standing against us as protesters.”

Protester pours water onto the eyes of another that has been pepper sprayed. Photo: Clara Langrick

“’When female protesters had to protest for you to even have your right to vote and for you to be able to wear that uniform’, and then they pepper sprayed me. They pepper sprayed me because they didn’t like what I had to say.

“I know a lot of people have had the same thing happen to them, just for speaking their mind. People were being pepper-sprayed for their opinion.”

Vee also attended Tuesday’s protest and shared similar stories regarding the actions of the police.

“We made art together, it was beautiful, we made stickers that said ‘land rights are human rights’, others said ‘keep the peace’. We kept pushing that message the whole day.

“We’re all citizens of the earth and we all deserve to be here. It’s not meant to make you happy that we’re protesting, but we are protesting for a reason.

“The police came and said, ‘We’re not happy with you being here anymore’ but we just stayed because we knew the police were going to come. That’s the point of protesting; you know the police are going to be there but you just don’t retaliate and things are usually fine.

“The minute I saw the blue lights, the minute I turned around and they were, just there, they were stepping on Sarah’s flowers, which is heartbreaking.

“We were chanting ‘we’re peaceful’. We were all on our knees with our hands in the air. They (the police) were so merciless. They came over and attacked us.

“I saw them poking people and pushing people to see if they would retaliate, almost as if they were wanting a reaction so they could justify what they did.

“They kept on closing in on us and closing in on us, I felt trapped. I fell back and I was on the floor, crying my eyes out, another protester was lying over my head so that people couldn’t step on my head.

“Other than losing my voice I’m physically fine. But I am hurt by the whole thing. How can they do this?”

Mounted police create a divide between protestors and New Bridewell Police Station. Photo: Clara Langrick

Sophie* says: “We stood in College Green for about half an hour and there wasn’t that much going on to start with.

“We moved from College Green towards the end of Park Street and towards the Centre. We were walking along there and there were so many people, when we looked behind us up the hill there were so many people you couldn’t even  see the end of where people were.

“We stopped the buses for half an hour or so. The drums were still going, it was nice, it felt like we were getting the message across, it was disruptive in the best way.

“It felt very powerful, I think you felt like this group of people could do anything.

“I left at around 5pm because it felt like the crowd was separating into two separate protests at that point. We saw mounted police coming, they weren’t getting involved with the crowd but they were around as we were leaving.”

A clash between protestors and police. Photo: Clara Langrick

Clara says: “It was a really good peaceful protest that went on for a few hours. I can’t even remember where it came from but police started cornering everyone towards the police station, I’m pretty sure they told everyone to go there.

“Then the police came out of nowhere with horses and riot shields. I wasn’t at the front for all of it but everyone was trying to sit down and be peaceful, there were a few that were obviously just police haters and wanted to rile them up but the majority of people were trying to stay calm.

“Obviously people are going to retaliate when they’re pushed, so when the police started pushing people back then people started getting involved.

“My friends were having a conversation two or three metres in front of police officers, two of them turned around and got pepper sprayed right in the eye and whacked in the ribs with a baton. They hadn’t done anything.

“As soon as one police officer joined in they all did, they were unnecessarily violent to people.”

Watch Bristol24/7’s footage of Sunday’s events on YouTube:

Simon* says: “Everybody headed towards the police station, everyone was drinking and people were shouting at the police station but it wasn’t violent.

“The riot police turned up and it got a bit violent. They were just hitting everyone with batons, my friend got hit in the head with a baton everyone was on the floor it was chaos everywhere.

“There were a few people throwing stones from the NCP car park and the glass was smashing. The police were getting worked up about that.”

Protestor talking to riot police. Photo: Clara Langrick

Annie says: “After about half an hour at College Green the march began so we walked down Park Street and past Cabot Circus, and then circled back around towards the police station.

“We thought the day had ended there so we got some food and sat by the harbour and discussed what happened. I got a call from my housemate saying that it was all kicking off at the police station. So we went over to see what was happening and the police were out in riot gear.

“The side that I was on was more peaceful. On the other side of the road that the police had blocked off, it seemed that it was kicking off.

“You could tell people were getting more drunk and rowdy but it was also because the police were smirking and laughing in people’s faces.

“My housemate got pepper sprayed because he was talking to the police officer who then pushed him with the shield and pepper sprayed him.

“We heard a really loud bang and that was one of the police cars being set on fire. All the drunk people turned up, they just came to destroy things.

“You could see a change in the crowd. In the day there were so many families, young children, people of all ages. Whereas towards the end of the evening it changed completely.”

*some names have been changed

Main photo: Clara Langrick

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