News / Kill the Bill riot
Protest outside police station will mark two years since ‘kill the bill’ riot
Protesters are planning to march to Bridewell police station on the second anniversary of the ‘kill the bill’ riot.
Organisers of the demonstration say that they are protesting “against the violence of the police and the British state”.
The event “will hear from those affected and those involved in organising resistance”.
is needed now More than ever
It comes two years after a peaceful protest against the government’s police, crime, sentencing & courts bill turned into an evening of violence.
Initial police claims of serious injuries to officers were later retracted.
In a statement, protest organisers said: “34 people, mostly young, have been imprisoned for over a total of 100 years for the uprising that took place on this day 2 years ago.
“An uprising that was self defence against the brutality of the police towards demonstrators and in response to the rape and murder of Sarah Everard and the PCSC Bill.
“In those two years we have seen the police continue to brutalise and murder young black men, refugees have been left to die in the channel, we have seen suicides and murders at the hands of the prisons, the inherent and vile misogyny and racism of the police has been openly exposed and we have seen increasingly repressive legislation against protest and the organisation of working people.
“The police and prison system continues to attack and disappear the already most marginalised and oppressed areas of society.
“At the same time the state protects and furthers a system of systematic poverty.
“It protects the wealthiest and most powerful who live as they please off of our backs whilst one step out of line puts us in prison.
“The state punishes those who are the victims of its policies.
“We want to come together on this day to show whose side we are on, to show our solidarity with the Kill The Bill prisoners and their families and all people brutalised by the British state and its institutions of repression.
The ‘stand against police and state violence’ protest is due to start in the Bearpit on March 21 at 5.30pm, from where a march will take place to Bridewell police station.
Main photo: Martin Booth
Read next:
- ‘All we did was defend each other,’ says man jailed for riot
- ‘Where is the condemnation from Bristol’s leaders about the actions of the police?’
- Police pay damages to peaceful ‘kill the bill’ protesters
- Are Bristol’s ‘kill the bill’ protesters being made examples of by the state?
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