Thousands of Black Lives Matter Protesters Took to UK Streets This Weekend

Thousands of Black Lives Matter protesters gathered in cities around the UK on Sunday, following widespread anti-racism demonstrations on Saturday.

Protests in the UK began last weekend, following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, and continued throughout the week. Today, in Manchester, Bristol, London and other cities and towns across the UK, crowds of people came out to stand together against racism, chanting, “Black lives matter,” “No justice, no peace,” and, “Say his name: George Floyd”.

Many protesters held signs bearing messages about racism in the UK – “The UK is not innocent” and “Teach the reality of Britain’s colonial past”. In Bristol, crowds toppled a statue of the English 17th century slave trader Edward Colston and dragged it to the city’s harbour, where they pushed it into the water.

In London, protesters – the majority of whom were wearing face masks and other PPE – met outside the US Embassy in Battersea, where they took a knee in silence for eight minutes and 46 seconds, the amount of time a police officer kept his knee on George Floyd’s neck. After a number of speeches, protesters marched over Vauxhall Bridge and on to Westminster.

On Saturday, protests in London were overwhelmingly peaceful, but clashes broke out between police and a small number of protesters in the evening. According to the Metropolitan Police, 14 officers were injured, including one who rode headfirst into a traffic light as their police horse bolted down Whitehall.

See more photos from today’s Black Lives Matter protest in London below.