Year of the Statue Smashers: How BLM Violence and Identity Politics Crossed the Atlantic in 2020

Farage
Chris J Ratcliffe/Getty Images
Kurt Zindulka

Black Lives Matter disorder spread across the Atlantic with remarkable speed in 2020 after the death of George Floyd in the United States, with statues torn down or vandalised across the country and London repeatedly plunged into violent disorder, despite lockdowns.

The far-left revolutionary radicalism of the Black Lives Matter was put on full display during months of protests in Britain’s multicultural capital in 2020, as Breitbart London saw first hand on the ground.

On May 31st, just five days after Floyd’s death, thousands of Black Lives Matter protesters took to the streets of London, in stark defiance of the city’s coronavirus restrictions.

As activists gathered in Trafalgar Square, a wild-eyed activist proclaimed from a bullhorn: “It’s time to wake up and get out [of] the house and f*** this place up, man. I’m tired of this sh*t. We need to burn this sh*t down. I don’t care what the London mayor says. The West is falling! The West is falling!”

WATCH: ‘We Need to Burn This Sh*t Down… The West Is Falling!’ Black Lives Matter Protest in London:
Kurt Zindulka / Breitbart News

The march carried on to the United States embassy, where protesters blocked off the streets surrounding the embassy and scrawled graffiti on the walls surrounding the building saying ‘MET POLICE SERVE TRUMP’.

Despite clearly violating the prohibition on mass gatherings, London’s Metropolitan Police only arrested 23 people, including a woman who spat in the face of a police officer. The woman would later avoid jail time because she “apologised” for her actions.

This would be a common feature over the summer. While Black Lives Matter protests were left largely alone by the police in London, the Met consistently cracked down — often with force — on anti-lockdown protests.

In an interview with Breitbart London at an anti-lockdown demonstration in December, London mayoral candidate David Kurten said there is “clear bias” in how the city has policed protests during the coronavirus crisis.

“You have Black Lives Matter protests with way more than six people that are allowed to go-ahead… but they come in and specifically target people who are just talking because they think we are against the lockdown and we might have opinions that may be unacceptable to those in Westminster,” Kurten said.

The top police officer in the country, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick, admitted in June that police took a ‘hands-off approach’ to BLM protests out of fear of sparking “serious disorder”.

The following week, the Black Lives Matter protests in London took an even more violent turn, with protesters firing flares towards Number 10 Downing Street, the Prime Minister’s official residence, as well as viciously stomping an effigy of President Donald Trump into the pavement.

While the mainstream media characterised the march as “largely peaceful”, some 14 officers were injured during the chaotic demonstration, with one female officer being thrown from her horse as protesters hurled glass bottles and other projectiles at the officers.

The female officer was later revealed to have suffered a collapsed lung, broken ribs, and a broken collar bone.

WATCH: Trump Effigy Beaten Viciously, Police Attacked at BLM London Protest:
Kurt Zindulka / Breitbart News

The same day, dozens of officers were chased through the streets by BLM radicals, throwing makeshift missiles as they yelled: “Run, piggy, run!”

During the first three weeks of the BLM protests in June, some 140 Metropolitan Police Force reportedly suffered injuries. The British taxpayer spent some £1.5 million in policing costs during Black Lives Matter and counter-protests on the weekend of June 13th to 14th alone.

‘Take it to the Streets and F*ck the Police’

Emboldened, BLM activists increasingly gave openly anti-white and anti-British speeches in the British capital, railing against perceived racism in the United Kingdom as well as capitalism, and calling frequently to “defund the police”.

The anti-white racism of some in the Black Lives Matter movement was demonstrated clearly at a June 6th rally in Parliament Square, in which one of the activist leaders urged the crowd to avoid having children with white people.

“Do not have a child with a white person unless you know they are willing to do the work to support that child,” she said.

Vitriol against white people was again displayed by an activist speaker in July. The self-described “mixed-race member of the LGBT community” proclaimed that white people are the “common enemy”.

“All of these groups of people, the issues they face, it all comes from the same people: white men. So we need to get rid of them,” he said, going on to say “kill the rich”.

WATCH: BLM Activist Says White Men Are ‘The Common Enemy’, ‘We Need to Get Rid of Them’:
Kurt Zindulka / Breitbart News

Capitalism itself was also a chief target for street activists in London. At a ‘Black Trans Lives Matter’ protest in June, ‘Black Panther’ Sasha Johnson said that “racism only exists because of capitalism”.

Johnson called on the black community in Britain to “strike” against white-owned businesses, saying: “[We] need to cut off their money, we need to make a bigger challenge, stop paying our taxes, stop turning up to their workplace,” adding that “if we can strike for climate, we can strike for black lives”.

Ms Johnson would rise to national attention after a Breitbart London video went viral in which she pronounced that “The police is no different from the KKK. They stand around and protect statues and buildings instead of people.”

She went on to lead the crowd in a chant of “One Solution, Revolution” and “Take it to the streets and f*** the police”.

WATCH: BLM Activist Calls for Revolution in the UK, Saying: ‘The Police Is No Different from the KKK’:
Kurt Zindulka / Breitbart News

Responding to the Breitbart video, the author of The Madness of Crowds, Douglas Murray said: “They want to present this country of ours or something that it just obviously is not.”

“There is no reason that in the world’s most… racially tolerant and mixed country, like the UK, that we should just sit by as demagogues and racists try to portray our country as some extraordinarily racist, KKK-ridden hellhole. It’s not right, it’s totally defamatory to our country, it’s unfair, and it’s wrong,” Murray declared.

“I hope that the radical left in the UK, which has many supporters in the Labour Party among other places, remember that when they lie about this country… they ought to remember that there are people like this radicalised young woman who do seem to want to push things to the next level,” he added.

In August, Ms Johnson would announce the formation of what she termed the “the first black-led political party in the UK”, the Taking the Initiative Party (TTIP).

The party has called for “Holocaust-style” reparations for black people Britain as well as the formation of a “race offenders’ register” for people ‘guilty’ of committing microaggressions against ethnic minorities.

In October, a Black Lives Matter group applied to become a political party in the United Kingdom as well.

Though the official UKBLM organisation has denied any affiliation with the party, there are many BLM splinter groups within Britain, meaning that the official organisation may have been unaware of another group’s intentions to form a political party.

Brexit leader Nigel Farage described Black Lives Matter in June as “a dangerous, Marxist organisation, hell-bent on anarchy, and we need to wake up, get some facts into our heads, and understand what it is we’re fighting.”

The following month, as the protests raged on, Mr Farage said that the movement was becoming so radical that it “would make Lenin Blush”.

“This is about all-out Marxism. It’s about the destruction of capitalism. It’s about getting rid of the nation-state as we know it. Of course, it’s about defunding the police,” Mr Farage said.
WATCH: ‘Take It To The Streets And F*ck The British Police’ Says Black Panther Sasha Johnson:
Kurt Zindulka / Breitbart News

Follow Breitbart London on Facebook: Breitbart London

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.