The University of London’s Senate Home, exactly where students staged a sit-in. Photograph: Sarah Lee for the Guardian
Three pupil protesters were arrested on Tuesday following a group occupied a university developing in protest at how their university is currently being run. Police said one was held on suspicion of assaulting an officer, but the demonstrators also accused police of assaulting them.
The protesters mentioned they occupied portion of the University of London Senate Residence headquarters. Following currently being removed by police, they claimed they would proceed their protest at a central London police station, the place they believed their fellow protester was getting held.
Video footage noticed by the Guardian appeared to present a police officer punching a single hooded protester in the encounter. In the footage, the demonstrator – who mentioned his title was Tee Jay – fell to the ground and the crowd was pushed back.
Jay, 24, from Hackney, north London, explained: “Absolutely nothing was explained, the police had been trying to clear the crowd of individuals. I turned my back to [the police officer] to kind of walk away, he pushed, I type of turned round to see who it was – why are you pushing me?
“The punch came and I went straight to the floor, then I received up and left.” When asked whether or not he would consider action he additional: “What can I do? Appear how a lot of of them there are. If I go up to that one particular officer they’d all just grab me yet again.”
The University of West London mediaproduction student mentioned he was portion of the group that occupied component of Senate Property.
A single protester claimed she was pushed more than by officers, who have been “punching folks indiscriminately”. Philosophy student Helen Singh explained: “We had been walking away from the protest. I was pushed to the ground and my glasses smashed into 3 pieces.”
The University of London Union (ULU), launched a statement, which study: “We are still investigating what took place inside, but first reports indicate that protesters have been assaulted by each police and safety: thrown to the ground, kicked and punched, and dragged to the ground by their hair.”
And ULU President Michael Chessum wrote on Twitter: “Today’s eviction … was one of the nastiest, most brutal I have seen on a campus in a extended time. Spitting with anger.”
In a statement, the college students wrote: “Close to 60 college students staged a peaceful sit-in, issuing ten demands. Their demands integrated a halt to privatisation, fair pay out for staff and that a controversial program to close the pupil union is cancelled.”
In a statement launched earlier in the day, the college students claimed to have “taken over the principal management corridor and the vice-chancellor’s workplace in opposition to the way our university is getting run and the way the greater training sector as a total is managed”.
The statement read even more: “University of London management is behaving in a disgraceful and unaccountable method, and we have no selection but to take direct action.”
The Metropolitan police explained that one particular individual was arrested and held in custody on suspicion of assaulting a police officer. A spokesman explained that two other people have been arrested to stop a suspected breach of the peace and have been later on dearrested. The spokesman stated that an “approproate amount of officers” were sent to reposnd with the demonstration, which started at “around 14:45″.
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