UK Black Lives Matter protesters block Heathrow airport road
ASSOCIATED PRESS
A man shakes hands with one of the activists as they lay on the road outside Nottingham Theatre Royal during an attempt to shut down part of the city centre tram and bus network in Nottingham, England Friday Aug. 5, 2016 to protest for social justice movement Black Lives Matter.
LONDON >> Activists linked to the U.S.-based group Black Lives Matter blocked a road Friday leading to London’s Heathrow Airport and held protests in other British cities.
Organizer Joshua Virasami told the BBC that the movement — founded to protest the killings of black people by American police — was needed “in Britain and all over the world.”
U.K. Black Lives Matter said in a statement it was holding a “shutdown” of roads in London and other cities to “mourn those who have died in custody and to protest the ongoing racist violence of the police, border enforcement, structural inequalities and the everyday indignity of street racism.”
London’s Metropolitan Police says officers made several arrests among those blocking a road leading from a main highway to Heathrow on Friday morning. Photos showed police moving a group of people attached together lying across the road.
Police said one lane of the road was open but traffic was backed up getting into one of the world’s busiest airports. Heathrow said it was not aware of passengers missing flights because of the protest.
In other protests, a small group of demonstrators in the central England city of Nottingham lay down on tram tracks in the city, and police removed people from a road near Birmingham Airport, 100 miles (160 kilometers) north of London.
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The protesters said they were marking the fifth anniversary of the death of Mark Duggan, a 29-year-old black man shot by London police under disputed circumstances on Aug. 4, 2011. The killing sparked Britain’s worst civil disorder in decades, five nights of rioting that spread to cities around the country.
Activists say black men in Britain are unfairly targeted by law enforcement and disproportionately represented among prison inmates. According to official figures, 26 percent of inmates in England and Wales are non-white, compared to 12 percent of the overall population there.
14 responses to “UK Black Lives Matter protesters block Heathrow airport road”
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That takes some guts! I give them props.
I can just see them chained together on the road when some “Lone Wolf” muzzie decides to roll right thru them with his lorrie.
#fvckblacklivesmatter
++! All they are is a terrorist organization.
Guts? How about stupidity!
I’ll bet the protestors would be screaming bloody murder if a group of productive members of society stood in the way of their monthly public assistance check.
Not to mention the looting and property damage during one of their riots. Obama and Hillary are having them over for some fried chicken on the lawn in front of the White House that slaves built. They won’t let them in.
Everyone has a right to protest but there is the RIGHT TIME & THE RIGHT PLACE. Blocking the road to the airport is out of bounds, doing this will only alienate and infuriate the supporters of the cause who have things to do at the airport. EVERY LIFE MATTERS, not just the black people.
Hawaiians did, 1978 when the State took HHL lands to extend Hilo airport. Hawaiians won, state did not extend to later using proper process. Mean time, United, Contintel, and TWA pulled out of flying to Hilo. No sure if all of that was good.
“Organizer Joshua Virasami told the BBC that the movement—was needed “in Britain and all over the world.””
Sorry to say, but if everyone in the world thinks the same thing about you, maybe YOU’RE the problem.
“founded to protest the killings of black people by American police”
From what I have read, the rate at which American blacks are killed in encounters with the police is about the same as any other group, when group crime rate is factored in.
However, I think that treating people in terms of groups, as opposed to as individuals, is the source of many evils.
The Black Lives Matter movement has the appearance of an election ploy by the Democrats, to make sure that African Americans think of themselves as a persecuted group, and vote as a block.
Crime stats are not in your favor if you being arrested, let alone even questioned. Just harvesting off the land is not permitted in a civilized society. Taking of others’ property is not okay!
My sympathy for this movement is starting to wane.
so many mislead people.
It’s their road. They paid for it. Wait,what?