At last weekend's protest in London, two people on the other coach from Bristol were arrested. I had talked to one of them on a previous march. Their arrests were possibly the result of textbook police provocation. Police jump into the crowd to arrest some with a placard that they consider to be potentially antisemitic. Passions are inflamed in the crowd and more people are arrested for "assaulting an emergency worker". The guy I know who was arrested was an Indian man in his 50s who supports Extinction Rebellion. The last person you would expect to be a troublemaker. I also realized how easy it is to get caught in the police's dragnet. If the police rushes someone next to you, you can get up in the melee. I saw someone get arrested earlier that day and while I consider myself to be cool-headed I could feel the anger rising inside me. To be sure, even shielding someone vulnerable could count as assaulting a police. Enough to get you detained and give an immigrant like me a good fright, even if they don't end up pressing charges.
As a result of the arrest, my friend and I had to step up as coach stewards as our original stewards stayed back in London to assist the arrestees. WE were then asked if we would like to play a role in organizing actions. We both agreed readily. I have a lot going on in my life at the moment, but I figured directing some energy away from fretting about Gaza and fretting about the job hunt cold only eb a good thing.
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