Occupy camp cleared from St Paul’s
Police and bailiffs cleared an anti-capitalist camp from outside St Paul’s cathedral in London early on Tuesday, ending a four-month protest which resonated with Britons angered by huge bonuses awarded to bankers during an economic slowdown.
There was no violent resistance from the Occupy London activists as bailiffs employed by the City of London Corporation, which owns the land on which they were camped, removed around 50 tents within an hour shortly after midnight.
The urban camp was set up as part of an international movement inspired by the U.S. Occupy Wall Street against what the activists say is corporate greed and economic inequality.
It was one of many protests across Europe in recent months as the continent struggles with a debt crisis.
Authorities in some North American cities have used violence to forcibly remove similar camps but in London the action was largely peaceful.
“It is a sad evening, but it has been coming,” Dan Ashman, 27, said. “The saddest day was when the courts didn’t recognize reality, but the reality that the authorities put before them.”
The protesters themselves had removed around 100 tents after they lost their legal battle to stay last week.
After dismantling the remaining tents, bailiffs took down a barricade of wooden crates where about a dozen activists had stood, chanting “Occupy Everywhere”. Police shunted others across the cathedral steps.
The protesters chose to pitch their tents outside St Paul’s in October after they were blocked from their intended target, the nearby square at the London Stock Exchange.