Stop the Cuts - National Demonstration

Before my time, but from what I've read (and in depth first hand accounts from some shop keepers I know on Pentonville Road who had their shops smashed up, despite claims on the wikipedia entry that small shops were untouched) it sounded like a similar deal to the other day, a containment strategy gone wrong, but also that what could go wrong did and the police weren't just stupid but really badly prepared - not enough men or and nowhere near enough riot shields, their radios didn't work properly etc. etc.

Are you sure it got as far as Pentonville Road !?! I could see the smoke from Hampstead Road / Euston Road (waiting for a bus to go to a school reunion - the bus never came), but saw no overspill from there and I was a fair bit closer than Pentonville Road.

I suppose you get sporadic acts happening when the bulk of the people are moving away from the main area, so I suppose it's not impossible, I just didn't realise that part of town caught any of it.

"the police weren't just stupid but really badly prepared - not enough men or and nowhere near enough riot shields, their radios didn't work properly etc. etc"

No, really they were stupid on this occasion, I don't doubt they were badly prepared, but it wasn't a lack of riot shields that compelled them to charge on horseback into crowds of people who they had trapped and had nowhere to go.