UK Uncut, the protest group campaigning against tax avoidance, condemned what it called ‘political policing’ after CS spray was used to disperse protestors in London’s Oxford Street.
Labour MP John McDonnell said the use of CS spray in the ‘policing of the tax justice campaign’ was a worrying development, which he would raise in the House of Commons today.
Protesters had successfully ‘closed down’ the Boots store in Oxford Street yesterday when police tried to arrest a woman for pushing a leaflet through the store's doors, according to a report in The Guardian.
Other demonstrators tried to stop the arrest, the report added, and at least one police officer used CS spray, which ‘hospitalised three people’.
A statement published by the protest group UK Uncut quoted Anna Williams, who saw the incident, as saying: ‘I condemn the violent behaviour of the police who have attacked a peaceful protest against tax avoidance, with three people being taken away in an ambulance. This is yet another example of political policing that is about protecting corporate interests and not those of ordinary people.’
The Guardian reported that a spokesman for the Metropolitan police said officers had arrested a woman for damaging the door of Boots and confirmed CS spray had been used. Three people were taken to hospital for treatment, the London Ambulance Service said, according to the Daily Telegraph.
Campaigners have claimed that Boots ‘was bought out by foreign investors, loaded with debt, and moved headquarters to a Swiss tax haven’. Alliance Boots has said that if it had registered in Switzerland ‘purely for tax reasons’ there were many other countries that it could have considered.
UK Uncut, the protest group campaigning against tax avoidance, condemned what it called ‘political policing’ after CS spray was used to disperse protestors in London’s Oxford Street.
Labour MP John McDonnell said the use of CS spray in the ‘policing of the tax justice campaign’ was a worrying development, which he would raise in the House of Commons today.
Protesters had successfully ‘closed down’ the Boots store in Oxford Street yesterday when police tried to arrest a woman for pushing a leaflet through the store's doors, according to a report in The Guardian.
Other demonstrators tried to stop the arrest, the report added, and at least one police officer used CS spray, which ‘hospitalised three people’.
A statement published by the protest group UK Uncut quoted Anna Williams, who saw the incident, as saying: ‘I condemn the violent behaviour of the police who have attacked a peaceful protest against tax avoidance, with three people being taken away in an ambulance. This is yet another example of political policing that is about protecting corporate interests and not those of ordinary people.’
The Guardian reported that a spokesman for the Metropolitan police said officers had arrested a woman for damaging the door of Boots and confirmed CS spray had been used. Three people were taken to hospital for treatment, the London Ambulance Service said, according to the Daily Telegraph.
Campaigners have claimed that Boots ‘was bought out by foreign investors, loaded with debt, and moved headquarters to a Swiss tax haven’. Alliance Boots has said that if it had registered in Switzerland ‘purely for tax reasons’ there were many other countries that it could have considered.
