Thousands of Glaswegians sent the Home Office packing yesterday. Residents of Pollokshields, Glasgow descended on Kenmure Street and surrounded a Home Office van, forcing them to release the two Indian nationals that they had snatched earlier in a dawn raid.
Scotland’s The National newspaper reports that thousands of activists and supporters managed to surround the van, while others even managed to crawl underneath. Police riot vans were called in and police officers even formed a human shield around the van, although the protestors remained entirely peaceful throughout.
As the crowd grew you could hear people chanting “These are our neighbours, let them go” and “refugees are welcome here”.
The stand off went on for hours until the Home Office were forced to back down and release the two men, much to the pleasure of the cheering crowd.
Unfortunately, once again, the BBC’s poor and biased reporting has become part of the story. Having allocated just 30 seconds to a protest that went on for hours, involved a stand off with border force and riot police and ultimately resulted in the release of two detainees, they also heavily edited the footage to give the impression that it was just a handful of neighbours and not a massive protest. Here’s the BBC footage, in is entirety, for comparison…
I’ve never been to Glasgow but there will now forever be a special place in my heart for Glaswegians.
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