Peaceful ‘kill the bill’ protest staged two years on from riot

‘Kill the bill’ protesters took to the streets on Tuesday evening to mark two years to the day since the infamous demonstration that descended into violence outside Bridewell Police Station.

The ‘stand against state violence’ peaceful protest was held to show solidarity with people sentenced for their actions during the riot on March 21, 2021, and their families, and “the brutality of the police towards demonstrators”.

More than 200 people came together in the Bearpit before marching to the same police station, on Bridewell Street, that came under attack two years ago.

Shouts of “whose streets, our streets” and “no justice, no peace, no racist police” as well as several anti-police slogans could be heard as the droves of people, many with their faces covered with scarves and marks, weaved through the city centre, stopping oncoming traffic.

It was lead by half a dozen marchers holding a banner reading ‘free the prisoners, drop the charges’, with police officers closely monitoring the demonstration.

Several uniformed police officers were on duty keeping a discreet distance from the march.

One protester was Heidi Gedge, mother of Mariella Gedge-Rogers who was sentenced to five and a half years for riot for her actions during the 2021 unrest.

She said her daughter, who threw a traffic cone and a skateboard towards officers and smashed a window of the police station, was “unfairly” imprisoned and “brutally attacked” by police, and has been campaigning for a year with the Justice for the Bristol Protesters group.

Gedge told Bristol24/7: “Our campaign is set on getting the narrative out there, finding out why police officers have not been punished for their role on the day because a lot of the violence was instigated by the police.”

“We want to get the riot charges dropped and get them freedom.”

Gedge-Rogers is one of 34 mainly young people jailed for offences committed during the riot, all of which have been imprisoned for a combined total of over 100 years.

As darkness fell, several people addressed the crowd, including Jasmine York, who was given a nine-month sentence for pushing a bin into a burning police car during the disturbance. Two years on from suffering severe bruising and haematomas as she was struck repeatedly with a police baton and having serve jail time for arson, York returned to the scene.

“I often get asked: ‘Jasmine, if you knew your involvement in that protest would land you in prison would you still go?,’” she told the hundreds of demonstrators, many carrying placards and banners denouncing police violence. “Yes I would,” she replied.

“Us protesters aren’t a threat to society, we are a threat to the state,” said York, disguising her face with a snood scarf. “I believe, perhaps for my own sanity, that my incarceration symbolises how powerful we are as a unit and why it’s imperative we continue to be proactive in the face of state oppression.”

Halfway through her speech, a banner was displayed from Rupert Street Car Park listing the names of some of those sentenced for their involvement in the riot.

The rally and march was held exactly two years after violence broke out following the ‘kill the bill’ protest on 21 March 2021 – photo: Betty Woolerton

Bristol’s ‘Kill the bill’ protests were part of a wave of demonstrations that took place across the UK throughout 2021 in opposition to the government’s controversial Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, that passed into law in June 2022.

Sections of the bill were condemned by protesters and human rights activists as an attack on the right to protest, arguing that it could curb the right to peacefully protest.

The Bristol riot saw clashes between Avon and Somerset Police and protesters, with fireworks thrown, police vehicles burnt and graffitied and demonstrators pepper-sprayed and ‘bladed’ with shields.

A parliamentary inquiry into police handling of the unrest in March found that police officers used unnecessary and excessive force, failed to distinguish between violent and peaceful protesters and wrongly presumed the protests were illegal. While none have faced criminal action, Avon and Somerset Police has paid out-of-court settlements to some of those injured.

Tuesday’s demonstration came on the same day that the Met was found to be institutionally racist, misogynistic and homophobic by a report commissioned by the force following Sarah Evarard’s murder.

Main photo: Betty Woolerton

Read next:

• ‘Where is the condemnation from Bristol’s leaders about the actions of the police?
• Police pay damages to peaceful ‘kill the bill’ protesters
• Are Bristol’s ‘kill the bill’ protesters being made examples of the state?

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