Mixed Reaction To Acton Green Anti-lockdown Protest
Police disperse crowd gathered to watch live music performance
Member of the public confronts anti-lockdown musician. Picture: YouTube
An anti-lockdown protest took place on Acton Green this Tuesday (23 February).
A group describing themselves as a collective of musicians performed songs such as Born To Be Wild and I Want To Break Free in the park just opposite Turnham Green station.
Their spokesman Campbell said they were there to ‘to celebrate freedom happiness, play lots of song about freedom“ and that this was the beginning of a UK wide tour in which they would use a donor funded motor home to travel the country.
He distributed leaflets for an organisation called Jam for Freedom. On their web site they claim that there is no evidence that lockdowns are effective. Most medical experts would dispute this assertion.
The group performed for about an hour and a half with three police officers monitoring the situation. During the course of the performance the crowd watching never exceeded much more than thirty people most of whom were passers-by just lingering for a short time to see what was happening.
At one point a member of the public, a cyclist in a hi-viz jacket, told them they should leave the park. It is not clear whether he was annoyed about the flouting of lockdown rules or the quality of the singing.
Eventually, one of the police officers asked them to stop playing and leave the area because they were breaching Covid regulations and that more resources would be summoned to remove them if they refused.
The group were slow to depart and some of their supporters disputed the right of police officers to ask them to leave but eventually they were persuaded to do so after more officers turned up. It is understood that no Fixed Penalty Notices were issued.
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February 24, 2021
