Do you know these faces? Police release photos of 35 people wanted after violence at London protests
Written by News on 19/06/2020
Police have released photos of 35 people they want to speak to after violent clashes at protests in central London.
A series of demonstrations have been held in the capital over recent weeks, with the overwhelming majority of people remaining peaceful.
But Scotland Yard said a small minority had been involved in attacks on police and violent confrontations with other protesters.
Police said the individuals pictured are people they “need to talk to about the violence seen at the protests”.
Commander Bas Javid said: “The vast majority of people have attended, made their voices heard, and then left without causing trouble.
“However, a small minority have attended with the sole purpose of attacking police officers, or violently confronting other protesters.
“This is clearly unacceptable, and as you would expect, we are running a large investigation to identify those who committed serious offences across all the demonstrations over the last month.”
He said almost 230 arrests had been made during the protests from 3 until 13 June.
Protests in support of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement took place in London and around the UK following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
On 13 June, a demonstration was held by people who said they were there to protect statues from being vandalised. Those present included some far-right groups, as well as military veterans.
A BLM protest on the same day was cancelled by organisers, although a smaller number of people supporting the movement turned out in central London.
Police said 128 of the 230 arrests related to the 13 June demonstrations.
Mr Javid added: “We are now asking for the public’s help in identifying people, who we need to talk to about the violence seen at the protests.
“If you have any information, no matter how small, please get in touch.”
Metropolitan Police said detectives had been “carefully analysing” hours of CCTV, video from officers’ body-worn cameras and footage on social media.
It said other images of suspects were likely to be released in the near future.
Police, who have assigned case numbers to each of the images, say anyone with information should contact the investigation team on 0208 246 9386 or Tweet @MetCC on Twitter.
Alternatively, people can contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
(c) Sky News 2020: Do you know these faces? Police release photos of 35 people wanted after violence at London protests