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One of my other memories of that day is that all the way along the first part of the route (can't give specifics it all just merged into one big crowd in a city I had never walked around in before - I was pretty much just following Jude) the police were so friendly. It was a carnival atmosphere - everypne was in a good mood. It was sunny and warm - there were people playing drums and pipes and some were juggling. There were parents with kids on their shoulders - a group of elderly women with a big banner saying 'Grannies Against the Poll Tax'
We laughed and joked with the police lining the route and they laughed and joked back. The stewards were keeping everything orderly and getting the crowd going with chants and songs.
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...when we were at the barricades outside Downing Street,we were doing that protestor thing of shouting at the police behind the barricades - and the police were doing their thing of landing a punch if anyone got too close to the barrier - we had this young lass with us- about a year younger than us in years, but much younger looking and a little naive. She'd sort of attached herself to me and J through our local circle of friends and other students and had decided to come with us on the demo. She got a little enthusiastic and was pushing up against the barrier A police officer behind the barricade threw a single full force punch and she dropped - as she started to drop two cops leaned over the barrier and were trying to drag her over to their side - we pulled her back towards us and she fell back into our crowd but she lost her shoe.*
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Weren't the cops responding in kind? You laughed a joked, they laughed and joked. You were yelling and cursing them(who didn't create the tax), and they being greatly outnumbered by anarchists, commies, and maybe even Irish, responded with force out of fear.
Oh, and maybe they were trying to drag that girl to get her to medical aid which wasn't busy on their side.
