Daily Mail [UK]
11th November 2010
Thugs who hijacked the tuition fees protest narrowly avoided seriously injuring or even killing police when they threw a fire extinguisher off the seventh floor roof of the Tory HQ, it emerged today.
The dramatic moment was captured on video footage, showing the extinguisher crashing to the ground just inches from a group of officers desperately battling to regain control in Millbank.
A youth was seen on pictures clutching the missile on top of the building and the film showed it being launched over the edge and falling at speed.
It glanced off the helmet of one territorial support group officer and grazes the knees of another. Had it properly hit any of the thousands of people below, it would almost certainly have left fatal injuries.
Police are tonight urgently trying to identify the suspect and Peter Smyth, chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation, said the man ought to be charged with attempted murder.
He said: ‘Clearly that is a very serious offence and we are attempting to bring the person who did that to justice.’
Luke Cooper, 26, an assistant tutor at the University of Sussex, has admitted he was one of the anarchists behind the siege.
He is a prominent member of the Left-wing socialist group Revolution and claimed it and the Education Activist Network organised the action up to two weeks ago.
He told the Evening Standard: ‘The reason we attacked Tory HQ is we want to send a really strong message to this Government that we are not going to let higher education be brutalised.
‘A number of Government buildings are in that part of London and all would have been legitimate targets for protest and occupation.
‘There was a lot of anger. It has always been the plan for Revolution and activists in the International Coalition Against Fees and Cuts to take direct action after the NUS demo.’ [Emphasis CAJ]
The University of Sussex, where Mr Cooper is a tutor in international relations, said it ‘completely dissassociated’ itself from the comments.
The article, with additional photos and video, continues at the Daily Mail.
H/T Verum Serum where John wrote, “I’m sure Luke has a bright future in Union organizing.”
