London’s Killer Cereal Cafe, which opened in late 2014, serves more than 100 types of cereals sourced from Australia, France, America, South Africa and South Korea.
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The café is located in Shoreditch, which is a historically low-income neighborhood in East London that is quickly gentrifying, Jezebel reports.
Tweeting about the incident, the Cereal Killer Cafe owners said: “Tonight we were attacked with paint and fire by an angry mob of 200”.
Alan Keery, who co-owns the Cereal Killer Cafe along with his brother Garry, told the Evening Standard: “There were children there – they were terrified”. Why are they wearing pig masks?… The shop appears to have been targeted for selling bowls of cereal at £5 (approximate $7.59 USD).
The anarchist protesters identify themselves as the Class War and the event was tagged as the “F– Parade”. Now, it’s easy to pick out because of big, angry splotches of red paint marking its windows.
Adam Barr, one of the staff at Freedom News, an anarchist bookshop which has been in the East End for more than 60 years, said the protests reflect the marginalization of the poor. Protesters painted the word “scum” on the café’s windows while some carried the heads of pigs and torches.
The Guardian are reporting that one officer has suffered minor facial injuries and speaking about the attack, Alan Keery has said “there were children there – they were terrified”.
“There is so much choice for eating out -pizza, Mexican, Chinese, sushi – and yet all I wanted that day was a bowl of cereal and I couldn’t get it”, they told the Belfast Telegraph.
“They’re talking about gentrification but they’ve tagged us as the poster boys for it, and we’re not the real problem here”, he added.
One police officer was injured when he was struck in the face with a bottle, while one arrest was made on suspicion of causing criminal damage.
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The organisers of the protest advertised it on Facebook with a post saying: “We don’t want luxury flats that no-one can afford, we want genuinely affordable housing”. “The support we’ve had from local businesses as well has been heartwarming, we’ve been given gifts and offers of help to clean our shopfront, so the sense of community the protesters were fighting for has been shown in the last few days despite their actions”.
