A month and a day after the Black Lives Matter protest at Heathrow Airport, a second BLM airport protest is now taking place.
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Protesters from the Black Lives Matter UK group chained themselves together as part of a demonstration at London City Airport on Tuesday morning.
Flights in and out of London City Airport have been disrupted after a group of “Occupy” demonstrators marched onto the runway.
Ultimately, according to a statement released by the Metropolitan Police, officers arrested all nine protesters on charges of aggravated trespass, being unlawfully airside, and breaching London City Airport bylaws.
At Phoenix airport in the US, Karen Reyburn tweeted: “After six hours, I am actually sitting on a plane!”
London City Airport announced around noon local time that they had resumed operations. The protesters said that the plans to expand the airport will harm the African American community living in the area.
“7/10 of the countries most affected by climate change are in sub-Saharan Africa”, said another tweet. Climate change, it said, was creating huge numbers of climate refugees.
“When black people in Britain are 28% more likely to be exposed to air pollution than their white counterparts, we know that environmental inequality is a racist crisis”.
Its sole runway is surrounded by water, but it was reported that the protesters were able to either swim or use a dinghy to cross the wharf, raising questions about security.
“Why deviate the BLM cause to jump on that bandwagon?”
BLM UK, via Twitter and through a statement emailed to BuzzFeed, confirmed that it was responsible for the protest.
The network of anti-racism activists, inspired by the U.S. movement of the same name, said at the time that the protests were called to mark the fifth anniversary of the fatal police shooting of Mark Duggan, whose death sparked riots in 2011. Protests were also held in Nottingham and Birmingham.
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Last month’s protest marked the fifth anniversary of the death of Mark Duggan, a 29-year-old black man shot by the London police under disputed circumstances on August 4, 2011.
