Occupy London cleared, 20 arrested
Police guard London’s Saint Paul’s Cathedral today after police and bailiffs cleared protesters from the Occupy camp outside the 300-year-old church.
Authorities say 20 people were detained early today as officials forcibly evicted Occupy London protesters who had been camped outside St. Paul's Cathedral for four months, reported The Associated Press.
The Guardian quoted police as describing a "largely peaceful" operation conducted in the early hours today and reportedly overseen by a large group of riot police.
The Occupy London Stock Exchange camp is tied to the anti-corporate-greed movement Occupy Wall Street that arose out of New York City and has spread worldwide.
It was one of the longest-lasting of the Occupy encampments, with police in recent months forcibly evicting protesters from the New York headquarters, as well as from camps in Washington, DC, Oakland, and Atlanta.
More from GlobalPost: Occupy Wall Street protests go global
The group's London Press Team released a press release today saying it's not the camp's "tents, or even the kitchen shelves" that will be missed, but rather the "fiercely idealistic group of people who came together to achieve something extraordinary."
Occupy London protesters had been living in tents outside the Cathedral since October. They gained an advocate in Giles Fraser, who resigned as the Cathedral's canon chancellor in support of protesters and told AP today that the eviction, which came by way of a high court ruling and a Cathedral decision, is "a sad day for the Church."
Occupy London activist Spyro Vanleemnen told CNN on Monday that "there have been discussions already about the future of the movement," saying plans were underway for worldwide Occupy protests in May.