Twenty arrested as Occupy London protest evicted from camp

Occupy London protesters were evicted from their encampment at St. Paul's Cathedral in London in an overnight operation that resulted in 20 arrests.

City of London Police described the eviction as “largely peaceful” in a statement on its website. Bailiffs employed by the City of London Corp. removed protesters' tents and equipment from the churchyard.

Occupy London protesters have been camping outside of St. Paul's since the middle of October. They were inspired by the Occupy Wall Street protest in New York, which was evicted on Nov. 15. There is still an Occupy London camp located in Finsbury Square in the borough of Islington.

“This morning, the City of London Corp. and St. Paul's Cathedral have dismantled a camp and displaced a small community, but they will not derail a movement,” Occupy London said today in an e-mailed statement. “This is only the beginning.”

The protestors were denied permission last week to an appeal a court ruling that gave the City of London Corp. permission to proceed with the eviction.

“The fact that the Occupy London protests ended with conflict of any kind in this way was avoidable and unnecessary,” Jenny Jones, the Green Party candidate for London mayor and a member of the Metropolitan Police Authority, said in a statement. “The protesters should have been allowed to appeal over their eviction.”

The church said it regretted that bailiffs had to evict the protestors.

“In the past few months, we have all been made to re- examine important issues about social and economic justice and the role the cathedral can play,” St. Paul's said in a statement.

--Editors: Anthony Aarons, Eddie Buckle

To contact the reporter on this story: Schuyler Clemente in London at sclemente1bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Anthony Aarons at aaaronsbloomberg.net