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		</div><p>Metropolitan Police said 12 people were arrested and eight officers injured during Sunday’s anti-racism demonstrations in central London.</p>
<p>Most of the arrests were related to public order offences while one was for criminal damage following an incident at the Cenotaph.</p>
<p>It comes after Scotland Yard said 29 people were arrested and 14 officers were injured during clashes between police and protesters the day before.</p>
<p>Sunday’s Black Lives Matter rallies attracted thousands of people right across the UK.</p>
<p>Pop superstar Lewis Capaldi was pictured alongside protesters at Holyrood Park in Edinburgh, while rapper Stormzy attended the London protest.</p>
<p>London Black Lives Matter also organised an online protest via Zoom for those unable to attend the demonstrations, which attracted more than 10,000 people.</p>
<p>Elsewhere, the operational patrol unit of Warwickshire Police tweeted the M6 southbound was temporarily closed soon after 6pm due to pedestrian protesters blocking the carriageway at Junction 3.</p>
<p>In Manchester, hundreds crowded into St Peter’s Square, kneeling in silence as a mark of respect for African-American man George Floyd, who died after a white police officer held him down by pressing a knee into his neck on May 25.</p>
<p>In Bristol, protesters toppled the bronze memorial to slave trader Edward Colston and dumped it into the harbour.</p>
<p>Avon and Somerset Police said they had launched an investigation and were seeking to identify those involved with the removal of the statue.</p>
<p>Home Secretary Priti Patel called toppling the memorial “<i>utterly disgraceful</i>”.</p>
<p>“<i>I think that is utterly disgraceful and that speaks to the acts of public disorder that actually have now become a distraction from the cause in which people are actually protesting about and trying to empathise and sympathise</i>,” she said.</p>
<p>In a statement to the BBC, the Mayor of Bristol Marvin Rees said it was “<i>important to listen to those who found the statue to represent an affront to humanity</i>”.</p>
<p>Earlier in London, free masks, gloves and hand gel were given out to the thousands of people at the US embassy for the peaceful protests.</p>
<p>Demonstrators flooded the streets around the embassy before marching on Westminster, protesting against racial injustice and police brutality.</p>
<p>South London painter and decorator Christopher Green, dressed as comic book hero Black Panther, told the PA news agency he joined the protest to “<i>support all the people in America and all those who are being oppressed</i>”.</p>
<p>The 53-year-old added: “<i>The most important thing that people have got to do is take out their video phone and document any counter-action with police because without this simple thing with George Floyd, we would probably never have known what happened</i>.”</p>
<p>Graffiti was scrawled on the statue of Sir Winston Churchill in Parliament Square, with spray paint used so the name plate read Churchill “<i>is a racist</i>”.</p>
<p>Demonstrations were carried out peacefully for much of the afternoon, but bottles were thrown at officers in one incident near the Cenotaph soon before 9pm.</p>
<p>The crowd – much smaller than earlier on Sunday – shouted “<i>no justice, no peace</i>” as they moved down Whitehall and let off smoke bombs as a police helicopter buzzed overhead.</p>
<p>Metropolitan Police superintendent Jo Edwards said it was regrettable that “<i>officers were faced with further scenes of violence and disorder following a day of predominantly peaceful protest throughout the capital.</i></p>
<p><i>“This is a hugely impassioned movement and we understand the public’s desire to have their voices heard – however it is not right that this passion has turned into violent attacks on officers.</i>”</p>
<p>Prime Minister Boris Johnson also said the demonstrations had been “<i>subverted by thuggery</i>” following the clashes between pockets of protesters and police.</p>
<p>On Sunday evening, Mr Johnson tweeted: “<i>People have a right to protest peacefully &; while observing social distancing but they have no right to attack the police.</i></p>
<p><i>“These demonstrations have been subverted by thuggery – and they are a betrayal of the cause they purport to serve.</i></p>
<p><i>“Those responsible will be held to account.</i>”</p>
<p>Speaking to The Guardian, Labour’s shadow justice secretary David Lammy said the Government should acknowledge “<i>racism and prejudice exist in the United Kingdom as well as the United States</i>”.</p>
<p>“<i>We must turn this moment into one of change and justice in the UK too,</i>” he said.</p>
<p>British Health Secretary Matt Hancock said it is “<i>undoubtedly a risk</i>” that there will be an increase in Covid-19 cases following the protests, as he urged people not to gather in groups of more than six people.</p>
<p>Mr Hancock said he supported the activists’ arguments, but said: “<i>Please don’t gather in groups of more than six people because there is also a pandemic that we must address and control.</i>”</p>
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