On the eve of the G20 summit, crowds of people have taken to London’s streets in order to protest the “greed of the financial institutions,” and capitalism in general, in what one anarchist group called “Financial Fool’s Day.” Their methods so far have ranged from the mundane (throwing fruit and eggs) to the ridiculous:
One protester dressed as the Easter bunny managed to hop through the police cordon but was stopped before he could reach the Bank of England. Another black-clad demonstrator waved a fake light saber at officers.
And then there was the totally creepy:
They hung the effigy of a banker from traffic lights and scrawled “built on blood” on the wall of the Bank of England.
Also earlier today, a gang of protesters broke into the Royal Bank of Scotland, which was bailed out by the British government, by smashing the windows. This doesn’t seem very smart, because now taxpayer money will have to pay for those broken windows.
British bankers, for their part, seem to be taking the whole thing in stride, despite being warned by their companies to dress down at work, or even stay home. “I’m not going to live in fear,” one pinstriped banker (a New York native!) told Bloomberg. Some even fought back:
Bolder financial workers leaned out their office windows Wednesday, taunting demonstrators and waving 10 pound notes at them.
You kind of have to admire their moxie. Check out the photos of the carnage in our slideshow.
