MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 08th June, 2020) UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Sunday that protests against racism and police brutality had been hijacked by thugs, after several officers were injured.
"These demonstrations have been subverted by thuggery - and they are a betrayal of the cause they purport to serve. Those responsible will be held to account," he tweeted.
Johnson said that people had a right to protest peacefully, while observing coronavirus-related social distancing rules, "but they have no right to attack the police," he added.
Protests sparked by the in-custody death of a black American in the US city of Minneapolis swept across the United Kingdom and the rest of Europe over the weekend.
Ten officers were hurt in London after violence erupted at a thousands-strong protest on Saturday. And on Sunday Black Lives Matter protesters in Bristol toppled a statue to 17th century slave trader Edward Colston and dropped it into the river.
