![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/0_AD_17-05-2025_protest.jpg\")
The counter-protesters in Bristol city centre.(Image: Avon & Somerset Police)<\/p>\nAround 100 people from UKIP and 250 counter-protesters were near the Cenotaph this afternoonThe counter-protesters in Bristol city centre.(Image: Avon & Somerset Police)<\/p>\n
Five people were arrested during a protest and counter-demonstration in Bristol today (Saturday, May 17).<\/p>\n
The protest saw 100 members of the UK Independence Party<\/a> (UKIP) calling for “mass-deportations” and was met with around 250 counter-protesters who carried Antifacism Action banners.<\/p>\n Avon and Somerset Police<\/a> officers were in the city centre<\/a>, by the Cenotaph within ‘the Centre’ to keep the public safe whilst the two groups clashed.<\/p>\n Five people were arrested during the demonstrations.<\/p>\n A 37-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of assault, a 25-year-old man on suspicion of theft and a further two woman and a man on suspicion of breach of the peace.<\/p>\n There were 167 officers deployed to the protest, including specialist units with drones, dogs, horses and from the cycle team.<\/p>\n They were also joined by local policing officers, neighbourhood officers and colleagues from ambulance, fire and the local authority.<\/p>\n Silver Commander for the protest, Ch Insp Jason Sims, said: “Overall, both groups were calm and engaged with officers, however we did see a handful of clashes between the two sides.<\/p>\n “A number of arrests have been made and investigations and further enquiries continue.<\/p>\n “I would like to take the opportunity to praise the officers and staff involved in the policing of this event.<\/p>\n “The feedback I have received so far is that officers acted professionally and proportionately to keep the members of the public safe and to facilitate the protests.<\/p>\n “A large number of our officers cancelled their days off with their loved ones to facilitate the policing of this event, which enabled us to keep the public safe, and I cannot thank them enough for making that personal sacrifice.<\/p>\n “I would also like to thank our colleagues at the ambulance and fire services and local authority for their support.”<\/p>\n The event saw the UKIP group gather near the Colston Statue plinth, whilst the counter-protesters gathered at the Cenotaph.<\/p>\n Counter-protesters arrived at around 11.30am whilst the UKIP side arrived at around 1pm.<\/p>\n Both sides dispersed at around 3.45pm.<\/p>\n St Augustine’s Parade and Colston Avenue were closed in both directions from 12.30pm until shortly before 4pm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Around 100 people from UKIP and 250 counter-protesters were near the Cenotaph this afternoonThe counter-protesters in Bristol city…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":109695,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[9312,381,799,748,393,4884,16,14138,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-109694","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bristol","8":"tag-avon-and-somerset-constabulary","9":"tag-bristol","10":"tag-bristol-city-centre","11":"tag-britain","12":"tag-england","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-uk-independence-party","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114524632128632244","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109694\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}