Heading home after peaceful protest

We were all told to leave Westminster Bridge by the south end and turn right.

I heard that. Clearly.
The north end there was the wall of police I'd seen when I arrived but don't know why we couldn't leave that end. Hardly matters I suppose.

I was walking towards Lambeth Bridge vaguely asking myself where I was going. I fancied stopping at the Riverside Cafe for a cup of tea but figured I'd get a free one when I got home.

I'm walking over Lambeth Bridge and at the end see police vans but also see the guitar and harmonica player who'd done a set of funny protest songs on the comedy patch on Westminster Bridge. I go over to say thanks, he was really good! He thanks me for the compliment!

I ask him what all the police vans are doing there without questioning why he and everyone else aren't actually walking anymore.

I see a line of police in their flourescent yellow jackets walk past us and again think nothing.

Then I hear this kind of shout and the police have grabbed one another and encircled us, the force of which made me wobble a bit on my feet, made my body sway.

"This is unlawful imprisonment," someone shouts.

I feel my chest tighten and tell myself not to panic. It wouldn't do to panic.

I hear a guy say: "Let's play tag, you're it!"
"You're it!"
"It!"

and laugh.

A little later I tell a young guy (really good looking actually!) that I got free tickets through Seefilmfirst to go and see an opera called The Passenger on friday night. It's the story of an German SS officer who is on a cruise ship who sees one of her ex prisoner's from Auschwitz.
"My brother wanted to leave at the interval," I tell this boy. "But I told him we should stay to see the rest because stories like that are still relevant today, people around the world are still being oppressed, perhaps not to the same extent but..."
"It's important to feel it," says the guy.
"Hmmm," I say because if I was anywhere else I might say yes
but in a police kettle I am feeling it.

Maybe I should've stopped for that cup of tea?

Maybe it was right I should experience it?

Somebody told me this morning that kettlingpeople is illegal. If it isn't, it should be.

Here's a friend's experience. She occupied Fortnum and Mason's in a peaceful protest and wasn't allowed home at all:

http://ladieswotlunch.posterous.com/i-am-sparticus