Pat Dollard

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A university professor who is organising a protest at next week’s G20 summit was suspended from his job after warning bankers could be “hanging from lampposts”, a spokesman said Friday.
University of East London professor of anthropology Chris Knight told the BBC that demonstrators would be “hanging a lot of people” during protests in London against the summit next Thursday.

“Professor Chris Knight has been suspended from his duties at the University of East London, pending investigation,” a university spokesman told AFP. “In order not to prejudice this process we cannot make any further comment.”

Knight said Wednesday that protesters would be “hanging a lot of people like Fred the Shred (disgraced former RBS chief Fred Goodwin) from lampposts on April Fool’s Day, and I can only say let’s hope they are just effigies.”

“To be honest, if he (Goodwin) winds us up any more I’m afraid there will be real bankers hanging from lampposts and let’s hope that that doesn’t actually have to happen,” he told BBC radio.

Goodwin stepped down from RBS as the government recapitalised the troubled bank, which is now 70 percent owned by the state. Goodwin, who secured a massive pension pot when he left the bank, has since become a divisive figure, with vandals attacking his home earlier this week.

“They (bankers) should realise the amount of fury and hatred there is for them and act quickly, because quite honestly if it isn’t humour it is going to be anger,” Knight told the BBC.

“I am trying to keep it humorous and let the anger come up in a creative and hopefully productive and peaceful way.

“If the other people don’t join in the fun — I’m talking about the bankers and those rather pompous ministers — and come over and surrender their power obviously it’s going to get us even more wound up and things could get nasty. Let’s hope it doesn’t.”

To ensure security during the G20, some 2,500 police officers will be deployed in London, along with more to protect and escort leaders from the summit venue in east London’s docklands to receptions at Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s Downing Street offices or Buckingham Palace.

All holidays for officers in London have been cancelled for the summit, businesses have been advised not to hold any unnecessary meetings, and police have been called in from five other forces to bolster available resources.
(AFP)