Today in Manchester a small group of between 20-30 protestors marched through Manchester city centre, the protest consisted of members of the Merseyside Love Activists and Homeless Rights Of Justice group who are currently in occupancy of St Anne's Sq at the camp there. They were marching to raise awareness of the homelessness situation within the city and how the homeless community is being further impacted by the recent Budget announcement this week.
The demonstration set off from Piccadilly Gardens where there is a kitchen set up to specifically feed the homeless in Manchester.
After passing through Chinatown the march came to McDonalds, where upon they burst inside with their banners.
The Police were called by staff and escorted the protestors off the premises.
After marching back to Piccadily the march tried to gain access to Halifax bank, some of the protestors made it in but security locked the doors trapping some of the protestors inside.
Eventually the Police gained control of the situation and the protestors were let out and the march continued down towards the Arndale Center.
This time the Police were infront of the march and were able to prevent the protestors from gaining entry along with bank security.
Then the march came upon this scene of a homeless man passed out by a bench with a member of the public sat on her phone totally ignoring him as did the other hundreds of shoppers who were going past at the time. If you have never been to Manchester it is quite common to see a person asleep on the floor. This is part of the issue that the protestors were demonstrating about, the fact that there seems to be no concern in the wider community for people who have ended up in this position.
The demonstrators tried to rouse him, but he was un-responsive only opening his eyes for a brief second and then flaking out again. One of the protestors got on the phone to call paramedics to the scene whilst others put the man in the recovery position.
After about 15 minutes the Police arrived on the scene and took over from the protestors some of whom made their way back to Piccadily Gardens, while others stayed around to see what was going to happen to the man.
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