A Shoreditch cafe that serves bowls of cereal has been trashed by a mob of anti-gentrification protesters, who waved torches, threw a smoke bomb and wrote the word ‘SCUM’ on the front window in paint.
“It’s senseless violence, isn’t it? We’ve had some letters through the letterbox saying ‘die hipsters’ and stuff but nothing to this extreme. It just doesn’t make sense … If you want to talk about gentrification and different classes, you don’t go about attacking independent businesses who are putting their whole life on the line to open a business, you go to the conglomerates and big companies.”
The Keery brothers and their customers barricaded themselves in the shop as the demonstration moved in, and at one point, moved patrons downstairs to safety as a protester broke down the door and threw a smoke bomb.
Unhappy with the state of the country? Why not attack a small business #smart pic.twitter.com/gt3oL8Z4Vm
— Cereal Killer Cafe (@CerealKillerUK) September 27, 2015
Tonight we were attacked with paint and fire by an angry mob of 200. Riot police are on the scene. pic.twitter.com/GPXLmyMmuN
— Cereal Killer Cafe (@CerealKillerUK) September 26, 2015
Whatever happened in Shoreditch tonight is making my life exceedingly difficult pic.twitter.com/g2jXaEVpJu
— Jamie Osman (@jamieosman) September 26, 2015
“Our communities are being ripped apart — by Russian oligarchs, Saudi Sheiks, Israeli scumbag property developers, Texan oil-money twats and our own homegrown Eton toffs … London is our home and worth defending against this onslaught of dog-eat-dog economics. Working class people are being forced out of our homes but we won’t go out without a fight.”