Everyone's asking why there were protests in Stokes Croft, and how they turned violent.

I think we have the questions backwards.

We need to be asking how we protested - because what we've been doing obviously isn't working - and we need to know why it was violent.

I was at the protest-turned-riot-to-chaos in Stokes Croft last night with two friends. We managed to be the last three sitting in the middle of the road,  in our attempt to regain some semblance of a peaceful protest. (The two of them both happen to be wonderful writers.)

@Smasherkins has written a good, clear account of the evening at Thoughts Uncensored (which I'm hacking into excerpts: read her full story!)

The people are rioting in the streets. And it's not about the Royal Wedding.*

Yes, I did say "riot", its not hyperbolic, and it's in my backyard. (Technically, my front street.)

I got home at 5am this morning. After having sat in the middle of a street full of broken glass, surrounded by police dogs, riot vans, and mounted horseback police.

I watched the police charge a crowd, watched a man go down under a horse. I watched the police march in, watched the neighbourhood transform into a post-apocalyptic re-imagining of the Haight Ashbury.