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A shopping mall in West London, England was forced to shut down to customers after a horde of anti-lockdown protesters swarmed the building to protest pandemic-related restrictions.
But the shopping mall was fully open to customers at the time, because the United Kingdom has significantly eliminated restrictions and is not currently under a lockdown.
You can't make this up.
Police now trying to contain anti-lockdown protests inside Westfield, West Londonpic.twitter.com/5DAzRaBtdi— Julian Druker (@Julian Druker) 1622308498
If you're struggling to understand this bizarre situation, you're not alone—the scene left many scratching their heads.
As shoppers attempted to make their rounds Saturday, hordes of protestors descended on the Westfield shopping center in West London, pounding drums and shouting "Freedom!" and "Keep Britain free!" both inside and outside the facility.
But in a darkly ironic twist, their demonstration backfired entirely when stores in the mall's center were forced to close in order to keep employees safe from the throng. Police soon needed to be called to deal with the situation outside the mall as well, resulting in roads leading to the center being closed.
Several other protests erupted around London too, among the largest being a throng with flags and signs gathered in Parliament Square.
The United Kingdom eased its restrictions on May 17 amid falling virus cases and rising vaccination rates.
While limits on the number of people who can gather in one place remain in effect, all businesses, events and entertainment venues, shopping centers, restaurants and bars are permitted to be open.
The protest at the shopping mall only lasted about 20 minutes, while police cleared the crowds with batons. But it lasted plenty long enough to perplex many people on Twitter, who couldn't believe the ridiculous scene of an anti-lockdown protest at a fully open mall.
\u201cWhat do we WANT!\u201d \u201cWe want FREEDOM!!! So on a glorious sunny day while parks, zoos, pubs, restaurants and beaches are open we will use that freedom to pile into a shopping centre to restrict the freedom of shoppers and retailers\u201d Absolute stupidity. That\u2019s being polite!!!https://twitter.com/Julian5News/status/1398689336099487749\u00a0\u2026— Adil Ray OBE \ud83d\udc99 (@Adil Ray OBE \ud83d\udc99) 1622367907
So they walked past all the open restaurants, all the open pubs into an open shopping centre full of open shops to protest lockdown— James Weston (@James Weston) 1622311587
Anti-lockdown protesters now wading into Primark to tell those currently working in Primark that they need to take to the streets to protest that Primark isn\u2019t open, whilst simultaneously working in a Primark store that is, in fact, ope..\n\n#lockdownprotest #Westfieldhttps://twitter.com/julian5news/status/1398689336099487749\u00a0\u2026— David (@David) 1622312086
How are you anti-lockdown when you\u2019re literally outside you clownshttps://twitter.com/thisisjoeob/status/1398690456343547913\u00a0\u2026— Mollie Goodfellow (@Mollie Goodfellow) 1622311261
I feel so sorry for all of those poor retail workers caught up in the mess at Westfield. People are so selfish.— pip \ud83d\udd73\ufe0f (@pip \ud83d\udd73\ufe0f) 1622310483
"What d'ya want?" - "FREEDOM!"\n\n"When d'ya want it ?" - "NOW!"\n\nChanted without a hint of irony from inside a FULLY OPEN Westfield shopping centre TODAY.pic.twitter.com/omttVj2rZN— Marsh4LL (@Marsh4LL) 1622318248
Fairly sure the very fact all the shops in Westfield are open is the way you tell lockdown is no longer happening.https://twitter.com/Julian5News/status/1398689336099487749\u00a0\u2026— Catherine Finnecy (@Catherine Finnecy) 1622311097
I don't know what's more ironic - the fact that #Antilockdown protesters forced the CLOSURE of #westfield Shopping Centre OR that by not wearing masks/not socially distancing indoors they are spreading a highly transmissible new variant which will slow down/prevent full reopeninghttps://twitter.com/Julian5News/status/1398689336099487749\u00a0\u2026— Dr Zubaida Haque (@Dr Zubaida Haque) 1622358961
So anti lockdown protestors go to an open shopping centre, and force it into lockdown\n\nSound logic there— FWAW (@FWAW) 1622313082
London's Metropolitan Police reported they made four arrests Saturday across all the demonstrations staged against the non-existent lockdown.