Westfield to be "occupied" by protesters on Saturday

A strange group called the "Love Police Academy", the LPA, will be attempting to occupy the Sky stall tomorrow on Saturday. Their aim doesn't seem to be political and with a name like that they seem to be more hippy than anarchist, complete with lots of references to how horrible the world of capitalism is in the video their founder has posted on YouTube below.

I would imagine they may have chosen Westfield after the incident I covered here received widespread publicity, when the security gorillas tried to get heavy with a bunch of middle aged female librarians. I would imagine Westfield's substantial public relations team will be trying to hold their excesses back from the cameras again!

And in fairness to Westfield the librarians were protesting outside their library on what was indisputably a public area, even if privately owned. Occupying a major retailer's own space right in the middle of a shopping centre is clearly completely different. And I say that as one of Westfield's big critics.

In his YouTube video the LPA founder talks about "playing a game" with the police. He wants to see how long they take to turn up and whether they "get hugs". Coming just days after reports that Westfield may be a terrorist target and that the police will be likely the one thing ensuring the safety of people, you have to conclude that this guy is a bit of a prat to put it mildly.

But I also wonder, by putting the video on YouTube and declaring his own intention to rile the self same security guards, this guy can't be that serious about whatever he is doing. This blogpost alone will probably alert Westfield if they weren't already, so the whole thing is likely to be a very damp squib.

Whatever pulls your strings though..



oh, and this of course gives me another excuse to remind you all of the star we discovered in Nathan, Westfield's finest!