June 29, 2021- 9:30 p.m.
rotesters in London called for Bill Gates to be arrested on Saturday as they gathered outside the U.K. headquarters of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as part of a larger protest against COVID-19 lockdown measures.
Videos circulating on social media on Tuesday appeared to show dozens of protesters outside the Gates Foundation’s HQ in the British capital. They can be heard shouting “Arrest Bill Gates!” several times. Other social media users who were present at the protest also said demonstrators had been to the foundation’s HQ on Saturday.
Gates, the founder of Microsoft and a multibillionaire, has been at the center of unfounded conspiracy theories involving the COVID-19 pandemic and the development of a vaccine.
The protesters shout “Arrest Bill Gates!” repeatedly though it is not immediately clear what crime the crowd may be accusing him of. However, Gates has become a magnet for conspiracy theories in relation to the pandemic.
“Nobody would have predicted that I and Fauci would be so prominent in these really evil theories,” Gates said. “I’m very surprised by that [and] I hope it goes away.”
Other protests also took place in London over the weekend, including a separate demonstration against the government on Saturday and an Extinction Rebellion protest on Sunday.
Chief Superintendent Karen Findlay of London’s Metropolitan Police, who was in command of the operation, said: “The significant majority of those protesting today engaged in a positive manner with our officers. We did experience small pockets of antisocial behavior in Whitehall which involved missiles being thrown at officers, but these were dealt with quickly and effectively.”
