Letter: Riot at Welling race march was provoked by the police

I AM a black woman who attended the demonstration on 16 October with more than 25,000 others to protest about the presence of the headquarters of an organisation near my home that would like to see me thrown out of the country, interned or dead, and whose members have been attacking and killing people like me in south-east London in increasing numbers since they moved their 'bookshop' to Welling.

I bought the Independent on Sunday the next day only to read about myself and other demonstrators described as 'extremists' on your front page ('Race march explodes into riot', 17 October) and to see a cosy feature on cuddly fascists ('Scenes from domestic life', Review, 17 October). The photographs glamorised the fascists' lifestyle. You even had a picture of them spraying the sort of graffiti that makes me frightened and sick in the stomach as I make my way around London. What next? Pictures of them beating a black person or stuffing a petrol bomb through one of our houses?

Wendy Semp

London SE15