Boris Johnson fends off girl gang, who attacked activist and filmmaker Franny Armstrong on his bicycle
Boris Johnson fends off girl gang, who attacked activist and filmmaker Franny Armstrong on his bicycle
London Mayor Boris Johnson came to the rescue of a high profile climate change activist and filmmaker who was being attacked by a group of young girls brandishing an iron bar.
Franny Armstrong, the director of The Age of Stupid, described the mayor of London as her "knight in a shining bicycle" after he came to her defence as she was walking home in Camden, north London on
Tuesday night.
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Hot Wheels: Boris Johnson cycled after the girls and chased them, after which he walked Franny home |
She called out for help to a passing cyclist after being surrounded by a group of hoodie-wearing young girls who pushed her against a car, one holding an iron bar.
The cyclist turned out to be none other than Johnson, who has made tackling youth crime a key mayoral priority.
He stopped and chased the girls down the street, calling them "oiks", according to Armstrong, who praised the mayor's intervention.
Johnson returned and insisted on walking her home.
"I was texting on my phone so didn't notice the girls until they pushed me against the car, quite hard," she said.
"I noticed that one had an iron bar in her hand. It was very frightening. At that moment a man cycled past and I called out for help.
The chase"He said to the girls: 'What do you think you are doing?' He picked up the iron bar, called after the girls and cycled after them. He returned a few minutes later and walked me home.
"He was my knight on a shining bicycle."
Johnson's office confirmed the story but declined to comment on the mayor's actions.
Armstrong admitted she did not agree with Johnson's politics, and had voted for his rival Ken Livingstone in the mayoral elections, but added, "If you find yourself down a dark alleyway and in trouble I think Boris would be of more use than Ken."
Who's Armstrong?Franny Armstrong is a British documentary film director, climate change activist and former drummer for the band The Band of Holy Joy.
Her most recent project is 10:10, launched in September 2009, which has since been signed up to by the UK's leading politicians, as well as by prominent organisations and individuals.
Armstrong's first documentary, McLibel (1997, 2005), told the inside story of the McDonald's libel trial, the longest-running court action in English history.
Armstrong's second feature documentary, Drowned Out (2002), follows an Indian family who chose to stay at home and drown rather than make way for the Narmada Dam.
