One step back from the river

They were taking this police boat out of the water at Port Glasgow today and it reminded me of when COP26 was in Glasgow. Our school was close to where all the gatherings were and there were many police boats (from across the UK) patrolling and docked on the river at the school.
When the Rainbow Warrior sailed up the Clyde towards the conference everything went a bit bananas.
 The police closed the Erskine Bridge, the only point in the firth to cross the water that didn't involve having to go to Glasgow and the Clyde Tunnel. So there was a massive traffic congestion for hours and I had the suspicion that the decision was taken to close the bridge to throw criticism onto the Greenpeace boat.
After work I wanted to go and see if I could catch it passing and I knew just the spot. It was a bit of wasteland across from Govan shipyard and a copse of trees where I loved to come and watch the jackdaws roost in their hundreds in autumn.
I got there and there were three police boats blocking the way. Someone else had had the same idea and had a shipping tracker app on their phone tracking where the Rainbow Warrior was on its journey up the Clyde. It seemed to be a few hundred metres downriver from where we were. So we waited and watched the police boats bob.
Then a guy arrived with a video camera shouting at the police boats, trying to get them to start talking to him. He came up to me.
"Alright?" I ventured.
"Listen, if the police try move you on just take one step back from the river's edge, right?"
"Eh... what for?"
"Cause that means you're no longer trespassing on Crown property.'
"You mean the river bank?"
"Yes, Take one step backwards and you're no longer trespassing."
He seemed well pleased with passing on his wisdom and shouted , "Isn't that right officers!?" at the boats even though they couldn't hear us.
He kept on filming and I moved away from him up towards the guy with the ship tracking app. Police helicopters were flying downriver, presumably where the Rainbow Warrior was.
Its position hadn't changed for the last 20 minutes and it was getting dark, and even Mr. Onestepback had left, so I called it quits and went home not having seen the Rainbow Warrior. 
At home I found out that it had been forced to dock just down river right enough.