Brian Reade on the quiet defiance in the face of such bitter evil 24 hours on

Twenty four hours after the butchering, Woolwich attempted to hide its pain under a blanket of normality.

If you could tear your eyes away from the deserted South London streets behind the police cordon where a soldier's blood was being washed away by heavy rain showers, and from the rows of the media vans, a reeling community made a decent go at getting through another lunchtime. Nike NFL Jerseys Wholesale

People, shocked to the core the day previously by the cold blooded execution on their doorstep, may have been frowning more deeply and conversations may have been more sombre, but they were trying to make out they were functioning as usual.

The unemployed signed on in the JobCentre, students and pensioners read in the library while office workers bought their lunch in Subway. Wholesale Jerseys

Joggers jogged, shoppers came out of Tesco Express and passengers on the 122 bus stared briefly at the media mob, then got back to their lives. Cheap NFL Jerseys CHINA

Just as we saw after the 7/7 bombings of 2005, and even further back, after IRA atrocities in Birmingham, Guildford, Hyde Park and Warrington, people were attempting to do what they do best: Keeping calm and carrying on.

Young mother Abi Sharrock pushed a buggy with one hand and in the other carried a bouquet of carnations, which she handed to police to be laid at the shrine next to the death scene.

She said: "I just wanted to be here to show them, whoever they are and whatever they want to do to us, that no matter how low they stoop they'll never beat us."

It was a defiance summed up by three words on Wednesday afternoon by Ingrid Loyau Kennett to the slayer with blood soaked hands.

Words more powerful than any terrorist act: "You will lose."

Simple but profound words, which simply say, "You can wield your machetes and detonate your Semtex, you can record your hate filled videos and send them to every laptop on earth, but it's ultimately futile because we're better than you".

Such defiant statements trip easily from the mouths of politicians. Boris Johnson and David Cameron were in Woolwich yesterday to deliver them.

But they are nowhere near as powerful as seeing ordinary people live them.

And any snapshot taken of Woolwich going about its business yesterday, 24 hours after the men of terror had done their worst, diluted that poison to the point of ineffectiveness.

The steady stream of people who turned up bearing flowers had to hand them to police, who took them the 200 yards up the hill to the growing shrine on Artillery Place.

The messages were powerful and heartfelt.

"To a fallen hero from a grateful stranger," read one. "You served us in our hour of need, I'm so sorry we weren't there for you," said another. Wholesale NFL Jerseys China

Not everyone was calm, though. Among some of the men who gathered outside Woolwich Town Hall, there was anger and a desire for revenge.

When London Mayor Boris walked towards a group I was speaking with, there were yells of "send Qatada home", "dirty, evil scum" and "kick the b out". Johnson looked shocked.

Victor Emesudike, 52, bellowed: "Hang them. I am from Nigeria. I say hang them."

The Woolwich resident told me he felt ashamed to be of the same nationality as one of the terrorists, even though he has lived in London for more than a decade.

He said: "This is a great country. Why would you want to hurt people who have showed you so much love? They are evil. They will never win. There are too many good people here."

As he spoke, people walked past into the library, Tesco Express and Subway. Joggers stopped to let the number 122 bus past.