‘We’ll arrest people quicker at protests from now on’: Met police deputy chief
Posted by RaskolnikovX on September 9, 2024, 6:54 am
They "highlight" Gaza and environmental protests and then slide in some bollocks from a Michael Gove founded think tank demanding a clamp down on protest and how "the government must rebalance the legal regime in favour of ordinary members of the public going about their daily lives". Because, "Of those surveyed, 62% said they would drop plans to visit a tourist attraction, while 58% would abandon plans to go shopping."
Well, that's settled. We can't let a little thing like protests against arming a genocide get in the way of sightseeing and shopping. Bang 'em up!
‘We’ll arrest people quicker at protests from now on’: Met police deputy chief
Assistant commissioner says force hasn’t got ‘everything right’ in past year in its handling of large demonstrations over Gaza and the environment
Arrests at large protests, including those organised by pro-Palestine and environmental groups, will probably be made more quickly in the future, the Metropolitan police’s assistant commissioner has said. Matt Twist also suggested that the force had not got “everything right” in handling demonstrations over the past year.
The capital has seen a number of large-scale protests since October last year, some of which have drawn hundreds of thousands of people to central London. Among them were demonstrations held by Just Stop Oil, Extinction Rebellion, and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), which is calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
Twist spoke about policing protests in an interview with the rightwing thinktank Policy Exchange in May, before far-right riots erupted across the country after the Southport attacks in July. His comments have now been released alongside a new report by the thinktank. Twist, who is responsible for protest and public order policing across London, said: “When we look back at the policing of protests over the last eight months, we know we didn’t get everything right – particularly in the early stages in October.
“On occasion we did not move quickly to make arrests … We are now much more focused on identifying reasonable grounds for arrest, acting where needed, and then investigating, so in these circumstances it’s very likely arrests would be made more quickly now.”
Twist said that while the number of demonstrators had fallen significantly – from a peak of about 300,000 people at pro-Palestinian events every fortnight last November to about 5,000 to 10,000 people every third weekend by May – the protests still represented a “very real policing challenge”.
On the topic of “two-tier” policing, a theory falsely claiming that police treat white people taking part in disorder more harshly than minority groups, Twist said: “In public order policing, we are neutral as to the cause that is being protested. We base policing tactics on the threat, harm and risk based on the information and intelligence available to us.
“In that sense, there is no such thing as two-tier or differential policing – there are in fact an infinite number of tiers of policing, depending on the threat, harm and risk.”
Twist’s comments were released in conjunction with a new report published by Policy Exchange, which is co-founded by Michael Gove. It estimates that Palestine-related protests in London have cost the Met £42.9m. In January, shortly after the largest pro-Palestine demonstrations in the capital had taken place, the Met said it had spend £26.5m on protests related to the conflict in Gaza.
As part of the report, a nationwide poll of more than 1,500 adults was conducted, which found that more than two-thirds of respondents would drop plans to travel with small children (71%) or an elderly or mobility-impaired friend or relative (69%) if a major protest was taking place in a nearby city or town centre.
Of those surveyed, 62% said they would drop plans to visit a tourist attraction, while 58% would abandon plans to go shopping.
Pro-Palestine protests in the UK have been largely peaceful. In February, the independent media platform openDemocracy reported that 36 people who attended pro-Palestine rallies last year had been charged with an offence, and that the arrest rate at these marches was lower than at the most recent Glastonbury music festival.
Former Met commissioner Lord Hogan-Howe QPM endorsed the report. He said: “In recent years, the policing of protest has become increasingly challenging for police commanders and officers on the ground.
“As this timely and detailed Policy Exchange report shows, the government must rebalance the legal regime in favour of ordinary members of the public going about their daily lives.”
Funnily enough it doesn't mention how much it cost to police guarding the cenotaph and other places when the "Patriot marches" were taking place. Funny that....no amount of cajolery, and no attempts at ethical or social seduction, can eradicate from my heart a deep burning hatred for the Tory Party...So far as I am concerned they are lower than vermin.
Re: ‘We’ll arrest people quicker at protests from now on’: Met police deputy chief
Policy Exchange strikes again... They were the ones who put together a big report on XR back in 2019, smearing them as 'extremist', 'subversive' and warning that they could become 'violent' and even 'cross the threshold into terrorist activity'. Funding very opaque (wasn't aware of the Gove connection) but included Drax and Energy UK, a lobby group for UK power companies according to Vice - https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/msg/archive/1570559175.html Not surprised to see them go after pro-Palestine protestors, or to see the graun giving them a free pass, despite supposedly being editorially in favour of environmental protest at least.
on September 9, 2024, 6:54 am