Metropolitan Police officers have justified their heavy-handed crackdown under Covid lockdown rules at a Clapham Common vigil held for Sarah Everard by claiming that the gathering was morphing into an “anti-police protest”. MailOnline has more.
Scotland Yard is prosecuting six people they claim broke Covid lockdown rules at the vigil on March 13th last year, when hundreds assembled at the bandstand in the South London park following Miss Everard’s kidnapping, rape and murder by ‘evil’ Met cop Wayne Couzens.
The event had originally been organised by Reclaim These Streets, who cancelled it after the Met said it should not go ahead, and no definitive answer on the matter was provided by the High Court.
But people turned up throughout the day, and officers did not intervene for the first six hours while many came to lay flowers, with the Duchess of Cambridge also paying her respects.
It has now emerged that police have defended their widely condemned actions, saying that they faced resistance when they tried to break up the gathering using draconian Covid powers.
Witness statements given in Westminster Magistrates’ Court reveal that the Met officers feared being attacked by the attendees and were apparently branded “murderers” by some in the crowd.
According to PC Alexander Davis: “The mood of the crowd had also shifted from showing respect to Sarah Everard to anti-police protest. Over the course of the early evening the crowd size of the vigil increased to the 1,000 strong members and it quickly became an anti-police demonstration.”
The Standard reports that he said Deputy Assistant Commissioner Matt Twist gave the order at around 7pm for the crackdown to begin, including arrests of women who were standing by the bandstand.
PC Darryl Mayne said in a witness statement that attendees shouted “go away”, “murderers” and “arrest your own” as the scene turned sour.
And in his statement to the court, Inspector Dave Laurie said: “I remember feeling sad that what started out as a vigil with people adhering to the coronavirus regulations had changed significantly and that I wasn’t convinced people were there to solely pay their respects in remembrance of Sarah Everard, and that they did not intend to leave the area any time soon.”
Hang on, aren’t police supposed to kneel before anti-police protestors these days? Or is it assault women protesting against police assaulting women? Hard to keep up with 21st century policing.
Worth reading in full.
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If you feel threatened by a group of ladies carrying out a vigil on behalf of a lady raped and murdered by a policeman then maybe you’ve made the wrong career choice? But what other job in the UK offers a psychopath the opportunity to indulge their blood lust against innocent, defenceless civilians? Maybe these poor threatened coppers could go and volunteer to join Putin’s army?
“Maybe these poor threatened coppers could go and volunteer to join Putin’s army?”
If this is sarcasm it misses the point. If you are serious you have a faulty understanding of the Ukrainian situation.
So Putin’s army are not brutalising innocent civilians?
Innocent civilians are brutalised in all conflicts. The argument made by Russia is that they’re aiming to stop the brutalisation of innocent civilians in the east of the Ukraine, by demilitarising and denazifying the country. Worth remembering that this is after eight years of attempts to resolve diplomatically, during which thousands died in indiscriminate shelling; very well documented and not really in dispute.
While there is always the chance that elements in any military ‘go rogue’ and commit atrocities, it is not in the Russian state’s interest to cause unnecessary suffering in a country that sits on their border. So I believe them when they say they are trying to avoid killing civilians. They are not trying to conquer the country, despite what western talking heads say. They don’t want it – they just want it to not be a threat to them, which it categorically was and increasingly so.
I doubt any of these coppers would last an afternoon in Putin’s army. What you and many others seem not to realise is that Russians feel existentially threatened by the West and for good reason. They have been looted, undermined, humiliated, ignored, interfered with, attacked via proxies, blamed for things they had nothing to do with, vilified, lied about, deceived, and disrespected for the entire post-Soviet period. They have had enough; it’s a catastrophe that Ukraine is now feeling the brunt of this, but ultimate responsibility lies with the criminal gangsters in Washington, who have only ever seen Russia as a target for exploitation. Those days are over.
I haven’t read the article in full so these comments are based on the above synopsis.
Given the utter stupidity of the comments quoted by various members of the police gang members I seriously wonder if their mental faculties had been properly evaluated prior to employment.
A large crowd of predominantly women gather at a vigil to remember another woman who was kidnapped, raped and murdered by a police gang member and some women direct verbal anger at the attending police. Perfectly understandable.
Clearly the most senior copper in attendance did not have sufficient intelligence to tell his gang to back off which would have been the most sensible course of action. Oh no, the vigil had become an anti police protest. What the firkin hell did the police expect?
A gang of police surround a crowd of peaceful women mourning the death of another woman and then voices are raised! Plod didn’t see that coming? Good grief.
A crowd of women are surrounded by a gang of police who decide their vigil has become an anti police protest and who decide to wade in and make arrests.
Of course there are bad apples but Sarah Everhard was FAILED by the police who recruited the murderous Couzens. His psychopathic nature had not been detected during recruitment so the anger of the protesting women is understandable.
The women were breaking C1984 rules.
FFS.
Some senior coppers should have lost their jobs over this.
What a bunch of mendacious, petulant pansies.
Very well said HP. Especially the last sentence
Thank you CG.
Interestingly, as a teenager (nearly 50 years ago), I remember commenting to my dad that the two worst male bullies in our year had joined the police force.
My dad (born in 1918) said “it was ever thus!”
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