Sunday, March 14, 2021
Metropolitan police out of line and tone deaf
The Nottingham News reports that a vigil took place at 6pm last night in which over a hundred people gathered around the Brian Clough statue just off Old Market Square to leave candles and flowers in tribute to 33-year-old Sarah Everard who was found dead earlier this week after going missing in London.
This vigil took place within Covid guidelines and with the full co-operation of the local police force, in line with Friday's court judgement that such events were permissible if the authorities worked constructively with organisers to deliver them.
In contrast, the Metropolitan Police, one of whose number has been charged with Sarah Everard's murder, refused to work with organisers, and when a spontaneous vigil emerged on Clapham Common, chose to go in boots first to break it up.
The scenes being circulated on social media of the way they policed that situation are totally shocking. There was no sensitivity to people's fears and concerns, no acknowledgement of their own failure to keep communities safe and no attempt to work with mourners to allow them to express their views while keeping others from harm.
Policing with consent requires all three of those considerations, instead the Metropolitan Police reinforced their reputation as tone deaf enforcers, rather than allies in the fight against crime and disorder. As Lib Dem Leader, Ed Davey says, this was a complete abject tactical and moral failure on the part of police.
He has called on the Commissioner to consider her position, but change needs to go much deeper than that. After decades of being called out for their self-serving culture, the Met have proved that nothing much has altered in the way they operate.
This vigil took place within Covid guidelines and with the full co-operation of the local police force, in line with Friday's court judgement that such events were permissible if the authorities worked constructively with organisers to deliver them.
In contrast, the Metropolitan Police, one of whose number has been charged with Sarah Everard's murder, refused to work with organisers, and when a spontaneous vigil emerged on Clapham Common, chose to go in boots first to break it up.
The scenes being circulated on social media of the way they policed that situation are totally shocking. There was no sensitivity to people's fears and concerns, no acknowledgement of their own failure to keep communities safe and no attempt to work with mourners to allow them to express their views while keeping others from harm.
Policing with consent requires all three of those considerations, instead the Metropolitan Police reinforced their reputation as tone deaf enforcers, rather than allies in the fight against crime and disorder. As Lib Dem Leader, Ed Davey says, this was a complete abject tactical and moral failure on the part of police.
He has called on the Commissioner to consider her position, but change needs to go much deeper than that. After decades of being called out for their self-serving culture, the Met have proved that nothing much has altered in the way they operate.
