The Home Secretary Pritti Patel is appealing to those attending or considering attending Black Lives Matter protests in Britain to be sensible and ‘socially distance’ whilst protesting. But, I think that the common sense and listening to the Home Secretary ship has well and truly sailed when it comes to the Black Lives Matter/Far Left protesters.
However it could have been different. If the police had handled the initial BLM protesters in the same aggressive and uncompromising way that they have handled groups such as anti-lockdown protesters or little old ladies sitting on park benches having a rest, then this absolute thuggery might not have escalated.
What we see here is the result of the sort of double standards that have afflicted British policing especially in London for many years. The Met Police decided to throw any ‘social distancing’ considerations out of the window when the BLM nutcases, whose cause as Sargon of Akkad said, is bugger all to do with Britain, first gathered in Trafalgar Square shortly after the death of the Black American George Floyd. These protesters were handled by the police during that protest with what amounts to kid gloves. Why the police did this is a matter for speculation. One possibility is that it is likely to be the case that the police knew or suspected that a demonstration dominated by the Far Left and by BLM thugs would turn violent if forcibly shut down and also the police didn’t want to be tarnished as ‘racists’ by being seen to go against demo carried out in the name of a minority. In other words, in more plain language, the Metropolitan Police decided to behave like cowards.
The kid gloves treatment of Far Left/BLM thugs has not calmed the situation one bit. What has happened is that those behind the demonstrations have been emboldened to cause more mayhem. There is a parallel here with the Extinction Rebellion protests where police let protesters cause a lot of trouble for ordinary Londoners possibly because they didn’t want to be seen going against a ‘green’ agenda that is supported by some in Government. Both these examples are political and politicised policing of the worst sort.
Can you imagine how the Metropolitan Police would have behaved had this not been a BLM/Far Left demo and had been say for example an anti grooming demo, or a repeat of the famous Day for Freedom demo organised by Mr Tommy Robinson and friends? If a demo like these had been planned or had spontaneously occurred in London during the current time then you can bet your bottom dollar that the police would have gone in cracking heads very early in the proceedings. What we are seeing here is double standards policing and it stinks to high heaven.
It’s worth reading a recent article in the Daily Mail for an account of the sort of thuggery that has characterised many of the Far Left/BLM demonstrations in Britain. It’s truly appalling. I’ve been to many demonstrations in London over the years, of both Left and Right characteristics and as an attendee and as a photographer for the press. I’ve been at the riots during the Wapping Dispute and I was present in Trafalgar Square during the poll tax riots and I’ve also at some of the massive CND demonstrations during the 1980‘s. What I’m seeing from reports coming out of London are giving me the impression that we are seeing something as bad or even worse than the Poll Tax riot where protesters ran amok across central London.
One reason that I say that these protests and outright thuggery by the BLM/Far Left could be worse than the Poll Tax disturbances is because the police, possibly in an effort to not be seen as ‘racist’ by protesters, have given a green light to bigger and more violent gatherings. During the Poll Tax disturbances the police didn’t tolerate massive sit downs outside Downing Street and during Wapping the police didn’t tolerate actions such as tipping over a lorry outside the News International building. Yet when it comes to the BLM/Far Left, the police have allowed these demos to get out of control.
I’m a firm believer in peaceful protest, it should be an inalienable right, just as free speech should be, for the citizen to demonstrate and voice their grievances or concerns. But I cannot agree or condone the sort of thuggery that we are seeing on the streets of London nor the double standard of policing that has allowed this situation to occur. We should be disgusted at what is going on. Our pubs, churches and synagogues are closed both by government edict and by clerical and rabbinical order, yet these BLM / Far Left thugs are allowed to do as they please and are met with only ineffective pleading from the Home Secretary to ‘be sensible’ and to ‘socially distance’. Britain is without a doubt, in an unholy mess.
