A civilised and stable country in order to be civilised and stable needs police forces that act when criminality occurs. The police in order to have the confidence of the public need to enforce the law without fear or favour, to not be corrupt and to show up when required. This is especially important in countries like the United Kingdom where people surrender their right to use force against miscreants on the understanding that the police will do so on their behalf.

Very little of what constitutes good and sound policing appears to be happening in the Metropolitan Police area these days where the Met are being perceived to be very unwilling to enforce the law in certain circumstances. One particular troubling circumstance is in connection with the eco-extremists of Extinction Rebellion and their various and constantly mutating front groups, such as Insulate Britain, Just Stop Oil and others. On this issue the police are failing to show up when these groups block roads or unnecessarily disrupt the public realm. The Met are failing to keep the roads clear and are handling these eco-extremists with the sort of kid gloves that they would not be wearing if it was any protest over some different matter.

The police inaction when it comes to these eco-extremists has become so noticeable now that ordinary people are deciding that they will not be impeded from getting to work or to pick their kids up from school or getting to and from a hospital. The public, frustrated by what they see as police failure and possibly bias towards the protestors, are starting to take the law into their own hands and physically moving these extremists off the road themselves. I must admit that it’s worrying to see such vigilantism growing as vigilantes have a tendency to make errors and go after the innocent as well as the guilty. However this sort of vigilantism is a direct result of police forces failing to police. I worry that if the actions of the eco-extremists continue to escalate and the police continue to give the impression of inaction then the vigilantism might get worse.

The response to the public’s reaction to the Metropolitan Police’s utter and complete failure to get a grip on the problems caused by the eco-extremists has not been to deploy officers to the scenes of disruption and nick them for obstructing the King’s highway, but to demand that members of the public do not try to do the police’s job for them. Whilst I can understand that the police have to work within a legal framework and have to gather effective and credible evidence against disruptors who are extremely legally savvy, the comments by a senior officer reported by the BBC on their website do not give the best impression of the Met.

Here’s the BBC article. As is usual policy for this blog the original article is in italics whereas this blogger’s comment is in plain text.

The Met has urged the public not to “directly intervene” with Just Stop Oil demonstrators.

Assistant Commissioner Matt Twist said people should “call us, and we will deal” with the climate change group.

But when the public does call the police the Met either don’t bother turning up, turn up after an unreasonable delay or give the impression that they are facilitating the demonstrators rather than moving them on.

He spoke after angry motorists removed demonstrators from blocked roads in central London on Saturday.

Mr Twist said he “completely understood their frustration” but taking matters into their own hands could hamper prosecutions.

I doubt very much if Assistant Commissioner Twist really understands the public’s frustration with these eco-extremists as he is unlikely to find himself discomforted or disrupted by them.

This is because the police must “work within the clear legal framework and secure evidence for the offence of highway obstruction”, he explained.

This included “showing clearly that there is an obstruction, that it is deliberate, that it is unlawful, and finally within the context of protest, that it is unreasonable in all of the circumstances”, he added.

“Without this evidence, any prosecution may fail and the offenders will not be held to account for their actions.”

Doesn’t the Met have this evidence by the truckload already? There’s ample evidence out there, even just that which is in the public domain, of the eco-extremist’s intent to cause disruption and that the disruption is not a side effect of protesting, but is the sole intent. There’s video by the mile of what these eco-extremists are doing that could be acquired and used to prosecute these extremists. There’s also an increasing amount of information starting to emerge about the funding and organisation of these groups that could be used against these group’s footsoldiers.

He said the force is “determined to bring to justice all of those who have caused significant and unreasonable disruption to London, or caused damage to buildings, property or valuables”.

Do I smell bullshit? I most surely do, great steaming piles of it in fact. Whilst the Met have in some cases eventually turned out to these disruptions they have not done enough to keep London moving and keep cultural treasures safe from these lunatics.

Sorry Assistant Commissioner Twist but I don’t believe you on this one. I’m sure that there is more that the Met can do to clamp down on those who have stepped an extremely long way beyond the realm of reasonable protest. Like it or not the way that the Met has handled these eco-extremists is starting to look like a massive and unfathomable failure. My message to the Met is this. Do your damned jobs and keep the streets clear before people start to begin to believe that you are not interested in looking after law abiding Londoners and instead are showing favour to the eco-nutters