If there was a moment when the public started to realise that all too often the police are not on the side of the ordinary British subject, then the manner in which police handled a recent protest by the eco-fascists of Just Stop Oil will be just one of those moments. The protest by Just Stop Oil (JSO) took place on the approach to Blackfriars Bridge in Central London and saw the JSO group use their usual tactics of turning up and blocking the road flashmob style. JSO do not liaise with the police about their demonstrations so that the police can facilitate lawful protest whilst also ensuring that as few people as possible are inconvenienced by such protest, instead they just turn up unannounced and disrupt the streets and those using them.
But it’s the response of the police, both the Metropolitan and the City of London Police in relation to JSO protests and protests by similar eco-fascist groups that are becoming a major cause of concern. All too often the police have given eco-fascist protestors far too much leeway especially when compared to how they would treat similar demonstrations by other groups.
The Blackfriars Bridge protest is I believe the straw that will break the back of public trust in policing. The JSO numpties blocked what looked like one of the northern approaches to Blackfriars Bridge and held up traffic. Whilst they were blocking the road the police were of no use in resolving the situation, in fact I’ve seen Lego police figures that were more use to the public than the real police were on Blackfriars Bridge. The police did nothing in the face of blatant breaches by JSO of the Highways Acts and put the JSO demonstrators rights far far above the rights of people trying to get to work.
As you can see in the video below, which I have got from Richard Tice‘s Twitter feed, the sight of the police being neither use nor ornament when dealing with JSO eco-fascists created frustration among the law abiding citizens who had been disrupted by the JSO protestors actions. One of the members of the public who had had enough of being held up got out of his van, grabbed one of the JSO protestors (ironically oil based plastic banners) and pushed one of the eco fascists to the side of the road whereupon the eco-fascist fell over. It was at this point when the previously immobile and completely useless police officers sprang into action and arrested the working man who had confronted the eco-fascist.
This incident is going to look to many like a policing double standard and policing with a large dollop of classism. The police are quite prepared to play nicely nicely with middle and upper class protestors who want to create a Pol Pot style year zero situation with regards energy and impoverish the many in the pursuit of the luxury beliefs of the few, but treat working class people who stand up against this sort of group and its protests like dirt.
Whilst I understand that the police often have difficult jobs to do and they have to balance the right of groups to protest with the rights of non-protestors to go about their lawful activities, it’s clear to me that they’ve failed in this instance. When faced with clear evidence of law breaking by the JSO protestors they refused to act and clear them out of the way. Instead they pussyfooted around the JSO types and let frustration grow among those who are only trying to get to work. This decision by the police led to members of the public to confront the eco-fascists.
If you wanted to deliberately create a situation in which the public perceived that the police were not on their side then you probably could do better than act how the police acted towards JSO in London at Blackfriars Bridge. The police will pander and cower before wealthy middle class climate protestors but come down hard on struggling working class Britons just trying to make a lawful living. If you didn’t trust the police before then watching the video above might make you trust the police even less.
The police just love this kind of thing – what could be better and easier than filling up the day by standing around doing nothing for hours on end interspersed with the occasional amusement of pretending that law-abiding tradesmen are really dangerous “domestic terrorists” to be attacked and dragged off in hand-cuffs?
I agree there, it’s an easy doss for the police, much easier than doing the more difficult types of police work.
There would have been a better outcome if all the other motorists had gotten out of their vehicles and joined in. The police wouldn’t have been able to arrest everyone and hopefully the eco loons would have got a bit of a kicking. Of course non of that would be necessary if the police were doing their job.
I agree with you that there would have been a better outcome as in the police being shamed into moving the eco-fascists if more people had stood up. The problem is in these situations it’s only a minority who do stand up. You might get one of two people who will get out of their cars and confront the eco-fascists, but the majority will sit in their cars, beeping their horns and waiting for someone else to sort out the problem. It’s a similar situation to what happened recently at the Chelsea Flower Show when JSO wankers threw powder paint over a display. The public booed these nutters and easily outnumbered the one or two members of the public who supported the JSO tossers. They could have been dragged away by the public but the public are too scared that if they did this the the police would ignore the eco-fascists and their vandalism and instead go after the have a go heroes. https://twitter.com/MarchersMedia/status/1661683727922069504?cxt=HHwWgIC8vf2ivo8uAAAA
The only person who actually did something to counter these disruptors was a woman who appeared to pick up a hosepipe and train it on the upper class twits of JSO.
Ideally there should be no need for the public to have to deal with this problem, the police should deal with it, after all it’s what we pay them for.