The Met’s ban on a UKIP protest in Tower Hamlets, while allowing pro-Palestine marches after the Manchester synagogue attack, has laid bare the reality of two-tier policing. The Mail has more.
A damning report by the think tank Policy Exchange today claimed that the widely held perception the force treats protest groups differently was in fact a “reality”.
In one example cited, the force applied for “very stringent conditions” on a UKIP march in Tower Hamlets on the grounds it had caused “significant concern” among the Muslim community.
Under the Public Oder Action, the Met banned UKIP from holding its protest in Whitechapel or anywhere else in the borough of Tower Hamlets on October 25th.
Meanwhile, pro-Palestine protesters were allowed to gather in London both in the aftermath of the synagogue attack in September and on the second anniversary of October 7th.
This was despite criticism from Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, who said Britain had become “indifferent to antisemitism”.
Some Jewish leaders, as well as university chiefs and senior politicians, also voiced their dismay at the timing of the demonstrations and the fact they had been allowed to go ahead.
Referring to the banning of UKIP’s protest in Tower Hamlets on October 25th, Policy Exchange’s report read: “Such a decision may well have been justified on the grounds of preventing serious public disorder.
“However, the willingness of the police to impose such stringent restrictions to safeguard the local Muslim population, while apparently being unwilling to go similarly far on behalf of the Jewish community or the broader public at previous events, indicates a readiness among senior officers to apply different standards to different groups.
“If the rationale for the force’s decision is because they feared public disorder from those resisting the protest it is tantamount to an admission that ‘mob-rule’ has taken priority over the rule of law – an unacceptable state of affairs.”
The report also found: “Too often police choose to prioritise the rights and freedoms of protestors over the rights of ordinary people going about their daily lives”, with officers failing to arrest those committing criminal damage or shouting “jihad” at pro-Palestinian rallies.
And despite the UKIP protest on October 25th being banned, masked Muslim protesters were allowed to take to the streets to “defend their communities” the same day.
Videos shared on social media show young men dressed in black, with their hoods up and their faces covered, holding pro-Palestine flags.
One protester at the Whitechapel demo took to a microphone promising to “stand firm” in defending their community from far-Right protesters.
“They came specifically targeting Islam,” he said. “They said, ‘we are coming on a crusade,’ they said ‘we need to take back our streets.’
“We stand firm to let them know if you come, we will stand firm and will be ready to defend our elders, to defend our women, to defend our community.”
Worth reading in full.
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