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Force responds to officer criticism by saying uniformed officers were backed up by specialist public order units.

The Met says the vast majority of demonstrators during the day were peaceful 

Date - 9th June 2020
By - Gary Mason

The Met has responded to Federation criticisms of the public order tactics used during the Black Lives Matter demonstrations last weekend by saying it was not ‘necessary or proportionate’ for all officers to be given full public order equipment.

Yesterday Met Federation chair Ken Marsh said that officers deserved an apology from management and had been ‘offered up’ to violent demonstrators for the sake of appearances by not being given public order helmets and shields.   

In a statement the Met said specialist public order officers were deployed as part of the policing operation to provide support for uniformed officers on the ground who were wearing flat caps and high vis vests.

A total of 62 officers were injured during the week of demonstrations in central London with 35 injuries over the Saturday and Sunday after being hit by bottles and fireworks.  

In its statement the Met said: “Throughout the course of the weekend, thousands of people travelled to central London to take part in the protests. It is important to stress that the vast majority of people who joined the demonstrations were peaceful and left the city centre after the event.

“On both Saturday and Sunday night, a small number of protestors remained in the area around Whitehall and behaved anti-socially before becoming violent towards officers.

“Specialist public order officers were deployed as part of the policing operation in order to provide support to uniformed officers on the ground. It was not necessary or proportionate for all officers to be deployed at all times with public order equipment/kit.

“Officers come to work every day to protect the public and over the past week have worked hard to manage peaceful protest. They are trained to make dynamic decisions in incredibly complex environments. It is shocking that a number were attacked and injured. Investigations into these incidents are ongoing.”

Mr Marsh had said the tactics used to police the demonstrations were wrong and management seemed “more concerned about image and perception rather than protecting our brave police officers and maintaining order.”

He added:  “We should be dealing with this disorder far more robustly. We need to have the correct equipment on to deal with what is in front of us. Our leaders have to respond and kit us up correctly and make sure we are fully prepared for what is taking place.”

He also said that although 99% of the demonstrators were peaceful, the protest was illegal because of the pandemic restrictions.  
 

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I bet a £ to a piece of human excrement that those comments come from someone, in the Mat, who was not on the front line.

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On more than one occasion, now I've thought, why do these protesters get away with what they do, I for one am not falling for this BLM, nonsense sure people have the right to voice opinions in a peaceful way and of course rascism in any walk of life exists, its going to get to the stage where officers are told not to approach black individuals, if it hasn't already, in their own statements BLM  have said they want to bring the police force down, do I stand by BLM, no, do I believe there is rascist officers sure, just like in any walk of life,  racism should not exist in any society, the problem is organizations like this do more harm than good public support for BLM is on the decrease and rightly so, as members of the public we have the right to peaceful lives and not walking into and reading about protests every 5 mins but let them crack on, its true the police have to maintain a fine balance between impartially which i guess is hard when you're being assaulted or abused, I've had my run ins with the police but I can't say I've ever come into contact with a police officer who hasn't shown me the same respect I've shown them its a no win for all sides.