Where the made up propaganda went ...
Almost as a footnote to their report on Coronation Day arrests, the BBC told that “Concerns about the police's approach to the Coronation were also raised by Westminster City Council's cabinet member for communities and public protection over reports that volunteers with its Night Star programme had been arrested while handing out rape alarms”. Do go on.
“Councillor Aicha Less said the authority was ‘working with the Metropolitan Police to establish exactly what happened’ and was ‘in touch with our volunteers to ensure they are receiving the support they need’”. But we already know what happened. The Met fouled up. They arrested three volunteers whose presence they should already have known about.
Mic Wright - who, to his great credit, went to central London in an effort to have the Met release some of those who had posed no threat at all and had just been nicked for the hell of it - told “The Met arrested members of the City of Westminster’s Night Safety team. They are volunteers. They were pulled last night at 2am and have been held for 14 hours. One of them came out of the station in tears. Police didn’t apologise”. What was going on?
Simples. The Met’s Territorial Support Group, successors to the routinely violent and occasionally murderous Special Patrol Group of days gone by, lifted the three, apparently without checking with local cops who would have told them that this was a genuine group of volunteers that they knew.
The Night Safety team look out for vulnerable women: as part of this work, they hand out rape alarms. But in the Met’s retelling, “We received intelligence that indicated people were planning to throw rape alarms to disrupt the Coronation procession - with concern from the military that this would scare their horses”. This was bullshit. And was soon deleted.
... and, predictably, whence it came
“Militant protesters are plotting to sabotage the Coronation by throwing rape alarms at horses in the procession, senior security sources have told The Mail on Sunday … Concerns have been raised at the highest level of Government that the stunt could lead to serious injuries or even deaths if spooked horses bolt into the crowds lining the route”. Meaning what?
Meaning they approached Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle for a comment and he didn’t see them coming. But do go on. “The rape alarm plan has caused particular concern among officials because of the unpredictability of the horses’ reaction … Security sources did not specify which group or groups were behind the plan”. Looks like that put the TSG on a hair trigger.
And once again no-one has stopped and thought: the horses used for the parade have been trained not to bolt or rear at loud noises. Like sirens sounding, fireworks - even rape alarms. The MoS isn’t concerned with such detail: it just wants to frighten its readers and make sure all who read its propaganda know that arresting anyone the Met fancies is no big problem.
The MoS also told readers “Scotland Yard chief Sir Mark Rowley has vowed to clamp down on protesters who try to disrupt the event. ‘We will do everything we can to make the Coronation the special moment it ought to be,’ he told the London Assembly’s Police and Crime Committee in January”. Now he faces a greater challenge: owning up and saying sorry.
As Louise Raw, who you can tell as she’s a doctor, put it, “You had the TACTICAL SUPPORT GROUP- who caused the death of Ian Tomlinson and (as the SPG) Blair Peach - arrest young CHARITY WORKERS. One was apparently left bruised. My god lads, you’ve had your shiny new Judge Dread powers for THREE DAYS, and already f***** it!”. Another thought entered.
The Police force that harboured Wayne Couzens, now serving a whole life sentence for the abduction, rape and murder of Sarah Everard, confiscating rape alarms looks shocking bad. Because it is shockingly bad.
Is the Met beyond reform? You might wish to ask that. I couldn’t possibly comment.
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5 comments:
Where's the problem?
Britain is a far right capitalist state. The Met is just doing its job and following orders from the state.
It's what they do.
Ken Marsh, Chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation
"He offered a hypothetical scenario where one hundred people 'pulled the pin on rape alarms as horses rode past them'.
With reference to the scenario, he said: 'I can assure you that would have been the most horrendous incident you would've seen in London.'"
I can offer more horrendous hypothetical scenarios that never came to pass. A zombie invasion. The King shedding his human skin during the Coronation, and being exposed as the lizard David Icke claimed he was.
The Metropolitan Police has been out of control for decades, yet nothing ever seems to be done to curb its excesses.
If ever there was a weekend for Tradition, Tim, this was surely it.
Some of the pomp and the ritual dated back a millennium. Some of the tradition was invented in Victorian times, some was sketched out on the back of a fag packet last Thursday week.
The new one of having two OAPs at a pop concert gormlessly waving flags back and forth like it was a tv ad for a dementia charity seems to have been conjured up on the spot and is a testament to British spontaneity and inventiveness.
Who could object, then, if the Territorial Support Group, in the spirit of the day, wished to draw on their own tradition, and in this case it's a genuine one, of the loyal and mindless suppression of dissent.
It's OK. Plod has “expressed regret” over the arrests and said it's very very sorry. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-65527007
You have to wonder whether Sunak will now also express regret and apologise after supporting the dibbles' actions, which leads to what lat. teachers mean by “questions expecting the answer 'no'”
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