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Met Police urges pro-Palestine protesters to delay march

President Herzog of Israel also condemned plans to stage pro-Palestinian protests on Armistice Day…reports Asian Lite News

The Metropolitan Police have urged pro-Palestinian protest organisers not to hold demonstrations on Armistice Day or Remembrance Sunday.

Senior officers met organisers yesterday to raise fears that splinter groups would fuel disorder, with officers urging them to postpone the demonstration.

Objections have been raised to a pro-Palestinian march planned for Saturday, although it will not go near the Cenotaph.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Ade Adelekan, who leads public order policing in the capital, said: “The risk of violence and disorder linked to breakaway groups is growing. This is of concern ahead of a significant and busy weekend in the capital.

“Our message to organisers is clear: please, we ask you to urgently reconsider. It is not appropriate to hold any protests in London this weekend.”

President Herzog of Israel also condemned plans to stage pro-Palestinian protests on Armistice Day.

In an interview with TalkTV, he said that Saturday’s march was “atrocious and hypocritical” and should be cancelled.

He told the Piers Morgan Uncensored show: “I call upon all decent human beings to object to the march and ban it, because the symbol of that day is a symbol of victory and it’s a symbol of doing good, because when you fight evil, sometimes you have to fight. You have to fight evil in order to uproot evil.”

He also criticised the Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie, who is a special envoy to the UN High Commission for Refugees, for accusing his country of being an “open air prison” and committing war crimes in its bombing of Gaza.

Asked about Jolie’s comments during the interview with Morgan, Herzog said, “I totally reject her claims. I think she’s never been in Gaza…. to visit and see the facts on the ground. Angelina Jolie does not offer the Israeli people any ability to defend themselves by saying what she’s saying. And Gaza is a jail not because of Israel… Gaza is an Iranian base filled with terror.”

Saturday’s protest will mark the fifth consecutive weekend of pro-Palestinian demonstrations since Israel was attacked by Hamas on October 7.

Amid concerns the demonstration could overshadow Remembrance events, Rishi Sunak said the police had ministers’ “absolute and total backing” to take action to stop the march causing disruption.

Claire Coutinho, the energy secretary, on Monday called on police to ban the pro-Palestinian protest altogether, saying “the culture of this country” would not accept disruption to Armistice Day.

However, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, which is organising the protest, said it had changed the route of the march to ensure it does not clash with Armistice Day commemorations. It will set off from Hyde Park in central London and finish 2.5 miles away at the US embassy in Battersea.

ALSO READ-London: Met Police Urged to Work With Hindus to Tackle Hate Crimes

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London: Met Police Urged to Work With Hindus to Tackle Hate Crimes

Expressing concerns that Hindu hate crime is not being effectively recorded by the Met services, the London Assembly on Thursday also called on the police to include the breakdown of hate crime by religion on its crime dashboard, reports Meenakshi Iyer

The London Assembly has unanimously passed a motion by a British Indian assembly member that calls on the Metropolitan Police to work with local Hindus by encouraging them to report hate crimes targeting their community.

Expressing concerns that Hindu hate crime is not being effectively recorded by the Met services, the assembly on Thursday also called on the police to include the breakdown of hate crime by religion on its crime dashboard.

“I am pleased that the London Assembly supports holding the Metropolitan Police to account so that they build the confidence held in them by our community,” Assembly member Krupesh Hirani said.

“Meat being thrown at school pupils, women wearing a red bindi mark on their forehead taunted for having a sniper mark… Sadly there has been a worrying rise in hate crimes faced by our community over the past year,” Hirani said, while introducing the motion at the floor of the assembly.

Hindus, forming 5.15 per cent of London’s population, are the second most likely religion to have been victims of religiously motivated hate crime, according to the 2023 Crime Survey for England and Wales.

The Met Police dashboard does not break down hate crime by religion, which makes it difficult to see the number of recorded crimes against Hindu Londoners.

“We need to see a better recording of hate crime… Hinduphobia is far too common but it’s not properly recorded. We cannot begin to tackle these issues unless it is properly recognised,” the Labour group member for Brent and Harrow constituencies said in a statement.

According to recent Home Office statistics, there were 291 hate crimes in 2022/2023 — accounting for three per cent of recorded by the police in England and Wales, against Hindus.

Hate crimes against Hindus went up from 58 in 2017-18 to 166 in 2020-21 — a rise of almost 200 per cent in just four years, Home Office data showed.

The years 2018-19 and 2019-20 saw 114 attacks each against the Hindus, and the crimes ranged from racial slurs and assaults to vandalism of properties and religious institutions.

The figures also showed that the number of racially or religiously aggravated offences recorded by the police by month increased since 2015.

In April this year, an independent, London-based think tank surveyed 988 Hindu parents and found that 51 per cent of them reported that their children had faced discrimination at schools in the UK.

Less than a month after riots rocked the city of Leicester last year after an India-Pakistan match, over 180 Hindu organisations and temples wrote an open letter to the then British Prime Minister Liz Truss, stating that they are “under siege”.

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Priti says new Met chief must tackle policing culture

UK Home Secretary Priti Patel on Friday said that the new Metropolitan Police commissioner must tackle police culture and conduct.

In a statement the home secretary said “strong and decisive new leadership will be required to restore public confidence” in London’s police force.
Patel had expressed thanks to Dame Cressida Dick, who resigned as Britain’s top cop on Thursday, for her service.

“She was the first woman to hold the post and has exemplified the increasingly diverse nature of our police, demonstrating that all can aspire to hold leadership roles in policing in this country today,” Patel said.

Patel said she wants to “reassure Londoners and people across the country of my commitment to selecting the right leader for the largest police force in the country.”

“Leading the Met is a privilege with enormous and unique responsibilities. The first duty is to protect the public, the people and the streets of our capital, making London a safer place to live, work and visit,” she said.
“The Commissioner is a national leader, with a critical national role in respect of overseeing our counter terrorism capability when there remain a variety of threats out there from people and groups who wish this country harm.”

Home Secretary Priti Patel and Cressida Dick, former Metropolitan Police Commissioner. (Picture by Simon Dawson / No 10 Downing Street)

“This is the biggest leadership role in policing. However, at this particular time, the challenges facing the new Commissioner are stark and could not be more sobering.”

Following a series of appalling and sickening incidents and too many historical cases involving serving Met Police officers, it is clear that strong and decisive and new leadership will be required to restore public confidence in the largest police force in the country, Patel said.

She also urged the public in London and across the entire country to once again have the confidence to trust the integrity and professionalism of the police officers who serve them.

“Policing culture, conduct, attitudes and behaviours have rightly all come under scrutiny and be in no doubt that a new leader must tackle these institutional issues that have brought great shame on elements of policing,” she said.

“I will appoint a Commissioner who will deliver for the public whom our police serve and represent. Beating crime, preventing crime, protecting our citizens, our streets and communities at a time when this government is investing record sums into the police, is paramount.”

“And above all that’s what I – and the public across the country – will want from the country’s most senior police officer: someone focused on the basics of reducing violence in the city, tackling the abuse of women and girls, ridding our streets of drugs, knives and weapons, saving lives and protecting the public from the those who wish to do them harm,” she concluded.

Dick, the first woman to lead the country’s largest police force, had been under pressure over a number of issues that recently generated adverse publicity for the Met.

The Police Chief said her decision followed contact with the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan earlier on Thursday.

“It is clear that the Mayor no longer has sufficient confidence in my leadership to continue. He has left me no choice but to step aside as Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service,” she added in a statement.

Dick said at the Mayor’s request she agreed to stay on for a short period to ensure the stability of the Met and its leadership while arrangements are made for a transition to a new Commissioner.

ALSO READ: Head of London Police quits

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Mayor, Met set out plans to tackle violence in London

(Source twitter@MayorofLondon)

Londoners will see an increased police presence in areas of the city this summer, as the Met steps up its targeted enforcement activity, reports Asian Lite News

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, and the Met Police have set out plans for the police, City Hall, local authorities and criminal justice partners to work more closely across London to drive down violence ahead of the summer.

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The Met and City Hall have set out their continued partnership approach and a strong plan to tackle violence, focusing on enforcement to bear down on offenders, and early intervention to provide positive opportunities and prevent violence from happening in the first place. 

Met
(Source twitter@MayorofLondon)

Londoners will see an increased police presence in areas of the city this summer, as the Met steps up its targeted enforcement activity.

Alongside that, the Mayor has also announced £2.4 million of additional investment through London’s Violence Reduction Unit (VRU), for up to 4,000 school-aged children both during the summer and beyond.

The investment, which is on top of the record £20m Sadiq has invested in the VRU, is focused on programmes running in areas including Brent, Enfield, Barking & Dagenham, Havering, Redbridge, Waltham Forest and Camden.

The Mayor on Friday joined Met police officers on patrol in Kentish Town, to see first-hand the work neighbourhood officers are doing to keep the area safe and to bear down on violence. 

(Source twitter@MayorofLondon)

“Tackling violence and making our city safer is my number one priority and I’m determined to be tough on crime with support for the Met Police, and tough on the complex causes of crime, with support for our communities,” Sadiq Khan said. 

“As lockdown restrictions continue to ease ahead of the summer holidays, it’s really important we work together to address concerns about a potential rise in violence.

“Working with the Met Police, the National Probation Service, London’s Violence Reduction Unit, local authorities and other criminal justice partners across London, we have a strong plan in place to suppress violence with targeted enforcement of violent offenders, combined with support to help divert people away from crime and a programme to provide positive opportunities for young Londoners,” he added.

(Source twitter@MayorofLondon)

Meanwhile, Assistant Commissioner Nick Ephgrave of the Met Police said: “The Met is stepping up its operations to suppress and deal with violence as much as we can over the summer with a large scale multi layered operations that will target the six strands of the Serious Violence Strategy. Working closely with our partners and the Mayor to explore opportunities and take action through meaningful interventions to prevent violence from occurring in the first place.

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