An estimated 1,500 people in London have taken part in one of the largest acts of mass civil disobedience in British history, to protest the ban on Palestine Action. The Metropolitan Police arrested just over half of them, in what has been described as a “huge embarrassment” for commissioner Sir Mark Rowley.
At around 8:30pm on Saturday, a DoJ spokesperson said: “This is a huge embarrassment for Sir Mark Rowley, who claimed the Met would arrest every person who held a sign saying ‘I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action’. They have failed to arrest the majority of sign holders and it’s no wonder – there are simply too many people who oppose this utterly dystopian ban and the government’s complicity in Israel’s genocide to arrest us all.”
An officer told Novara Media that anyone holding a sign breaking the proscription could simply put it away and leave. People were not searched on the way out, no kettle was in place and protesters were witnessed walking away with their signs in full view.
This is why numbers are key!
We recently had a more disruptive protest in my city, though thankfully we don’t have the same type of repression here. The police didn’t have enough manpower so they just didn’t arrest anyone. Though the downside was there was less media attention.
You have to bring your own independent media. Or invite them. Or make videos to spread. Maybe put them on TikTok or something.
Protests really lack coverage when the mainstream media doesn’t show up. And they choose where to show up.
This helps for sure. But the reality is that repression does draw eyeballs even outside of this dynamic.
An officer told Novara Media that anyone holding a sign breaking the proscription could simply put it away and leave
How nice of them! If you don’t want to be arrested for exercising your right to free expression, all you have to do is shut up and go away! So lenient! So fair! 🤦
pigs got cucked by a mass of plebs.
the horror!
If they arrested “just over half” how could they fail to arrest “two-thirds”? Either the headline or the text content is wrong.
An estimated 1,500 people in London have taken part in one of the largest acts of mass civil disobedience in British history, to protest the ban on Palestine Action. The Metropolitan Police arrested just over half of them*, in what has been described as a “huge embarrassment” for commissioner Sir Mark Rowley.
At 1pm on Saturday, more than 1,300 protesters, the majority of them over 60 and some visibly disabled, sat down in Parliament Square and wrote “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine action” on cardboard signs. By 9:15pm, the Met said officers had managed to arrest “more than 425” and called its operational plans “effective” – despite having failed to arrest everyone, as it had claimed it would.
I think it’s quoting the MET police’s claim of arresting half. But that definition is reliant on how many protesters there truly were.
What the hell UK 😥
Don’t our police and courts have better things to be doing
