Police Priorities
07.14.07 - 09:27am
The Metropolitan Police squandered £111,000 of public money on a massive raid against a peaceful antiwar protest outside Parliament, it has been revealed.
Brian Haw, 57, has staged a peaceful six-year vigil outside the Palace of Westminster, using a megaphone to signal his opposition to the war in Iraq. But following a legal crackdown, police moved in to remove most of his 40m of banners and placards, part of ongoing establishment attempts to stop his demonstration.
A Scotland Yard report delivered to the Metropolitan Police Authority stressed that a large proportion of the costs did not represent additional costs to the Met. “Rather, the officers and other staff assigned to a given operation would be assigned to other policing duties or operations,” it said.
In other words, the Met pulled who knows how many officers away from tackling burglaries and assaults to harass a protester demonstrating against the biggest crime of all, Britain’s war crime of invading Iraq.
And they still have the valuable Banksy artworks, last I heard.
Aaah the right to protest. Seems so quaint now doesn’t it?