50 Welsh officers involved in policing pro-Palestine ‘terror arrests’ demo
Martin Shipton
Fifty police officers from Wales were involved in policing a pro-Palestine demonstration in London that resulted in more than 500 protesters being arrested under terrorism legislation at the weekend.
The arrests, which follow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper’s controversial decision to ban the Palestine Action group as a terrorist organisation, have entailed bundling pensioners and disabled people into police vans for disabling posters that read: “I oppose genocide; I support Palestine Action.”
Nation.Cymru asked the four Welsh police forces whether any of their officers were involved in the operation after we were sent photographs of police at the event wearing yellow jackets with ‘Heddlu’ – the Welsh word for police – on the back of their uniforms.
We asked the forces whether any of the officers policing the protest were theirs; if so, how many were involved; who bears the cost of their involvement and what impact their presence in London had on policing in Wales.
North Wales Police told us that none of their officers had participated, but the other three forces referred our questions to the Metropolitan Police.
‘Appreciated’
A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police said: “We were supported by officers from three Welsh forces as part of the policing operation on Saturday. Their assistance was greatly appreciated.
“17 officers from South Wales Police
“17 officers from Gwent
“16 officers from Dyfed-Powys
“The Met pays for the officers based on a national pricing structure.
“I don’t have any details of the exact costs as I understand these are still to be determined.
‘Madness’
Former Labour Secretary of State for Wales Peter Hain posted a comment to social media in which he described the mass arrests as “madness” and said Palestine Action was not “equivalent to real terrorist groups like Al Qaeda or Islamic State, which is why I voted against its ban.”
Former Conservative cabinet minister David Davis told The Independent the arrests were an “excessive use of counter terrorism law”, adding “they’ve gone over the top”.
He said: “We’ve not really been given any evidence for the reasoning behind proscribing Palestine Action. I mean, they broke in and painted an aircraft, they did not set bombs or anything. So that’s the first question. What were the criteria? …. And then secondly, should you be arresting lots of people because they support a particular side and put up a banner?”
He added that: “The authorities should be more clear cut about why they have proscribed Palestine Action.”
‘Foolish’
Meanwhile, veteran backbencher Diane Abbott said the government was in danger of making itself look “both draconian and foolish”.
UN human rights chief Volker Türk concluded last month that the use of counterterrorism law in this way “misuses the gravity and impact of terrorism”.
In a letter to the Times, retired RAF man Andrew Brookes writes that during his time as UK commander of Greenham Common base, “I had a £250,000 annual budget to repair damage done by peace protestors to the perimeter fence”. The military police presence ensured they kept their distance, and he adds: “[The protestors’] freedom of speech was always respected, and I never heard anyone in Whitehall or the Pentagon suggest that they should be classed as terrorists.’”
But Justice Minister Alex Davies-Jones, the MP for Pontypridd, doubled down on the banning of Palestine Action, saying supporters of a “terrorist organisation will feel the full force of the law”,
She told BBC Breakfast: “I want to thank the police for their bravery and their courage in carrying out their diligent duties in the line of public protection, and I want to state that the right to peacefully protest in this country is a cornerstone of our democracy, and of course, we respect that.
“But with regards to Palestine Action, they are a proscribed terrorist organisation and their actions have not been peaceful.
“They have violently carried out criminal damage to RAF aircraft.
“We have credible reports of them targeting Jewish-owned businesses here in the United Kingdom, and there are other reasons which we can’t disclose because of national security.
“But they are a proscribed terrorist organisation and anyone showing support for that terrorist organisation will feel the full force of the law.”
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We barely have any police on the streets here in Wales for them to be wasting their time arresting peaceful protestors. Has our government lost its senses?
Appears even veteran politicians as different, politically speaking, as David Davis and Peter Hain agree with you!
Disgraceful!! Mis-use of police time and taxpayers’ money. The government click their fingers and the police must jump to their every whim whether it is right or wrong. In this case it is wrong. It was the same during the printers and coal miners protests when agitators were brought in to stir things up and make the peaceful protestors look like troublemakers. Talk about being corrupt!!
The police don’t have choice over this. They’re there to impose the law which is legislated by parliament; they don’t make that law.
In practice that means that the government determines what the law will be, and uses its majority to ensure that its legislation passes.
Yes, and currently they are imposing a corrupt law.
I’m not sure that the law itself can be characterized as ‘corrupt’; but on the evidence currently being provided by the government, its application in this particular context appears to be absolutely and absurdly disproportionate.
But I still maintain that the police have little choice. The idea that some group of senior police officers should be deciding, off their own bat, which law is to be enforced in a particular situation and which ought not to be strikes me as even less desirable than what we’ve witnessed over the last weekend.
In my opinion the police should act on what is right and what is wrong and the government should not expect or order police backing when the public’s general opinion is right, as is in this case. It is blatant mis-use of the police. The government is not always right and if the police decide that that is the case they should support what is fair not what is unfair. The government should not be above the law. That, in my opinion, is dictatorship.
Does it not bother you that what you say that you’d prefer would have the effect of making a police officer, or maybe his inspector or chief constable, the absolute arbiter as to whether a law should or should not be enforced, after taking a personal view of particular circumstances at the time, and the officer’s perception of what s/he thinks is the consensus of public opinion at that moment? Because that would seriously bother me! I don’t have a particularly high view of our current clutch of politicians, but at least the public get a vote giving them chance… Read more »
They were only doing what they were told.
Indeed. They’re just there to enforce the law, and since this government has opted, under pre-existing legislation, to declare Palestine Action a terrorist organization, the police have to uphold that law when people proclaim their support for PA.
Some officers might privately think, as I’m currently inclined on the evidence to do, that the government hasn’t thus far made a clear case that proscription; but it’s not a police officer’s job to let personal opinion influence policing decisions. Except, I suppose, by packing in the job should s/he feel really strongly.
Can’t the english police do their own dirty work?
Twpsyn
Policing is not devolved. It is always a call for help from other forces, happens up and down the country with other events, even football.
The government made this a bad decision (the proscribed org aside, there is a lot going on there and may well be wrong uns), and I think Rowley has burned any bridges he was hoping to make. They got this so wrong.
Now lets see the same vigour in chasing down the racists at hotels.
Policeing SHOULD be devolved as it is in Scotland.
Then Wales can decide it’s own priorities.
When Alex Davies-Jones, the MP for Pontypridd, says she cannot disclose the reasons why “for reasons of national security”, which national security does she mean? Why can’t the Westminster parliament which presides over this “national security” declare that credible evidence exists? This was the case with Al Qaeda and ISIS of groups or individuals were intent on murder of citizens. No such statement has been made in parliament relating to Palestine Action. The people have the right to know.
Another spineless MP who has clearly been bought out by the Israeli lobby. Who ironically, are the ones who should be labeled as terrorists.
‘When Alex Davies-Jones, the MP for Pontypridd, says she cannot disclose the reasons why “for reasons of national security”, which national security does she mean? …’
She’s just broadly echoing what home secretary Yvette Cooper has already said, though Cooper stressed not risking compromising some supposedly forthcoming prosecutions rather than issues of national security.
Davies-Jones is a government minister, so collective responsibility comes into play: ‘I’m not in a position to say, but if you knew what we know …’!
This government seems doomed to stagger from one strategic mis-step to another.
So Wales loses the few police officers we have to defend against a non existent threat.
Maybe if we had devolution of policing and the courts, that situation might change?
Though as I heard recently of coppers from England being bussed up north to reinforce Police Scotland, where the courts and policing is devolved, maybe not!