COP-OUT AT ECO PROTEST
Police accused of going soft on demonstrators as capital grinds to halt for 2nd day running
POLICE were accused of ‘standing around the edges’ of Extinction Rebellion’s climate protest last night as eco-activists brought the capital to a standstill for a second day.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said the Metropolitan Police should be taking ‘more robust action’ against demonstrators who have effectively taken over the streets surrounding Parliament.
They have erected dozens of tents along Whitehall, past Downing Street and around Parliament Square – as well as establishing a camp in St James’s Park.
The encampments feature ‘emergency loo tents’, dedicated massage areas, yoga, dancing classes and even pop-up kitchens serving lentils. In Trafalgar Square, which has become the focal point of the protest, the activists held a rave and set up snack stalls, a ‘wellbeing sanctuary’, a solar-powered sound system and an improvised cycle lane.
Some glued themselves to the Department for Transport building yesterday and to a lorry outside the Home Office in their ‘direct action’ against what they say is the Government’s failure to take climate change seriously.
Scotland Yard had promised to take a tougher line after being accused of surrendering the streets to similar protests for more than a week during the first mass Extinction Rebellion ‘shutdown’ in April.
In an attempt to limit the chaos yesterday, police handed out warnings in the Westminster area, telling all protesters to move to Trafalgar Square or face arrest.
But despite deploying hundreds of officers, police struggled to disperse the tented camps – leaving activists maintaining a stronghold over the heart of central London.
Mr Shapps, whose office building was blockaded yesterday morning, told LBC radio: ‘It cannot be right that people are able to set up tents in the middle of the street and then not simply be removed.
‘If you parked your car in the middle of the street, it would be removed, you would be fined.
‘If you refused to move it you would be up in court. We cannot have a situation where there are separate sets of rules.’
Accusing the protesters of ‘destroying livelihoods, he said: ‘They are in danger of damaging their own cause by preventing people from going about their work.
‘There are traders in Smithfield unable to get to work, it can’t be right. The police need to be more proactive and lean into this.
‘I can see entire roads blocked with tents and the police are standing around the edges.
‘You should not be able to set up a tent in the middle of the streets and stop other people going about their livelihoods. The police should be taking more robust action.’
Peers warned of ‘sinister undertones’ to the protests.
Tory former Cabinet minister Lord Forsyth of Drumlean said a number of disabled peers were unable to leave the Lords on Monday because taxis could not get in. He said the protests had resulted in huge disruption to business and the gridlock added to pollution.
Former Commons speaker Baroness Boothroyd, an independent, said: ‘It seems the demonstrators are in control of the police.’
Yesterday, the Met imposed a Section 14 Order of the Public Order Act on protesters – who have been described by Boris Johnson as ‘unco-operative crusties’ – obliging them to move to Trafalgar Square. The Met said: ‘Anyone who fails to comply is liable to arrest and prosecution.’
But police still struggled to contain protesters, with up to eight needed for a single arrest. Specialist officers spent hours trying to separate activists at one sit-down protest only for hundreds of drumming demonstrators to join in.
Police made dozens of arrests in Whitehall as activists sought ‘arre-stables’ – protesters willing to be arrested at the frontline of the demonstration outside Downing Street to keep the road closed.
The Reverend Tim Hewes was led away in handcuffs after lying down outside Downing Street and refusing to move. The Met arrested 319 people on Monday and 212 yesterday. Deputy Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor said: ‘It has been a resource-intensive operation... to remove people from tents and where they may have locked on. ‘We’ve asked for officers from across the country for assistance.’
It emerged yesterday that a clown pictured being arrested outside Downing Street is a 43-yearold Brazilian pole dancer who once stripped naked at the 90th birthday party for the mother of former Tory MP Matthew Parris. Tiago Gambogi, who is ‘under investigation’, also has British citizenship.