I WAS CUFFED COVID STASI ...QUEUEING FOR A COFFEE
Why? Because this 51-year-old mum had dared to stroll two miles to get it — in a horrific example of ludicrously over-zealous policing
of lockdown. There are, of course, grievous breaches that must be controlled and I applaud the police for their part in this.
In general, I have huge respect for the police who, by and large, do a difficult job in challenging circumstances. I know, too, the pressures exerted by the pandemic have made their task even more difficult. But why do they seem so readily to be picking on lawabiding citizens doing their best to follow confusing restriction rules while serious crimes go unpunished? What, for instance, are they doing about knife crime? Our capital city has its own epidemic of deaths from stabbings.
One of my sons — indeed just about every pupil in his class — has been the victim of a terrifying attack. He was stopped at knifepoint and surrounded by a group of thugs who told him they were going to ‘shank’ (stab or slash) him if he didn’t hand over his phone. He did so, they booked an Uber on it and fled.
I turned detective and was able to trace the route they took as the Uber was charged to my account. I provided the police with the information. The criminals were apprehended and found to have stacks of stolen credit cards on them, as well as my son’s phone.
That happened four years ago and the police promised to let me know when the culprits were charged. To this day, I’ve heard nothing. So I must assume they got off scot-free.
Then there is my dear old mum, now 80, who recently underwent a terrifying ordeal in her own home. Mum lives alone, independently, and one Saturday last year she heard banging on her front door. A gang had tried to kick it down and when they failed to do so — it’s a sturdy oak door —– they tried to ram it by reversing a van into it. Fortunately, the door did not succumb. Mum was frightened. She rang the police — but they said they could not come round until the following Tuesday. As far as I’m aware, the offenders have not been caught. Hardly surprising, is it, when police take three days to respond to an emergency call?
Yet there are officers aplenty when it comes to policing 50something women in coffee-shop queues. If I sound resentful it is because I am. As I left Borough Market last Saturday, van-loads of police were arriving.
What upsets me most is that the country needs to heal. Yet, even now, when we dare to hope that the end is in sight, it seems that Covid is pulling us apart. As a psychotherapist, I managed two safe, calm practices. These have been destroyed by lockdown. My income has been reduced by 70 per cent, just at the time when the services I offer are needed most.
I’m working hard to help those who have suffered most — the young, students and single-parent familes — to find safe, affordable help. So many of us have mental health problems and, ironically, it was because my friend’s son was feeling particularly low that we decided to take that walk last Saturday to cheer him up. YeT
we walked home feeling disconsolate, wrung out, intimidated. It has made me wary. Should I even leave the garden? Now the weather brings the promise of an uplift in our spirits, mine remain at rock bottom.
How could a walk in the sunshine to lift the desperately flagging spirits of a teenage boy and two 50- something mums, with the modest reward of coffee and cake, end in such a nightmare?
How, after the year we have all endured in which we gave up our freedoms with good grace, do we now find ourselves living in a Stasi state?
A pOlICe spokesman said: ‘We are aware of a social media video in which a woman alleges she was handcuffed. The woman was contacted by police and asked to provide details of the incident. However, the woman has not yet responded.
‘While the Government’s roadmap contains positive news, the Met’s message is clear — now is not the time for complacency. Throughout the city, londoners must continue to stick to the rules, which are fundamentally there to save lives.
‘That means you must stay at home wherever possible. You should not be meeting with other households unless a support bubble is in place or you are meeting one other person for exercise. Officers across london will continue to take action against rule breakers, adopting the ‘Four es’ process of engaging, explaining, encouraging and then enforcing.