‘Many police officers feel they are damned if they do and damned if they don’t’

THE only policing drama I was expecting to tune into on Sunday night was the new series of the BBC’s Line of Duty.

But instead the appalling scenes in Bristol where rioters clashed with police provided horrifying viewing on social media.

Reporters such as Tristan Cork of our sister website Bristol Live, Martin Booth at Bristol 24/7 and Alon Aviram at the Bristol Cable streamed incredible footage from the scene.

Few of us who have spent the pandemic in the safety of our homes have full insight into the challenges faced by frontline police officers over the past 12 months. It is easy to be an armchair critic of police, but harder to acknowledge how difficult it is to deal with a certain ‘awkward squad’ percentage of the population.

As the fictional Line of Duty reminds us, that isn’t to say that individual police officers or police forces as a whole should ever be beyond criticism or above the law.

Sunday’s protest happened in the wake of the Metropolitan Police being criticised for alleged heavyhanded policing of the Sarah Everard vigil.

Avon and Somerset Police has meanwhile both been praised and faced criticism for its approach during last year’s Colston’s statue protest .

Many police officers feel they are damned if they do and damned if they don’t.

The scenes we watched unfold on Sunday however were despicable, with the actions of an estimated 500 people who rioted being impossible to condone. Those who rioted have massively undermined the concerns of those who were peacefully protesting the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill.

There is widespread opposition to elements of this Bill. Those who peacefully wanted to protest about it were not legally able to do so.

It feels – to put it mildly – unsporting of the Government to be rushing through Parliament a Bill that restricts the right to peaceful protest at a period when people can’t legally assemble for protest due to coronavirus regulations.

This protest was not only hijacked by a sizeable minority of people who have a history of clashing with British police, but those from further afield. The social media footage recorded in Bristol was seized upon by partisan commentators in the United States eager to fuel the wider culture war.

Comparisons were made with the rioting at the Capitol in Washington and one prominent voice described Bristol as ‘Britain’s Portland’ – which has seen months of violent clashes.

Superficially there are similarities – liberal West coast cities with a radical tradition – but let’s truly hope that the scenes of Sunday night in Bristol were a one-off.

Others, including Nigel Farage, were quick to serve their own purpose and point the finger at the Black Lives Matter movement and labels such as anarchists and ‘antifa’ were also quickly bandied about.

There are also mayoral and police commissioner elections on the horizon in the West, with various candidates keen to score points.

None of this is particularly helpful. There were legitimate reasons why people felt they had to peacefully protest on Sunday and their cause has suffered due to the actions of an angry mob.

And though that angry contingent’s criminal actions have outraged most people’s sensibilities, it does none of us any favours to ignore why such a sizeable minority are angry.

Young people – including the vast majority who stayed at home and didn’t protest – feel, with some reason, that they have borne the majority of the economic and social cost of the pandemic.

Unless people in the corridors of power start listening to their concerns then this sadly won’t be the last major disturbance we see this year.

CC ANDY MARSH