‘PLAGUE’ OF ATTACKS ON COPS
THE stabbing of a police officer outside a railway station shows there is an “epidemic” of violence against cops, a top force official has warned.
Shocked witnesses saw the bloodied British Transport Police officer after he was attacked by a man outside Ilford station in east London.
He is being treated in hospital but his injuries are not thought to be life-threatening. A man was arrested over the incident on Friday night, police said.
British Transport Police Federation chairman Nigel Goodband said the officer was fortunate colleagues were nearby.
He said: “I’m told it was totally unprovoked. It’s shocking – knife crime and the wider epidemic of attacking police officers is a real concern. Certain elements of society see it as acceptable.”
Metropolitan Police Federation chairman Ken Marsh warned of a “breakdown in society” in August when two officers were attacked after trying to arrest a suspect in a McDonald’s in Hackney.
Last weekend a woman officer was kung-fu kicked into the path of a double-decker bus as she assisted with an arrest.