Just Stop Oil is ‘accident waiting to happen’
Rank-and-file officers warn Met top brass to ‘get a grip’ of climate protests before someone is seriously hurt
JUST STOP OIL protests are “an accident waiting to happen”, police have said as rank-and-file officers demand their bosses take action.
The eco group’s new tactic of slowly marching to block traffic has provoked anger, with a skip truck driver ploughing across a park yesterday as tensions rose.
Activists evaded arrest for the sixth time in nine days as their human blockade caused mass traffic tailbacks in Whitechapel and Stoke Newington in north London.
They have promised to continue causing chaos until the Government cancels all new fossil fuel licences.
A skip truck driver roared across part of Stoke Newington Common while yelling expletives to dodge the group, before rejoining the carriageway ahead of them and swiftly being pulled over by police.
The trucker gave the middle finger to the police officers walking alongside Just Stop Oil and yelled, “you’re just as bad as them”, while pedestrians called the strolling officers “pathetic”.
But with motorists and pedestrians increasingly turning their anger on leniency, rank-and-file Metropolitan Police officers have now hit back.
“It’s very much so [an accident waiting to happen], we need to get a grip of it – I hope none of my colleagues get seriously hurt but it could possibly happen,” Ken Marsh, chairman of the Met Police Federation, told The Daily Telegraph.
“Officers have had enough of it. They’ve had enough of being the fall guys – getting propped up to just get abused. Things have very much [got worse for officers] because, as the tactics change, it makes it more and more difficult because we’ve allowed this to go on and on, this melee.”
Mr Marsh, a constable who represents 30,000 officers up to chief inspector level, said there was “no culpability for the actions of my colleagues” despite demands from Suella Braverman, the Home Secretary, for the police to crack down.
He added: “When they actually do it and the lights go out and we start getting civil claims and allegations of assault and numerous other things thrown at us, we get no backing whatsoever, so why should we bother?”
Mr Marsh called on commanders, assistant commissioners, superintendents and chief superintendents to join officers on the front line of Just Stop Oil.
“If commanders from above instruct us to go and remove them, we’ll remove them. We want full backing from senior officers out there with us,” he said. Ministers are proposing to close loopholes that have been exploited by Just Stop Oil and other eco-activists to introduce secondary legislation for a statutory definition of “serious disruption”, at which police can intervene and arrest protesters.
It follows claims by police chiefs that the uncertainty over what is legally defined as serious disruption is leaving their hands tied, despite tough talk from commanders to “remove and arrest activists as appropriate”, in the run-up to Christmas.
Yesterday, Just Stop Oil again targeted rush-hour commuters outside Royal London Hospital before furious scenes of horn honking in Stoke Newington, where a cyclist stormed through their banners while shouting expletives. Police also ordered a pedestrian to “leave them to it” after he grabbed an orange from a supermarket in east London, and hurled it at the 11 eco protesters.
Multiple police vehicles arrived ahead of time in recent protests, suggesting foreknowledge of their plans, but instead of foiling operations – as they did with previous motorway gantry actions – they are now allowing it.
Mr Marsh compared the current impasse to Just Stop Oil protesters being swiftly removed and detained by police on The Mall during the period of mourning for the late Queen.
“How is that any different to any other scenario? But because that was the Jubilee they were clapped and cheered, ‘well done, brilliant’,” he said.
“It’s a complete waste of our time. We’ll act within the law and we won’t put ourselves at risk when the backing isn’t there to take the correct action. The correct action is to remove these people.”
Scotland Yard said last night that officers “know that they have support from senior officers”.
A Met spokesman added: “Since November, Met officers have made 755 arrests when protests have been unreasonable and where serious disruption has been caused, so it is clear that officers are ready to act swiftly and effectively when it is required.
“The Courts have been very clear that the sort of protest that we have seen this week, even when there is some temporary disruption to traffic, will not normally be a criminal offence.”