Emeritus Prof Christopher May

The problem the Metropolitan Police now face is no-one actually believes that decisions of routes for demonstrations are unbiased, nor the policing of protestors, especially in light of the end of the pause on arresting peaceful protestors breaking the proscription of Palestine Action.

Even if the Met are right that decision are not political, no-one beliefs that (and their past actions are what has led to such scepticism). The Met is not trusted!

#protests #politics
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/apr/10/met-police-tommy-robinson-far-right-protest-palestine-march-london

Met police accused of favouring Tommy Robinson far-right rally over Palestine march

Celebrities including Annie Lennox and Miriam Margolyes sign letter to force after pro-Palestine march route rejected

The Guardian
Apr 10 at 5:10pmWeb
Show threadWanWizard 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🇳🇱20h ago

@ChrisMayLA6 Yaxley-Lennon is personally a racist.
The MET is institutionally racist.

Hmmm.... ?

Show threadMidgePhoto20h ago

@ChrisMayLA6

Two routes, good.

Offering them to both organisers, and seeing if they agree that one is better for one demo, and the other for the other: excellent.

Deciding a clash by flipping a coin or other standard random selector: really quite good.

Making a decision, and publishing the factors leading to the allocations: moderately good, the more affinity or randomness involved the better.

Making a decision and not disclosing reasoning, or checking if this suits: sub-optimal to bad.

Show threadBashStKid19h ago
@ChrisMayLA6 Mahmood looking for hero voters, I assume.
The end of this cabinet can’t come too fast.
Show threadShimmin Beg (he/him)19h ago
@ChrisMayLA6 the Met could have dealt with the thing from the start by simply deprioritizing arrests. "This thing is now technically illegal but we have judged that it is not a priority for limited policing resources". They went in as hard as possible instead, as they always do on any "vulnerable" group of protesters and never do with right-wing groups. There is no reason at all for anyone to assume honesty or good faith from them.