Public order policing is now a hot mess

West Midlands Police say they can’t protect fans of Maccabi Tel Aviv on the streets of Birmingham if they travel to the UK to play Aston Villa. This is despite decades of experience successfully policing football matches and a multitude of options available to keep rival fans apart and secure the local community.

If they were concerned about violence from Maccabi fans, then surely a force of almost 8000 officers can deal with it, or ask for help using well-established mutual aid. If they were concerned about protests from the local community against the match, surely they could use our tough public order laws to manage them. What are the police afraid of?

Last Saturday, thousands of protestors marched through Central London, escorted and protected for the entire day by hundreds of police officers. They chanted ‘from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’ words the Prime Minister said last night he believes are antisemitic. They also chanted ‘Zionists go home’ and ‘there is only one solution, intifada revolution. These chants were repeated by the marchers for the entire afternoon, and the police were perfectly happy.

Before the event began, counter-protestors unfurled a banner on a nearby bridge that read ‘Globalise the intifada is a call to murder Jews.’ This is a statement of fact. Intifada in the context of the Middle East means a violent uprising, and in Israel, it resulted in stabbings, shootings and bus bombings. Most of the victims were Jewish, but they also killed Arabs, Muslims, Druze and Christians.

Despite this, police intervened and detained them for breaking the conditions of their counter-protest, which was only allowed in a specific zone. Shortly afterwards, a man ran to the front of the main rally holding a sign that read ‘I stand with Britain’s Jews,’ with a Union Jack flag on it. He was also detained and arrested as the crowd shouted ‘racist’ at him.

Now consider the case of Palestine Action. Because the Government banned the group using powers in the Terrorism Act, it is a crime to express any support, such as holding up a poster in the street. Supporters of Palestine Action can guarantee detention and arrest every time they do this.

In a creative development, supporters were urged instead to display posters in the windows of their homes, which the police said was absolutely fine because, strictly speaking, it is not a public place.

The Home Secretary has promised a review of public order legislation to ensure that police powers are ‘sufficient and being consistently applied.’ The Government has also suggested that some chants could be banned. If the Prime Minister believes the chant ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’ is antisemitic, then how will that be translated into actionable guidance for the police? Will calls for an intifada also be banned?

The Government looks weak in the face of repeated protests that, whilst conducted peacefully, involve verbal calls for violence and fuel extremism that can lead to more violent acts. The police seem reluctant to place tough conditions on protests that occupy public places or take over large parts of our cities at the expense of the wider community, who feel intimidated and unsafe going about their normal lives.

Policing protests on this scale is extremely expensive; they drain much-needed funds from police budgets that could otherwise be spent tackling crime and patrolling communities to deter it. Will cost become a factor in restricting future protests?

The current situation is a mess. There are certain protests the police will protect, whatever the cost, and other events that they will withdraw from if the right mix of pressure and threats is applied. That is no way to police our country.

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James Sorene is a commentator and writer.

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