Nick Ferrari's Enough Is Enough campaign: Give police more powers to stop public disorder
3 February 2020, 07:19
Nick Ferrari is launching his new campaign to give police greater powers when dealing with protests which cause serious public disorder, such as Extinction Rebellion.
The XR protests cost the Metropolitan Police more than £40million, which included overtime for officers and mutual aid to move police across the country to support their efforts in London.
That money could have funded the Met's Violent Crime Taskforce for almost three years.
Nick Ferrari says ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.
LBC can reveal that another large-scale demonstration is being planned by Extinction Rebellion on 23rd May, with the group releasing details of their operation next week.
Nick Ferrari's Enough is Enough campaign is calling for the government to give officers greater powers so they can do their job more effectively.
Currently, the Public Order Act gives the power to prohibit protest marches which cause serious public disorder - but not any other form of protest. Nick is starting his campaign to amend that to include the tactics used by groups like XR.
Today, LBC reveals the results of an exclusive poll with Deltapoll, which kickstarts Nick Ferrari’s campaign Enough is Enough.
The poll shows that 60% of adults believe that police need greater powers, whilst a majority (53%) think there should be restrictions on people being able to return to protests after being arrested.
In terms of measures available to the police, the LBC poll shows that two thirds (67%) of the public think that mounted police should be able to be used. In addition, riot police (63%), water cannon (58%) and tasers (57%) all have majority support from British adults.
Speaking on LBC in January this year, Met Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick revealed the strain put on police from these large scale protests and said more needed to be done, saying: "I think there should be a greater deterrent, absolutely, and there should be a way in which we can stop people simply bringing our city to a halt and causing such serious disruption."
Furthermore, in a provocative narrative captured on video which will be discussed throughout the week on LBC, XR’s co-founder Simon Bramwell, endorsed “direct sabotage” whilst calling to “take down civilisation”, taking future generations into a “feral consciousness”.
He was speaking at an event organised by the radical environmentalist group Deep Green Resistance UK in November last year.
When asked to comment on Simon Bramwell’s remarks, a spokesperson from Extinction Rebellion told LBC: "Extinction Rebellion is a broad church of people - including lawyers, doctors, electricians, nurses, farmers and teachers - who have come together to ask our government to act to avert the worst effects of climate change.
"Simon’s views as expressed in this video do not represent the position of Extinction Rebellion as a whole."
On why he's launching his campaign, Nick said: "Surveys show the public’s fear of crime and desire to take action against prolonged protests is at a record high. When you hear the chilling, anarchic sentiments from one of Extinction Rebellion’s founders, the picture gets bleaker.
"That is why, starting today, I am launching the Enough is Enough campaign as it is highly likely our streets face a lockdown within the next 90 days."
Nick Ferrari’s campaign Enough is Enough - all this week on LBC.
