The streets of London see both commendable order and lawless disorder

Chris Hobbs attends a Ukrainian and a Pro-Palestinian protest on a day when police resources were once again stretched by violent disorder in central London sparked by pop up 'event' flagged on social media.

Despite the fact that considerably more than the predicted 200 pro-Ukrainian protesters had actually materialised on the Bayswater Road for the short march to the Russian Embassy, those police officers assigned to the event knew that the march and rally would almost certainly, be an orderly affair as had previous similar protests supporting the Ukrainian cause.

There were minor issues with the traffic as the footways became somewhat overcrowded but one officer took the initiative with some astute traffic direction together with  equally astute liaison with those gathering. .

The march inevitably caused some disruption to traffic and attempting to coax the protesters, which included family groups, into the sideroad which is directly opposite the rather drab looking Embassy proved a slow process. This held up the West to East Bayswater Road traffic for a while and raised an unanswered question in respect of the Met’s public order policing; namely why megaphones are not used.

The question of megaphones

In fact, I’ve only seen them used once and the incident demonstrated their effectiveness. After one of the earlier pro-Palestine protest close to the Israeli Embassy, a group of youthful activists attempted an unauthorised ‘walkabout’ along the road which would have impeded the traffic. An inspector appeared with a megaphone and informed the marchers that if they didn’t move back onto the footway, they would be liable to arrest; they moved and the ‘walkabout’ petered out within a few minutes.

However, despite being no megaphone available, eventually officers did coax the crowd into that sideroad opposite the Embassy where speeches continued before the event ended with the Ukrainian national anthem.

West End disorder

However, as this event progressed, word began to filter through to officers of an unexpected and potentially serious public order incident in the West End involving hundreds of youths which left those officers champing at the bit to be deployed to central London to assist their colleagues.

It would seem that two companies had used social media to announce that they would be setting up some sort of ‘pop-up’ stall to display new ‘lines’ of clothing and footwear with ‘freebies’ being given away. Large numbers of youths materialised and footage on social media showed scenes of disorder including the ransacking of a police vehicle with one youth dancing the roof clad in a ‘high viz’ police jacket.

The arrival of TSG units brought the incident to a conclusion and later that afternoon, on my way to the second protest of the day, I passed through Carnaby Street and there was no sign of the earlier disorder.

The pro-Palestinian ‘funeral’

That second protest of the day was to begin at 4PM in Jubilee Gardens on the South Bank by the London Eye. It took the form of a ‘funeral procession’ in relation to events in Gaza and the West Bank and was to be conducted in silence.

About 500 pro-Palestine protesters turned up with the procession being headed by a coffin complete with pall bearers. Later, as darkness fell candles became apparent and the procession was accompanied by the mournful tolling of a bell.

The one obviously contentious aspect of the procession was the banner on the side of the coffin which read ‘WE WILL HONOUR ALL OUR MARTYRS.’ The question posed amongst the observers and journalists present was whether this was intended to refer, not just to the innocent who have perished but to Hamas terrorists, including those who conducted the October the 7th massacre.

There was a rumour circulating that somehow on the route, possibly on a bridge, the marchers would ‘pull a stunt,’ The Met seemed to have heard the same rumour and there was a significant police presence during the early stages of the march.

Westminster Bridge however, was crossed without incident and instead of heading up Whitehall towards Downing Street, the procession turned right and proceeded along the Embankment taking over, with police blessing, the cycle lane.

Ahead of the march were several stewards who were politely asking approaching cyclists if they could dismount, which they did without demur. The procession seemed to speed up as it moved along but it was eerily silent apart from the tolling bell, with no chanting or shouting.

St Paul’s and the days end

On reaching the City of London police area, the procession moved onto the roads which were almost deserted, before turning left, up flights of stone steps towards St. Paul’s.

There was a great opportunity here to capture the moment as the crowd, complete with Palestinian flags climbed the steps towards the magnificent floodlight edifice that is St. Paul’s. Try as I might, I couldn’t quite capture that moment but there was no disrespect shown by those in the procession.

On reaching the outskirts of the Cathedral the march turned right and moved into a fenced off garden area for closing speeches. One speaker, who had harangued police at the beginning of the Al Quds march back in April and was later arrested in Whitehall, accused British police of ‘being complicit in genocide.’ Two protesters asked if I could take a picture of them posing together. I obliged but an experienced photo-journalist arrived on the scene and made a better job of it.

All in all, another successful day of public order policing for the Met who had to react to a difficult situation in central London and also, reportedly, had to deal with a group of West Ham fans who were roaming around the Highbury area, in a pack looking for their Arsenal rivals.

Successful policing operations are of little interest to the MSM however, and officers across the country will have woken to Mail on Sunday headlines and editorial joyfully proclaiming that the country appears to be under the thumb of the ‘thought police.’

Chris Hobbs is a former Special Branch officer who follows public order events for Police Oracle as an observer.

Category: OpsPublic Order