The dilemmas of policing large protests

12 April 2012

The clean-up operation after Saturday's march has restored normality to the West End, but the retailers whose shops were attacked by rioters are furious.

More than 200 people have already been charged with criminal offences; we can only hope their sentences, if found guilty, reflect the seriousness of what some of them did.

Meanwhile there is a lively debate about whether the Metropolitan Police handled the situation correctly. Commander Bob Broadhurst has denied that police should have anticipated the attacks on Fortnum and Mason and other stores, and rejected suggestions that they should have gone in harder.

They did make a very large number of arrests. Today, coincidentally, the inquest begins into the death of Ian Tomlinson during the G20 protests - a salutary reminder of what can go wrong when the police mishandle big public protests. This time around, the Met acted with remarkable restraint. Of course they knew that the march was likely to be hijacked by a violent minority. That is the reality of modern protest.

The police know this but they have to balance the right to peaceful demonstrations with the likelihood of fringe violence - and of it being exacerbated by too aggressive a police response.

The questions go further. The route of the march, which took more than a quarter of a million people from Hyde Park along Piccadilly to Westminster, looks ill-advised. It not only brought protesters past famous luxury shops; it brought one of the most important shopping districts to a standstill on a Saturday.

Central businesses must pay a price for being at the heart of the capital, but it should have been possible to route the march to bring it to Westminster without going through the West End.

As for the main protest, it has been overshadowed by the actions of a few. Ed Miliband's speech in Hyde Park comparing the protests to those of Martin Luther King was far-fetched, but the size of the protest is a warning to ministers of the hard road ahead if they stick to the cuts.

The policing of the rally has inevitably raised concerns about the way the police handle the royal wedding. As we report today, they will be treating it as a security operation, with a far tougher approach to potential problems. We must hope that this does not affect the celebratory mood on the day.

Mr Clegg's mansions

The Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg, is anxious that his party should get due credit for the radical parts of last week's Budget. But he is also anxious that any move to abolish the upper 50 per cent tax rate should be balanced by a punitive new tax regime on expensive homes.

Mr Clegg wants to maintain his Lib-Dem credentials within the Coalition, but in reality any attack on expensive properties would fall squarely on one area - London - and on some people who bought houses before the boom.

Many of them are not rich. A tax of this kind would send out the wrong signals. There are other ways of taking measures against the tax-avoiding rich by closing loopholes, not by targeting London.

Vital vote

A poll in this paper shows that only one in four Londoners may be bothered to vote in the May referendum on reform of the voting system. This is a dreadful reflection on the lacklustre attempts of the main parties to engage the public in what could be a transformative change. They must do better: a move to the AV voting system could have far-reaching effects.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in