Police were today set to put out more appeals to track down suspected Armistice Day hate crime offenders as the Government confirmed that it is to look at ways to make it easier to ban potentially inflammatory protests in future.
The Met said that it would be releasing more images of wanted people after making 145 arrests on Saturday as hundreds of thousands of people taking part in a pro-Palestinian march through London prompted a violent far-Right counter-protest.
The initial arrests were among the far-Right after what the Met condemned as “extreme violence” directed at police by a group of “largely football hooligans” that left nine officers injured, including two who were hospitalised.
But as a row continued over the presence of some antisemitic chanting and alleged displays of support for Hamas among the pro-Palestinian marchers, as well as the targeting of a London synagogue later on Armistice Day, defence minister James Heappey said it was “right” for the Government to examine whether future such protests could be stopped more easily.
“If it looks like protests are happening again and again, and that people are turning up each week carrying placards and shouting chants that are hateful. [then] … clearly the law needs to be strengthened,” he told Sky News.
Mr Heappey emphasised that hundreds of thousands of people had attended the pro-Palestinian march peacefully, but added: “It is also … an uncomfortable reality for some of those who attended those protests that when those chants were heard or those placards were walked alongside, a lot of people didn’t turn away and distance themselves, or seek to intervene.
“The consequence of that over the last few weekends is that Jewish people have been sat in their homes seeing these hateful placards, these antisemitic placards, and hearing the chants and feeling fearful. If it is the case that the weakness in policing those protests comes from legislation then it’s right that the Government should look at that.”
Mr Heappey said he had yet to see any proposals but the blueprint said to be under consideration is understood to include strengthening the law to allow police to ban inflammatory chants at specific protests and to take account of the cumulative effect of successive marches on policing resources and community tensions.
The move follows the decision by Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley to allow Saturday’s march, which was routed away from the Cenotaph to avoid clashing with the main Armistice Day commemoration, on the grounds that there was no legal basis to do so.
His decision came despite pressure from Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and the then Home Secretary Suella Braverman, who accused police of being biased, for the march to be stopped.
Despite today’s focus on tracking down offenders from the pro-Palestinian march, the worst of the disorder on Saturday was inflicted by far-Right extremists taking part in a counter-protest organised by the former English Defence League leader Tommy Robinson.
Police said they had been “clearly looking for confrontation” and chanted abuse including “you’re not English any more” at officers as well as launching violent attacks.
