The chief of the Met Police has criticised Zack Polanski for sharing an “inaccurate and misinformed” post about the arrest of the Golders Green terror suspect, insisting he had to intervene to prevent the force from being “undermined”.
The Green Party leader retweeted an X post accusing officers of “repeatedly and violently kicking a mentally ill man in the head” when he was already incapacitated from being tasered.
But Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said in a letter to Mr Polanski that he was “disappointed”, adding that the post could have a “chilling effect”.
Sir Mark said that the officers “are nothing short of extraordinary”. He added: “Without their efforts to stop him, I dread to think what the outcome could have been.
“London’s Jewish communities are scared. They have experienced a series of targeted attacks on the community, and they expect our officers to act, protect them.
“That is exactly what our officers did yesterday. Your decision to criticise these officers, using your public profile and reach will have a chilling effect.”
On Friday, Sir Mark said the officers were still “shaken” hours after the arrest, and insisted the rare public intervention was not political.
Explaining why he chose to publish his letter to Mr Polanski: “I’m not interested in politics but if somebody eminent, rather than some of the oddballs on social media, if someone eminent says something or does something which I see has a risk to undermining the confidence of my officers to act – because they need that sense of public support – they now need to intervene on that, and that’s what I did with that letter.”
Mr Polanski has faced criticism from within his own party over the social media post, with the Green’s Welsh leader admitting on Thursday evening that it did seem “inappropriate to retweet”.
The video of the arrest, released by the Metropolitan Police, shows a 45-year-old Somali-born British national holding a knife as he advanced towards police officers.
Two officers fired Tasers and the suspect, who was wearing a blue puffer jacket and a rucksack, eventually collapsed to the ground.
They could be heard urgently shouting “get down on the ground” and “take the Taser”.
Once the suspect was on the video, one of the officers knelt on top of him, while the other continued to use his Taser and more police surrounded them.
The officer, still on his feet, repeatedly yelled “drop the knife”, “drop the f****** knife” while the suspect struggled on the floor.
As the suspect was pinned face down in the middle of the road, the officers appeared to aggressively jostle him, sounding increasingly panicked.
A plain-clothed man, possibly a member of the Jewish community security team, eventually wrenched the knife from the suspect’s hand.
The suspect then had his hands handcuffed behind his back while still lying in the road, and was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder.
Mr Polanski has also accused Labour of “using Jewish pain” to justify an “authoritarian” agenda in considering banning pro-Palestinian marches after the Golders Green attack.
The left-wing leader, who is the only current Jewish leader of a major political party in the UK, hit out at home secretary Shabana Mahmood as she hinted at using new powers for a crackdown on marches protesting against Israel.
Mr Polanski told The Independent: “It is an outrage that this increasingly authoritarian government would now seek to use the pain of the Jewish community to seek further restrictions on the rights to peaceful protest. The Green Party will fight any restrictions on peaceful protest, whatever the cause, every step of the way.”
The Gaza issue has become a major dividing line between Labour and the Greens, with Mr Polanski’s party recently winning the Gorton and Denton by-election in Manchester, where part of its strategy was to target Muslim voters.
A Green party spokesperson: “Zack has seen the video like everyone else, and doesn’t know the full picture and knows it was a very difficult situation for the authorities, but we do need to understand more about the response.”
The police watchdog has confirmed it has not received a referral in relation to the nature of the arrest.
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