A few days ago I wrote about an incident of complete overreach by the Metropolitan Police that occurred during a football match between Newcastle United and Crystal Palace in London recently. The Met Police started an investigation into a banner being flown by Palace fans that criticised the human rights record of the government of Saudi Arabia following the takeover of Newcastle by a consortium including a Saudi government investment fund.
It was presumed that the initial investigation into the banner was driven by a specious complaint of racism connected to the banner although as I pointed out at the time, there was nothing racist or even untrue about the allegations contained on the Palace banner. Much of what was on the banner has also been said of Saudi Arabia by various and well respected human rights NGO’s.
The Met police got a lot of justified shit thrown at them over this incident on social media. It looked at the time like yet another incident where the Met has chosen to police feelings instead of engaging in the real policing of real crime that Londoners would very much like.
However, today I found out that the Met have backed down. They are, according to both the Free Speech Union and The Athletic magazine, taking no further action against those who created or displayed this banner.
This is a rare example of the Met having some common sense and I for one will applaud them for it. But, this is a case that should never ever have gone as far as it had. It should have been dismissed out of hand as there was no real justification in undertaking a detailed investigation into the banner.
Their point was made though. The people who did this feared for their freedom for a period of time. Maybe even expended energy on preparing for their defence.
They should have chastised the people who started the investigation in the first place and put the fear into those who abused their position to terrorise ordinary people.
No wonder plod is hated more and more.
This could indeed have been an intimidation tactic but it’s more likely to be the case that a complaint was made and the Met needed to be seen to investigate it even ifthey knew from the start that it was a rubbish complaint.
Every once in a while the police carry out a high profile operation, it gives the illusion they are actually doing their job. Its much easier, cheaper and nicer than going after those nasty criminal types who are well known for being unpleasant and probably won’t pay any fines etc. even if the courts ever get around to them.
It’s probably a case that these high profile jobs are necessary but it also gives the impression tht the police are on top of more than they are. The police might be doing a good work on high profile drugs or fraud or robbery cases, but that doesn’t counterbalance their failures elsewhere for example in dealing with the lower level crime that bothers most people.
Fair point, I mustn’t let the overwhelming lack of policing of everyday low level crime colour my judgement. Sometimes its easy to lose perspective when low level crime that degrades the area is routinely ignored but the occasional high profile action is trumpeted from the rooftop’s