I’ve never been altogether favourable to vigilantism and my main argument against it is that all too often vigilantism and vigilantes are unjust. A mob can for example not be too careful about what is and what is not proper evidence and end up harming the innocent instead of the guilty.
Vigilantism and vigilantes often appear in societies where the normal civil law and effective policing has broken down or has lost the confidence of the public who might previously have relied on the law and a properly constituted and operated police force to keep them safe. The Metropolitan Police Force is one such policing entity that has lost the confidence of the public steadily over the last decade or so. This politicised entity that seems more enthusiastic about policing Tweets rather than the streets has been mired in scandals relating to their policing priorities, their management, along with the presence in the force of people who should never have been put in uniform and who have committed monstrous crimes.
Another aspect of the Met’s policing style that has damaged its image in the eyes of the public is how they’ve policed the various eco-fascist protests that have taken place in London. All too often the public has seen how the Met has given these groups too much leniency and have also noticed how the police are fearful of dealing harshly with these eco-mentalists whilst policing harshly groups and supporters of causes that the State disfavours.
This failure to properly police the actions of the eco-fascists early on has contributed to a rise in low level vigilantism against the Just Stop Oil protesters whom the police have often been reluctant to properly deal with. Whilst I accept that we have in recent weeks seen more robust policing of Just Stop Oil and similar groups a lot of the damage to the Met’s public image has already been done.
Members of the public are now no longer willing to wait around for the Met to turn up and move on, disperse or arrest eco-fascists like Just Stop Oil and similar entities. Instead they are getting stuck in and having a go at the eco-fascists themselves.
Below is a video that is purported to have been shot in Hammersmith in West London recently and shows a frustrated member of the public venting his frustration by means of a large container of milk which he poured over the Just Stop Oil mentalists.
This sort of vigilantism is only going to get worse as more and more people start to realise that forces like the Met are not dealing appropriately with the eco-fascists and are also failing to police their areas with efficiency, effectiveness and impartiality. Years upon years of police forces, especially the Met, meting out kickings to protestors whose views are not approved of by the State whilst allowing Extinction Rebellion, Just Stop Oil and Black Lives Matter to run riot, has not endeared the Met to the general public and that loss of confidence is going to make the job of policing London harder and harder. Police forces need the cooperation of the public in order to effectively police an area but letting middle class climate extremists like Just Stop Oil or racial extremists like BLM do as they like even it causes loss for ordinary Londoners, is not the way to get that cooperation.
Hard to feel sympathy for the JSO protestors, they’ve poured their orange powder over others.
The biter bit, I’d say.
Bit of a waste of good milk though.
Agree on the waste. I could have made a milk shake with that or poached some fish in it.
I learned some interesting stuff about Just Stop Oil by chatting to a policeman while on holiday.
They struggle to use the offence of Obstructing the King’s Highway, because CPS guidance says the obstruction has to last for four hours before prosecution.
So the Tories could fix it really easily if they wanted to. From which I infer that they don’t want to.
But the police don’t have to use the offence of Obstructing the King’s Highway. If someone is being caused harassment alarm or distress, then it’s a straightforward public order offence and they could arrest for that.
So if someone’s being prevented from getting to hospital, the police could easily arrest if they wanted to. From which I infer that those in charge of them don’t want to.
The Tories have had an appalling record when it comes to passing sensible legislation. I agree that there’s a go easy attitude to the JSO types but the question is where does it come from? In the first instance I’d say it came from within senior police management itself a cadre that has been heavily politicised since the Blair years.
It’s a consensus, and a lot of little biases adding up to a big one. If the chief constable is known not to want to be seen as harsh, and the PCs policing a protest don’t want trouble, and (as noted) the guidance tends to make prosecution a bit difficult, and everyone knows the media are firmly on the side of JSO, and so on … this is what you end up with. It’s a bit reminiscent of being in the EU when British politicians would blame the Europe for some ridiculously overblown regulation while the pro-EU types would point at over-zealous implementation by the British authorities.
Perhaps it would help a little to cut back the role of the CPS – or abolish it altogether – so that at least if the police had one of these clowns in custody they could, without reference to anyone else, haul them before a jury of fed-up Londoners and see whether they thought an offence had been committed.
Doesn’t matter what they make legislation around these people will adapt so they don’t fall foul of the law. Then van drivers pulling up to ask directions will be charged under these new rules.
Everything to government touches it screws up. Why should these new laws be any different?
Lets make it so anyone in the road can be squished and see this particular problem go away. 🙂 Might be some knock on issues though. It’ll help our government in their population control agenda as well.