Cops to form 'ring of steel' for London Pro-Palestine protest on Armistice Day
The Met Police will form a 'ring of steel' for a pro- Palestine march to be held tomorrow in London during Remembrance events for Armistice Day, it has been reported.
Police chiefs are said to have cancelled leave and extended overtime as well as draft in a further 1,000 officers from across the country for the event on Saturday. Senior officers are said to have been given orders to immediately clamp down on any disorder.
It comes as the Home Secretary faces calls to quit after claiming pro-Palestine marchers had links to Hamas, sparking fears it would inspire far-right thugs to attack protestors in London tomorrow. But the demo does not even pass the Cenotaph and is 24 hours before Remembrance Sunday.
The Cenotaph war memorial being guarded by cops amid fears of it being vandalised ahead of Armistice day (Vuk Valcic/ZUMA Press Wire/REX/Shutterstock)Met Police chief Sir Mark Rowley sparked the wrath of fuming Tories after he refused to ban the rallies. He said that legally he had "no power" to stop people marching to demonstrate their anger over the situation in Gaza.
However, should the protesters disrupt events memorialising the end of the First World War, the force would spring into action and "protect locations and events of national importance at all costs".
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Sir Mark Rowley of the Met said that there's nothing he can do to stop the protest because the organisers have agreed not to disrupt the national remembrance day and to steer well clear (Getty Images)The organisers of the Solidarity for Palestine Campaign have already agreed to avoid Whitehall - where the Cenotaph is located - with them planning to hold the demo over a mile away. More than 70,000 will mob the streets of London on Sunday to protest Israel's decimation of the Gaza Strip, where more than 10,000 people are thought to have been slaughtered in apocalyptic airstrikes, almost half of them children.
They will descend on the capital just a few hours after a two-minute silence is to be held at the Cenotaph for all those servicemen and women who have fallen fighting for their country.
The far-Right have caused additional challenges for the Met, which is becoming increasingly concerned that members - who have vowed to protect the Cenotaph - will clash with the pro-Palestine protesters.
Earlier this week, Sir Mark said that the demonstration could not be banned just because others didn't feel it was appropriate, citing statute law to prove his point.
"The laws created by Parliament are clear. There is no absolute power to ban protest, therefore there will be a protest this weekend," he insisted.
"The law provides no mechanism to ban a static gathering of people. It contains legislation which allows us to impose conditions to reduce disruption and the risk of violence, and in the most extreme cases when no other tactics can work, for marches or moving protests to be banned."
Using power to block a moving protest, which has happened before, is "incredibly rare", he said. It must be reserved for cases where intelligence supports there is a verifiable and proven "real threat" of serious violence or disorder.
He said that Saturday's march organisers had agreed and demonstrated a "complete willingness" to avoid the areas containing the Cenotaph and Whitehall. They had "no intention" of "disrupting" Armistice Day events, Sir Mark added.
"Should this change, we've been clear we will use powers and conditions available to us to protect locations and events of national importance at all costs," Sir Mark said.
Another serious concern is that gangs of football hooligans, with far-Right thugs among their ranks, plan to "team up" to protect the Cenotaph from the protesters who don't plan to visit it.
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The controversial "Football Lads Against Extremism" group, who claim to be anti-extremist but have been accused of only protesting Muslim extremism, say that veterans reached out to protect the memorial.
They are calling on "all football lads up and down the country to join us in standing shoulder to shoulder with our veterans that fought for our freedom".
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