Home Secretary Priti Patel has warned that mass gatherings in the United Kingdom will lead to another spike of the Chinese coronavirus, as raves, riots, and large scale Black Lives Matter protests sweep across the nation.
Pointing to large scale protests amidst the Black Lives Matter UK movement and the violent clashes with police during riots in London — referred to by the mainstream media as ‘street parties’ — the Home Secretary said that “what we’ve seen with mass gatherings and protests is unacceptable”.
“The violence we’ve seen against our officers is also unacceptable,” Ms Patel told Sky News on Sunday. She added: “It is simply unacceptable to have people gathering in these awful ways that we have been seeing.”
“My message is the same – I would urge people not to participate in gatherings of that nature or protests, but I would also add if people do assault police officers, they will feel the full force of the law,” she warned.
Between Wednesday and Saturday of last week, police were called each night after reports of large scale ‘street parties’, that saw hoards of people gathering in impromptu raves across the city. Dozens of police officers were injured as the events turned into violent riots.
Over the weekend, thousands more Black Lives Matter UK activists took to the streets of London — in open defiance of the lockdown rules that prohibit mass gatherings — to protest in support of the transgender and black communities, while calling for the abolition of the police and the capitalist system.
The riots and protest come as London Mayor Sadiq Khan announced that the British capital will be making cuts to the police force amidst budget shortfalls as a result of the Chinese coronavirus.
According to Met Police Chief Cressida Dick, some 140 officers have been injured in the course of policing BLM protests in London and the ensuing riots over the past three weeks.
In contrast to the lax policing of BLM protests throughout the country, ordinary British citizens have been subjected to harsh policing during the national lockdown, with thousands receiving fines for allegedly breaking the lockdown.
The British government is set to ease some of the lockdown restrictions on the Fourth of July, with Prime Minister Boris Johnson announcing last week that pubs and some other business will be allowed to reopen.
The Home Secretary warned, however, that a second wave of the virus would be devastating to the already weakened British economy, saying she could not “think of anything worse than us having another wave of this awful disease”.
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